No not me but …
I’ve known people that because they have a disability they believe they can do whatever they want at work because hey they have a disability. The idea of reasonable accommodations escapes them along with the whole manifestation aspect i.e. you are protected only if your behavior is a manifestaton of your disability. Nope … and of course they don’t need permission right? That coworker that rolls up at 10am every day for their 7am shift because they have “anxiety issues” thinks she can’t be fired because she has a disability. That guy with ADD that only attends meetings from home via Zoom rather than in person like everyone else thinks he can’t be fired because he has a disability. That person with PTSD that threatens everyone around them and doesn’t do their job thinks they can’t be fired due to their disability. I had a student in college once that came to class, looked over the test for 10 minutes and then TOLD me he needed to take it another day because he had PTSD and I had to let him because he had a disability. Bear in mind he claimed the school knew about it but even so he had no accommodations for it. But none of that mattered because he had a disability and he complained to the dean that I didn’t let him take the test later “as [I] was legally obliged to do.”
Anyone ever work with someone like that? I’d love to hear how HR deals with these people.
Yup. They thought because I had FMLA paperwork and worked from home, they could randomly decide to work from home as well. They got arrested for taking home about a ream of photocopies and a USB stick of spreadsheet so they could data enter at home. [I had a VPN, secure laptop and secure lockable office, and the phone I used was a cell issued by my company. I was specifically set up to work from home.]
I have the double whammy - physical handicap AND cancer … 2 forms of cancer, if one wants to be specific. I have pulled the cancer card a single time, to get a medical transport to show up early enough to get me to surgery[they wanted me in at 0800 for a 1000 tee-off time, for 7 hours of field dressing and rebuilding my butt and rerouting my intestines. Yay.] I have actually responded to people telling me they wished they could get the great parking spaces by telling them i would like to dance with my husband again too …
This a bit different than what I think the OP is looking for, since it’s not about someone who is probably faking a disability.
A couple years ago I hired someone with a degree in electrical engineering. I interviewed him via Zoom during the pandemic. It was a disaster. He couldn’t do anything. I tried and tried to work with him, but he couldn’t understand the simplest things. I couldn’t understand how he was able to get an EE degree.
I told HR that we need to fire him. HR said I couldn’t fire him because he had a disability. HR informed me was autistic, and thus protected.
Look, I have sympathy towards people with autism. I have a daughter who’s autistic. But I can’t have someone on my team who can’t do anything. My customer simply won’t stand for it.
It took a very long time, and a lot of paperwork, but I was finally able to send him on his way. (And HR fought me the entire time.) He filed a protest. He claimed we didn’t accommodate him. We won.
I feel bad for him, and I share some of the blame for not properly vetting him. But there was simply no way he could work in our group.
A couple people bitched about the accomodations I needed for doing my job once I was diagnosed with cancer: sitting my entire shift (hotel night auditor), wearing hats/kerchiefs and parking up close, and no flexibility on when my chemo treatments were so no flexibility on needed days off. I know they thought I was faking, though most of the hotel including management have been nothing but supportive.
They shut up when I started showing interested people my port. Weirdly, bumps beneath skin convinces people.
I did work with a young woman (18 or so) who was positive work couldn’t fire her because she was pregnant. Yeah, they fired her for her cash drawer constantly being ridiculously off. They didn’t think it was theft, but carelessness.
I have a chronic medical condition that varies in impact. On a good day you’d never know that I was disabled. On a bad day I require an oxygen tank and need to drastically limit physical activity.
I’m self employed. I recently did a job that was under a tight deadline and HAD to be done regardless of my condition. I ended up hiring a subcontractor to do the physical labor while I sat, watched him and told him exactly what to do. The job came off perfectly tho it was pretty awkward.
If you have a disability you CAN find ways to work around it if you are sufficiently motivated.
Yes. Should have made that more clear. I am not forced to take on any work I don’t want or feel uncomfortable with. My line of work is very specialized. I am fortunate enough that I can mostly pick and choose who I want to work for. There aren’t a lot of folks around who do what I do (large scale AV system design). I can pretty much call my own shots.
But I don’t play the disability card unless I REALLY need to. It’s not good for business.
I absolutely adored my port [his name was Charlie] I was absolutely dismayed when the odd lumpy area that I considered might be seepage getting encysted turned out to be another cancer [Ladies and Gentlemen, do your monthly self exam, it works - and it can save your life!!! That is how I found my 11 mm lump nestled right up to my port.]
I worked for a medical software company doing technical support. At one point we had hired someone on our support team who was rude to customers, even yelling at them at times. He struggled to figure out how to do any actual troubleshooting. His attendance was bad. And I remember every time we had teleconferences, he spent the whole time snorting and coughing into his microphone. He was just about the worst coworker you could imagine. Oh, I vaguely recall he got caught lying about a bunch of things.
He got fired and tried to sue the company for wrongful termination because he had a bipolar diagnosis and they should have expected that kind of behavior from him. I don’t think anything ever came of that though.
There was a case in the UK a few years ago (pre-covid) where a small holiday park advertised for help. The park was run by a husband and wife and as they were getting older, they wanted someone to take on some of the heavier work.
After some interviews, they took on a young woman but were shocked when, a few weeks later, at the start of the season, she announced that she was pregnant and had been when she applied for the job.
Since this meant that she couldn’t do the job for which she was hired, they fired her. She took them to an employment tribunal and they ruled that the couple had to take her back. I believe that they closed the holiday park and retired.
If someone has a diagnosed pathology, how are you able to discern which behaviors are manifestations of that pathology, and which represent personal choices? Or are you questioning the diagnosis? Or the reasonableness of the requested accommodations?