Last week we reported about the EEOC entering into a consent decree settling a disability suit for $30,000. The suit was against a Minneapolis-area home health care provider for failing to provide a reasonable accommodation to a housekeeping employee who suffered from fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis — and then firing her.
We stressed a few major points which employers should “take away” from this case:
Train your managers and employees in all aspects of the ADA;
Always engage in an interactive process re seeking a reasonable accommodation for employees with disabilities; and
Do not rely upon stereotypical assumptions about people with disabilities.
One of our readers, Suzanne Benoit, a management consultant in Portland Maine, sent in an interesting comment in which she provided some additional helpful “takeaways” and mantras, such as “focus on performance not assumptions.”
She wrote:
“Great information Richard, thanks for posting it. For me, the bottom line is to focus on what is happening inside the office and relate it all to performance, not assumptions. The article also points out that managers and supervisors have to be trained to refrain from assuming or discussing anything about employees who are performing their duties at an acceptable level.
There is another issue in these situations worth noting, though not at issue in this case. In addition to training management, as the article points out, I find that it also helps if all new employees are oriented initially NOT to share information about their illnesses freely with coworkers.
You can’t control this completely but you can let employees know that the company has an obligation to maintain employee privacy regarding all medical conditions no matter how small.
When [employees] share information freely, the employer has less control over what opinions coworkers and supervisors form about the employee’s ability to carry out their duties.
Employees will make assumptions based on very little real data!”
