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Trauma and Disability under the ADA
Editor's Note
Trauma and Disability under the ADA
Yes. PTSD and other mental health issues can be a disability under state and federal disability law. And yes, working with mean people can cause trauma and mental health issues.
This case involved an employee who requested to be transferred so she no longer had to work with people saying unkind things about her having a miscarriage. A miscarriage!
The details on the case are sparse and I don't need to know them all to say this: If your workplace has the kind of culture where some employees gossip, judge, and say unkind things about someone returning to work after having a miscarriage, there is something terribly wrong. And if people are asking to be transferred away from someone, take it seriously and deal with the problem. Why does the victim of bad behavior have to change jobs while the people causing the problem get to stay? The problem is the people behaving badly, not the person who points it out.
While I understand the temptation to dismiss a situation like this as a personality issue, it's really important to consider how many personality issues like this exist and who is at the center of them?
Not everything bad that happens between people at work is a legal issue. But if you give it long enough, it will be. This quote by Steve Gruenert and Todd Whitaker is absolutely true: “The culture of any organization is shaped by the worst behavior the leader is willing to tolerate.”
Don't simply address the complaint; address the problem.
- Heather Bussing
When reviewing an employee’s request for accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act, employers sometimes develop tunnel vision when deciding whether the claimed medical condition constitutes a protected ADA disability. A new decision from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals cautions employers to look beyond the impacts of the medical condition on the employee’s job.
In Simon v. University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, the plaintiff suffered a miscarriage and requested a transfer from her position due to post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression. The case predates the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which would have provided an additional statutory claim. She based her request for the transfer on alleged conflicts with coworkers who spread rumors about the reasons for her medical leave. The employer concluded that the accommodation request involved a personal conflict with coworkers and that the plaintiff was not disabled because she was able to work in an environment that did not have these conflicts. The district court agreed, dismissing the case on summary judgment.
On appeal, the Sixth Circuit disagreed, remanding the case to the district court. The appellate court said that the ADA protects medical conditions that substantially interfere with a major life activity. Those activities are not limited to the impact of the condition on work, and the district court failed to analyze how the plaintiff’s condition affected other aspects of her life.
When reviewing employee accommodation requests, employers sometimes limit their focus to the effects of the medical condition on the employee’s job. Even if the alleged disability does not limit the employee from the major life activity of working, they can still be entitled to accommodations if the measures are needed to accomplish their particular job. This requires a holistic evaluation of the impact of the condition on the employee’s life. The legal bar for a protected disabling medical condition under the ADA is low. In most cases, employers considering accommodation requests should assume that the condition rises to the level of an ADA disability and focus on whether the request is reasonable and effective instead of concluding that it does not meet the requirements for ADA coverage.
