HR Management & Compliance

How to Deal with Employee Depression and Work Restrictions

Dealing with depression and work restrictions for an employee can be complex. Oftentimes the first piece of information an employer receives about an employee’s medical condition, especially for depression or other mental illnesses, is a note from the doctor that outlines some type of restriction, such as “James must be off of work this week due to stress and should be moved to a different department upon return.”

Must an employer follow the doctor’s recommendation? What if the recommendation is vague? What if following it precludes the ability for the employee to stay in the role? How can an employer meet their ADA requirements of providing reasonable accommodations for a disabled employee when the requested accommodations seem anything but reasonable?

How to Deal with Depression and Work Restrictions: Use Essential Job Functions to Combat Vague Restrictions

The problem is that ambiguous or imprecise work restrictions impede an employer’s ability to complete the interactive process, even when the employee has a genuine disability to contend with. Restrictions like these are not sufficient for engaging in an effective interactive process:

  • “can’t work with Suzie”
  • “remove from untenable supervisory situation”
  • “would benefit from a change in environment.”
  • “should avoid dealing with contentious, unreasonable or otherwise exasperating members of the public.”

The first problem is the ambiguity. For example, in the last point above, who defines what is unreasonable? What qualifies as contentious rather than simply a customer who has a complaint? How can an interactive process be structured for this situation?

Short of removing the employee from any job tasks that deal with any member of the public, how can an employer accommodate this situation? Therein lies the second problem. These types of restrictions are often overly-broad, and conclusionary, making them ineffective as a work restriction. The doctor is moving from advising restrictions to suggesting accommodations instead.

What should an employer do when faced with such a request? The key lies in the essential job functions. The employer needs specific, unambiguous medical/work restrictions that address the essential job functions and are expressed as functional limitations and restrictions rather than the ultimate desired accommodation. In this situation, it is best to provide a list of essential job functions – separate from the job description – to the medical provider so that the medical provider has something specific and realistic from the employer to base the work restrictions on.

Additionally, employers need to look at some of the requested restrictions and address the underlying issues. For example, if a change in department is requested, why would a change to a different department or supervisor make a difference? Ask the healthcare provider.

“What is it about this department? What is it about this team? What is it about this work group? Personality conflicts are not enough to trigger a duty to reasonably accommodate.” Patricia Eyres explained in a recent BLR webinar. “What are the stressors? If they are from personality conflicts or if they are from the way this supervisor manages, we might want to address that as a productivity issue as opposed to addressing that as a reasonable accommodation.”

The key for an employer in this situation is to move from a generic accommodation request to a more specific medical certification that explains the essential job function limitations. This leaves the employer to determine the best accommodation rather than having the doctor give an accommodation recommendation. How can an employer do that?

How to Deal with Depression and Work Restrictions: Give the Doctor a Note

In requesting documentation to back up an accommodation request, employers should specify what types of information they are seeking regarding the disability, its functional limitations, and the need for reasonable accommodation. The employee can be asked to sign a limited release allowing the employer to submit a list of specific questions to the health care professional.

Include a list of essential job functions and ask the medical provider: Is this person fit to perform these essential functions? How does the condition affect the ability to perform these essential job functions?

Here is a sample medical questionnaire inquiry sent to the medical provider to further the interactive process:

Your written note of November 12, 2012, states in part that this individual’s job that involves her participation on the marketing team “presents stressors that create an uncomfortable, anxiety ridden, stressful work environment which aggravates her depressive symptoms.” With respect to the specific essential job functions listed in the attached job description, describe the “stressors” that limit or prevent her performance of essential job functions.


Separately for each of the items listed under essential functions, please describe any functional limitations and work restrictions which in your opinion are medically recommended for this patient to enable her to perform the essential functions of this position.

How to Deal with Depression and Work Restrictions: Examples of Reasonable Accommodations

Here is a checklist of some possible reasonable accommodations for an employee with depression. Not all will be reasonable in every situation, but this is a start:

  • Allow flexible scheduling
  • Modified schedule
  • Reduce distractions (for example: reduce noise or remove from an open work environment)
  • Increase natural lighting or provide full spectrum lighting
  • Work from home/telecommuting
  • Divide large assignments into smaller tasks
  • Job restructuring
  • Provide memory aids such as schedulers, organizers, etc.
  • Flexible breaks
  • Stress management techniques
  • Provide goal-oriented workload
  • Reduce tasks
  • Provide job coach or mentor
  • Allow additional training time
  • Provide written checklists
  • Use daily, weekly and monthly task lists
  • Divide large assignments into smaller tasks and goals

“This is all an individualized analysis. You can have two people with the same depression, one of whom can be accommodated and the other can’t because of a difference in the nature of their job.” Eyres confirmed.

For more information on appropriately handling an employee with depression and work restrictions, order the webinar recording of “Depression in the Workplace: Your ADA and FMLA Obligations Explained.” To register for a future webinar, visit http://catalog.blr.com/audio.

Patricia S. Eyres, Esq., the managing partner of Eyres Law Group, LLP, focuses on helping employers manage disability discrimination issues for both workers’ comp and non-occupational disabilities. As president of Litigation Management & Training Services and CEO/Publisher of Proactive Law Press, LLC, Eyres trains managers and supervisors on how to recognize risks, prevent lawsuits, and maintain defensible documentation.

Print

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *