One of HR’s many ADA headaches is coworkers who think an employee who has been given an accommodation is unfairly getting special treatment, say attorneys Julie K. and Audra K. Hamilton. It’s always a difficult situation because you can’t discuss the disability or the accommodation.
Because of the confidentiality requirements of the ADA, you may not be able to assuage other employees’ frustrations, the attorneys say. Athey, a writer on employment law and human resources, and Hamilton, who practices in Tulsa, Oklahoma, are authors of ADA Compliance: Practical Solutions for HR.
When coworkers complain, the best answer is to refocus the disgruntled coworkers back to their own work and away from issues that are not their concern. You have to be “a little parental” says Hamilton. You might mention that you are complying with all laws and regulations.
Reasonable Accommodations
Employers need to be particularly cognizant of their obligation to initiate the interactive process with mentally disabled employees. Remember that employees with mental disabilities may not be capable of communicating a desire for an accommodation. If you are aware of the disability and that the employee is having trouble because of it, you should start exploring possible options.
Given the wide variety of mental disorders, it is impossible to list all possible accommodations, but the EEOC includes the following as possibilities:
- Room dividers, partitions, or other soundproofing or visual barriers between workspaces to accommodate individuals who have disability-related limitations in concentration
- Moving an individual away from noisy machinery or reducing other workplace noise (e.g., lower the volume or pitch of telephones) for people who have difficulty concentrating
- Modification fo strict workplace policies that aren’t essential (allowing employees to drink at workstations if the have dry-mouth caused by medication)
- Providing more detailed analysis or written instructions for employees with comprehension problems
- Providing a job coach
ADA Hassles? What’s a disability? What’s a reasonable accommodation? What’s the deal about essential functions? Get ADA answers with our just-updated guide, ADA Compliance: Practical Solutions for HR.
Handling problems in conduct
Employers are not required to lower their standards of conduct for employees with mental disabilities. You are allowed to enforce certain conduct rules as long as they are job-related and consistent with business necessity. So, an employee with a mental impairment is not entitled to get away with misconduct that may be caused by his disability, such as stealing, threatening other employees, violence, harassment, profanity, destruction of property, and so on.
Also, remember that certain types of addictive behavior—such as sexual disorders, compulsive gambling, kleptomania, and pyromania—are not protected by the ADA regardless of whether they are caused by a mental illness.
ADA compliance—it seems to get tougher, not easier. How about Sears, Roebuck recently agreeing to pay $6.2 million in the single largest settlement for an ADA suit in EEOC history? And it didn’t help when the long-awaited new final ADA regulations were put into place, broadening the scope of who is considered disabled.
Don’t let your organization become the next EEOC target. Learn how to comply with the latest rules and regulations with the ADA Compliance: Practical Solutions for HR manual. It’s your at-a-glance reference for making smart, defensible decisions.
You’ll get plain-English answers to your thorniest ADA compliance questions, including:
- To what lengths must you go to “reasonably accommodate”?
- What’s an “undue hardship?”
- What are the “essential functions” of the job?
- Who’s “disabled”?
- How should you alter your workplace policies in light of the new ADA Amendments Act?
- How can you manage the tricky relationship between ADA, FMLA, and workers’ compensation?
- When can I inquire about an employee’s disability (and when can’t I)?)
BONUS: When you make this resource part of your reference library, you’ll also get:
- A comprehensive guide to overcoming hundreds of policy and administration hurdles, using real-world examples and plain English.
- A quarterly newsletter, which contains all the information you’ll need to know about latest changes .
- A free CD containing forms, policies, checklists, state-by-state comparison charts, and more
Applicants want accommodation, and employees are next in line. Who’s entitled? Who has a disability? ADA mistakes are expensive. Get your policies and practices in line with new regulations. Go here for information about ADA Compliance: Practical Solutions for HR
Complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act can be confusing and difficult for even the most savvy HR practitioner. ADA Compliance: Practical Solutions for HR provides detailed answers to some of the most complicated issues that HR practitioners face.
Each chapter contains numerous realistic examples to illustrate the concepts discussed. At the end of each chapter, readers can test their knowledge and understanding of the subject matter covered with a multiple-choice quiz. The answer key provides a detailed explanation of the correct answers.
Buyers’ Benefit: To make sure your ADA Compliance: Practical Solutions for HR remains current with changing interpretations and court decisions, we monitor courts, Congress, and state legislatures. Each year, we’ll rush you an updated edition and bill on a 30-day review basis. You pay only if you decide to keep the updated edition.
For ordering or additional information: ADA Compliance: Practical Solutions for HR.
The problems you raise are a a big reason so many managers and supervisors prefer to just stick their heads in the sand on these issues.
Telling the disgruntled employee (me) to mind their own business makes them more disgruntled. The ADA employee places more of a strain on everyone else and common sense tells you the majority of ADA users are lying. It’s a shame what government is doing to this country. I think when the time comes that I leave my ADA infested job (we have 8 out 20 people that abuse it) I’ll make sure to mention in my job interviews that I’ve never taken ADA. I work two jobs and it burns me up to see people so lazy and inconsiderate to dump more of a work load on me while management hides behind a shut door.
Going out of your way to mention that you’ve never taken an ADA reasonable accommodation could really backfire. It implies that you resent those employees who do and could stir up discontent among other employees when coworkers take legal accommodation. It really makes you look like a disgruntled employee, and no one wants to knowingly hire a disgruntled worker or troublemaker.
To Teresa’s comment:” …common sense tells you the majority of ADA users are lying.” Excuuuuuse me??? Let’s see some STUDIES that show a strong supposition that the majority of ADA users are lying. I strongly take exception to this statement. Common sense is not common – it is in fact, a LEARNED sensibility, formed over time, that many people have not learned. Personally, I am not lying, so I guess that I fall into the minority that doesn’t lie. Get your facts straight, and don’t use “common sense” as a basisi for your statement.