Reasonable accommodations?
Last week we were talking a bit about how to get back into work after a period away. I mentioned "reasonable accommodations," the ADA buzz words that compel your employers to make certain arrangements so that your illness doesn't keep you out of the workforce. Laura writes:
Maybe you could comment on what you think some reasonable accommodations in the workplace for bipolar diagnosed individuals are. Years ago, I brought in a light box to help with SAD aspects and eyebrows raised, but they let me have it at my desk (in a snotty law firm). Eventually, I realized it was making me agitated and hostile, so I quit using it. Nonetheless, year after year, I would deteriorate about this time of year. My psychiatrist and a sleep neurologist both wrote letters to my employer requesting that I be moved from a cubicle to an office with light. They refused. They felt that allowing me to use my lunch hour to attend doctor appointments and to occassionally adjust my coming in/departing time by 30 or 60 minutes were more than enough accommodations. I'm curious as to what other people have asked for and received which helps to work in an office environment.
Comments
Your original poster has probably seen this, but for other folks wondering about lawyers and ADA accommodation, there's a great EEOC outline called "Reasonable Accommodations for Attorneys with Disabilities," here:
http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/accommodations-attorneys.html
It's actually readable--and full of good examples and cites to case law. Even if you're not working in the legal profession, a lot of the examples would easily illustrate equivalent situations in other white-collar jobs.
Posted by: Penny | October 23, 2006 12:50 PM
I don't know what my job could do to help me...I'm pretty much OK-sometimes a crappy code will bum me out, but that would mess with anyone's head.
My director (of the respiratory department) isn't officially aware of my illness, but I'm sure I may have mentioned it in passing a time or two. I don't make an issue of it, but it's not a secret, either.
The doctor I see is aware of my depression, of course, and I work at the hospital his office is affilated with...so he has a general idea of how stressful our job can be sometimes.
Posted by: phoenix | October 23, 2006 11:53 PM
I peer-facilitated two mental health focus groups last year in which almost all of the participants complained that employers would not take mental health accomodations (particularly regarding changes to reduce stress levels.) The general feeling was that while physical accomodations (ramps, etc.) are considered reasonable, the misconception/bias that mental disorders are a personal failing made employers unlikely to take related requests seriously.
Posted by: J kaszynski | October 24, 2006 05:10 PM
It could be worse. Laura could be a guy.
Then most law offices never would have hired her in the first place.
How do law offices get their entry-level talent? All-girl catholic schools. Those girls you see in center city in their school uniforms around 5:00 p.m.
When those girls graduate, they get full-time jobs right out of school (if they're pretty enough to sexually harass, especially). The firms that don't have someone lined up demand "legal office experience" knowing full well that boys can't get that experience.
Even women who don't directly benefit from this bias still have much more freedom in the job market, and don't have the bumps in their resumes that come with bigotry (as any bipolar should know).
When someone asks for sympathy, and gets a media pulpit, they should realize that others are being denied this voice, on equally poor grounds (in this case, gender).
If they tell me to stop whining, they then understand why others tell them the same thing.
My experience also suggests that anytime an employer picks on "mental illness" that it's a cover for a far less appropriate agenda. In my case they use it to attack me because I am a whistleblower, and in the case of most women, it's usually deflected sexual frustration (not saying that is Laura's case but in many others it would be).
Posted by: Blacklisted Male Legal Secretary | October 24, 2006 06:56 PM