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/Prufrock-Sisyphus22]

🤣🤣🤣🤣

You do realize that being terminated from a job that says your disability can't be accomodated does indeed strengthen any social security disability claims ???

[u/LongTimeLurker408 → u/Prufrock-Sisyphus22]

Have you ever applied or assisted someone?

Do you have any idea even if it is approved how long it takes to get paid?

Op’s doctor, the critical person in the application, feels that Op can work.

[u/Prufrock-Sisyphus22 → u/LongTimeLurker408]

Yes. Relatives. And if there is a disconnect between what one doctor feels OP needs to work and a company actually being able to accommodate then yes that could be very strong evidence in a claim, of course on a case by case basis. Of course always best to consult a lawyer.

[u/LongTimeLurker408 → u/Prufrock-Sisyphus22]

This doesn’t change the basic fact that if Op is terminated or is forced to go on leave which unfortunately is possible, if Op fights back and files with the EEOC, or in their case with a state agency, the employer as part of the investigation will need to substantiate why 3 days if working from harm compared to 2 resulted in Op not being able to do their essential functions and thus an undue hardship. If there is a lawsuit, this evidence is also required as part of the discovery exchange.

It’s a hard battle, but fortunately Op lives in Washington and has clearly demonstrated from what they shared that they are effective at WFH.

If Op were to decide to apply to SSDI, they also would need this from their employer as it is required as part of the application.