November 8 Tip of the Week

Think you don’t have to accommodate an employee working in a call center who suffers from angry, four-letter word outbursts?  Think again.  Even in situations where it seems clear cut that you could never accommodate an employee who suffers from a disability because of the type of environment the employee works in, you must still engage in the interactive process to determine whether any appropriate accommodation exists.  In this situation, the employer had at one time accommodated the employee with additional short breaks which did allow him to perform his job to a satisfactory level.  A new manager was hired and decided that they could not accommodate the employee without either looking into existing accommodations or re-engaging in the interactive process with the employee.  What was resulted was litigation, which was appealed, and returned to the trial court level to hold a trial.  Read: extensive litigation and attorney’s fee costs that you want to avoid as a company.  If you have questions about an employee’s accommodation request, don’t hesitate to reach out to our attorneys for guidance any time!