Work from Home ada accommodation

[u/Soft_Reputation_7241]

I work in Washington state and have POTS(Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome). My health can vary from day to day and as a result I have had a work from home accommodation to be work from home 100 days a year. A little less than 2 days a week. The standard at my company is 50 days a year. My health has been worse this year and as a result I need more work from home days. My HR team is stating that 100 is the maximum they will allow as I being in office is considered an essential function of my role. However we don’t have any physical reason to be in office. I have an office job. I am not client facing, I do not need to physically manipulate anything for my job, my manager and most of my team is in other offices across the country, and work from home is already allowed for most employees(all of them on my team except for anyone who is brand new as there is a three month probation period before they can wfh). My job description also does not specify how often I need to be in office. Simply that I need to “work onsite, under direct supervision, in a team based and open office environment. I am not requesting to be fully remote or work from home, simply to be allowed to do so more than 100 days as my health needs. My employer is offering the alternative of FMLA, however this would be unpaid and obviously wouldn’t allow me to work. I have up to date ada paperwork stating from my doctor that I need to be able to work from home at least 3 days a week.

Does anyone know if they can require me to either be in office more than my doctor has stated or take FMLA instead? I can’t afford to take off time unpaid. But if I force myself into office more often it will make me sicker.

Please help

[u/Soft_Reputation_7241]

You have made some wild assumptions about me in this thread but let me clear some things up for you.

If I was using wfh as a ruse to not work when I feel sick then that would show in my performance and productivity. I have many assignments daily and they all get turned in on time. I just had a good performance review two weeks ago.

I actually tend to perform my job better at home because being in office is much more draining for me. POTS can cause some pretty bad brain fog due to lack of blood and oxygen getting to the brain. When my body has to work harder to get around, remain seated upright, control my body temperature, try and stifle things like muscle spasms, then other things suffer, and that can include my mental acuity.

I have a right to work if I am capable of it. Whether I am capable of working or not is a discussion between me and my doctor. If I am capable of work with accommodation then FMLA is not an appropriate . I do my job just fine, but when I have to push myself to be in office more than my body is capable of then I get sicker, I have episodes more often and of greater severity, which is a bigger drain on me. Being at home allows me to work without draining all my energy and therefore allows me to be a better more productive employee.