Reasonable accommodations

[libodem]

Anyone have any experience in requesting them for the work place?

[Altoid_Cyclist]

1. I don't have time to go into great detail at the moment.

I'll try again later. The one thing that I can tell you is to get letters from your Doctor(s) explaining why you need the accomodations.

Be prepared for anything up to and including the loss of your job.(like I did)

I will say that the EEOC will never get any fan mail from me.

Be back later with an explanation.

[Altoid_Cyclist]

2. OK, I'm back. Sorry for the delay.

My experience was about as bad as it gets so hopefully you'll have better luck.

I had my first heart attack in 2006. I was told by my Dr's. that one of the best things that I could do would be to avoid second hand smoke and airborn toxins. They put that in writing and sent the letters to my workplace. My job involved heavy doses of second hand smoke, chemicals used in plating, oil and machine smoke and fumes and lots of other fun stuff including metallic dust that literally caused people to choke and gag.

I went back to work for one year after the heart attack because jobs were almost impossible to find around here. I was looking, but I had to keep working there since I didn't want to have to give up our house and other things that we had worked so hard for.

I was so stressed out by the poisons and what they could be doing to my health that I was a basket case by the time one year rolled around. I just finally snapped and got into a shouting match with the plant manager since all that I was asking for was to be allowed to work in the office where smoking wasn't allowed. That wouldn't have been perfect, but it would have been a lot better than where I was working. I was so worked up that I stopped at my PCP after work to see if he could write another letter. My blood pressure was 150/115 which isn't very good for anyone, but it's especially bad for a heart patient. He wrote and called the idiot plant manager but the manager couldn't have cared less about my health.

My PCP has been in the medical business for a long time and he let me know that there were two ways to go on this issue. I could either stay at my job and die in the near future or I could insist on proper accomodations at work and probably lose my job over it. I decided that my life was worth trying to save so I went on short term disability under the FMLA. As soon as that ended, I received a certified letter from my employer letting me know that I was no longer employed there. I did some research and discovered that heart disease is covered under the ADA and placed a complaint with the EEOC. My Dr's. all said that this was one of the most iron clad cases that they had ever seen and that the EEOC would have to support me.

Yeah well..... a funny thing happened on the way to their decision because they said that I didn't have a case. The reasons that my employer said that reasonable accommodations couldn't be made were all lies. My PCP had warned me from the beginning that his experiences had almost always been that the company can buy a lot more justice than the average worker can. So in the end, I ended up having to sign up for UC benefits which luckily lasted for two years. In the meantime I continued to search for other jobs and applied for SS Disability Retirement just in case I couldn't find anything. I was rejected by SS the first time and filed an appeal with the help of an Attorney. Last December just as my UC benefits were winding down, I got a call from my Atty. letting me know that I had won my appeal. The timing was great in that respect, but the phone call came the week after I had another heart attack so it was a little bittersweet.

Anyway, all that I can say is to CYA and try to get everything in writing so that you have proof of every detail. It helps to have your Dr's. put their recommendations in writing for you also and provide evidence that your employer has seen and read the Dr's. letters. As my PCP told me, be prepared for your employer to use every trick to force you out and be prepared just in case you don't win your case.

One thing that I did was to contact my employer via Email so that I could get everything in writing. It didn't help me, but at least I was able to provide documentation for all the conversations.

I tried to find an Atty. to try to sue my employer for back pay since I did have such a good case, but they all said the same thing:
There isn't enough money in it for us!!! Is this a great country or what.

I hope that your situation plays out better than mine did. The important thing to remember is that you health is the most important thing to consider.

Good luck with your health and your work situation.

:thumbsup: :hi: