In recent years, disability has overtaken race as the most frequently cited basis for discrimination charges filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In our practice, we have seen a consistently increasing number of clients facing accommodation proposals from employees and applicants who cite mental health conditions as the basis for their requests.
A significant number of these accommodation requests involve employees with ADHD or other conditions they claim affect their ability to process information and complete work tasks. In many situations, these medical conditions are initially disclosed to the employer in response to an unsatisfactory performance evaluation or disciplinary warning. These workers attribute their performance issues to the medical condition and request accommodations intended to assist with information processing and retention.
In some cases, these requests are relatively minor and easy to accommodate, such as allowing employees to record managers' instructions. Other requests present greater challenges to employers. We have recently encountered employees who provide doctor’s information requesting extensive changes to the way the employer interacts with them. These requests include agreeing to offer remote work, providing a private office to minimize distractions, reducing all communications and instructions from supervisors to writing, and avoiding changes to work tasks once they have been assigned.
Many times, these changes are either impractical or present significant problems for employers. In a fast-paced work environment, managers simply may not have the time to provide written instructions in all situations. By their nature, business needs may alter midstream, requiring employees to quickly adapt to changes to tasks assigned to them. Managers frequently become frustrated when asked to adapt their supervisory approach for one employee, but the Americans with Disabilities Act requires employers to grant these accommodation requests unless they either prevent the work from being performed or present an undue hardship to the employer.
Companies faced with these types of accommodation requests should engage in the ADA interactive process to determine whether they can be implemented. If an accommodation request is denied, the employer should fully document and explain the reasons for the decision to the affected employee. Employers are also entitled to provide alternative, effective accommodations even if they are not the ones requested by employees.
As the diagnosis rates for learning and other mental health conditions increase, employers should be prepared to analyze and respond to accommodation requests from employees seeking changes to the way their work is performed.
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