- Greg Mansell says some employers are scrutinizing accommodation requests amid rising RTO mandates.
- Mansell says the process can be stressful for disabled employees, leading to some job resignations.
- Mansell advises employees to use their primary care doctor instead of a specialist to file requests.
This as-told-to article is based on a conversation with Greg Mansell, 40, an employment lawyer based in New York City. It’s been edited for length and clarity.
Requesting an ADA health accommodation should be a collaborative process between the employer and the employee in which the main goal is to provide a medically necessary accommodation that doesn’t place an undue burden on the employer.
With the rise of RTO mandates and the subsequent increase in work-from-home accommodation requests, some employers are elongating the process and scrutinizing requests more thoroughly. I believe this is to ensure employees aren’t abusing the system.
Unfortunately, increasingly drawn-out and laborious processes can put added stress on disabled employees and, in some cases, may influence them to walk away from a job.
As an employment lawyer of 15 years, here are my tips for employees to overcome four hurdles in the accommodation request process.
1. Don’t wait for your specialist
After an accommodation is requested, employers may ask the employee’s medical provider to fill out an accommodation request detailing the underlying impairment, the restrictions it imposes, and the requested accommodation.
The employer may want the request filed by a specialist if the patient sees one, but these doctors can be hard to get a hold of. I remind people that their primary care doctor has access to all medical records and can provide the same information. It doesn’t have to come directly from the specialist’s mouth.
2. Prepare the request for your doctor
Some doctors simply don’t like dealing with the employment process, so it can be helpful to take the burden off them in any way possible. It may be useful for the disabled employee to prepare their own accommodation request and present it for their doctor’s review.
The doctor may approve it or change it for accuracy, but it makes the process significantly less taxing for the doctor.
3. Consider consulting a lawyer
The Americans with Disability Act is one of the most complex employment laws, so employees and medical professionals may make mistakes that lead to a wrongfully denied accommodation request.
For example, the medical professional may not specify the medical condition and, instead, state only that an employee needs an accommodation. This does not give the employer sufficient information to determine if the accommodation, or some other accommodation, is medically necessary.
Employment lawyers understand the process and can make sure an employee provides everything needed and hold the employer to the ADA’s requirements. The downside, of course, is that this is a time-consuming process and the attorneys’ fees can become quite expensive.
4. Document everything
If you consult a lawyer, it’s helpful to have as much documentation of the accommodation request process as possible. Documentation helps us determine whether the employer followed the proper procedures.
You can’t force an employer to have a conversation through email, but you can and should follow up any virtual or in-person meetings with the bullet points of what you discussed as a way to memorialize the conversation.
If you’re going through the accommodation process amid your company’s RTO mandate and would like to share your story, please email Tess Martinelli at tmartinelli@businessinsider.com.
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