Addressing depression and related mental disabilities and meeting reasonable accommodation requirements is a delicate balance. Often, employees who are in this situation will have a preconceived idea of what work restrictions would benefit them as an accommodation, and they ask their healthcare providers to state those things as a work restriction when they obtain medical certification.
Employers must balance these requests – and they are requests, not requirements, even when couched by the healthcare professional – with their own needs and to see whether the accommodation is reasonable and consistent with how other similarly-situated employees are treated.
Reasonable accommodations for depression as a disability: Stress reduction
As explained by Patricia Eyres in a recent CER webinar, achieving this balance can be especially difficult when the restrictions or accommodation requests are too vague or too broad. This often happens when the condition is exacerbated by stress. Employers often see healthcare providers listing overly broad or vague things like:
- “Would benefit from a change in environment.”
- “Should avoid contacts with the public or fellow workers or work environments that produce situations that would give rise to emotional stress. Should avoid working under close deadlines, dealing with contentious, unreasonable or otherwise exasperating members of the public, or performing work which requires precision and attention to detail under distracting conditions.”
“How many of us have to do that on a regular basis? Does it mean we’re all disabled?” Eyres asked. “Not necessarily, but it does mean that we need to get some kind of clarification from the healthcare provider that gives us functional limitations and work restrictions. Something beyond ‘needs a change in environment.'”
Employers can make this process more concrete by listing the essential job functions for the healthcare provider. The employer need not go into a lot of detail on the job description, but providing a supplemental list of essential job functions to the healthcare provider may help to address those things that are stress-producing for everyone. For example, list the specific job functions that involve these types of activities:
- Extensive paperwork
- Long hours or a lot of overtime
- Tedious detail work
- Tight deadlines
- Large caseload/workload
- Extensive travel (particularly across time zones)
- Dealing with difficult situations involving the public or staff
- Working under very close supervision
- Working without direct supervision – requiring significant initiative and accountability
Reasonable accommodations for depression as a disability: Combat vague restrictions and requests
In practical terms, what else can employers do when facing a vague or broad request like the examples given above? Many employers are opting to include a medical questionnaire inquiry to further the interactive process.
“When you get a work restriction . . . you’re not really entitled to ask about the [details of the mental disorder], but what you are entitled to do is to give specific essential job functions and ask . . . for each of those essential job functions, describe any functional limitations or work restrictions.” Eyres explained.
Here’s an example of a questionnaire sent to a healthcare professional:
Your written note of February 20, 2013, 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 these 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.
This is one example of how an employer addressed the situation to get actionable items related to the essential job functions rather than a vague note about stress affecting depression (the employee’s disability).
The above information is excerpted from the webinar “Depression in California Workplaces: ADA/FEHA & FMLA/CFRA Implications.” To register for a future webinar, visit CER webinars.
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.