Anyone here familiar with how reasonable accommodations work as regards one's job?
Here’s the deal…
Because of my diabetes, I have an eye condition that many days causes blurriness of vision due to bleeding in my eye (sorry to be gross.) On top of that, I have developed a very high sensitivity to light which sunglasses help with somewhat but not entirely.
My boss has asked me to travel to another location about 45 minutes away to perform a task that could just as easily be accomplished remotely…except that he wants me to go there in person. He is aware of my eye issues, but all of a sudden is questioning my not wanting to drive such a far distance. Normally, I do not have to drive for my job (except to go to the bank once a month, which is maybe 5–10 minutes away on side roads). At least once my eyes have been so bad that he had someone drive me to the bank, as I did not feel safe driving that day. Also, the severity of the blurriness varies somewhat from day to day, but the high sensitivity to light is consistent, which is one major concern to my making the above required trip.
He argues that if I can drive back and forth to work (a ten-minute trip), that I should be able to make this drive to the other school.
Help! Do I have any leg to stand on, or am I out of luck?
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9 Answers
After a year and a half of having these issues, I’m just finding out I need to. It was never an issue with my old boss, and frankly, my new boss (by a year) is just now making an issue out of it.
File now it sounds like he is is leading up to ” failure to perform properly or neglect of duty” !
Next step will be “fired for cause”.
If you have any union representation, call them now.
You should also file with the EEOC as suggested above. Do it ASAP.
I am. We don’t have union representation, but an HR department, who is getting paperwork together for me.
@jca…that link was awesome! I finally finished reading the whole thing (whew!), and it was really helpful! Thanks!
First off, this is not the type of situation that calls for going to a state or federal agency with a grievance. That sort of action is taken in situations much more severe than yours or has been going on for a long period of time.
This is an isolated incident (as I read your comments) and does not rise to the level of going outside the company.
Do you know why your boss is asking you to go off-site? Is he answerable to someone on something like this? Does he want you over there just to make a presence known?
You never know what motivates someone to do this.
A reasonable accommodation would be to have someone drive you, preferably a colleague, or pay for an Uber trip on the company’s nickel. A strong case could be make that driving by yourself is unsafe and it is the company’s responsibility to find a solution IF you must go to the other site.
You mention HR, I am sure they would be interested if a supervisor puts an employee into an unsafe situation. I have worked in both a large bureaucratic operation and in a small business (75 employees) and had to deal with HR situations. Sometimes a word in your boss’s ear, informally, from HR makes a manager change her mind in a hurry.
Hope this helps, if i am reading your situation correctly
SRM
I can’t figure out why it is so important that I go to the site, although two possible reasons come to mind, one more charitable than the other. My boss is the sort of person who once he makes up his mind about wanting something done a certain way, there is no moving him…but he also not a good problem solver himself, and I think he is putting me into his shoes, and assuming that the only way I will be able to accomplish the required task is by visiting the site in person. I have told him how I could pretty easily accomplish the task without going to the site, but he is still insisting it is necessary…sigh!
Nobody, including HR seems concerned about the issue of my safety, just whether the proper paperwork is turned in or not. This makes me feel all the more jaded towards my job.
File with EEOC not the HR department ( maybe the next stop with HR is an exit interview ).
Let someone know of your concern for your safety that is not attached to your boss.
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