Sleep disorders & Employment (Re: Lorenzo's 'Zero Tolerance' post)

In My Humble Opinion
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First off, thanks to Czarcasm for allowing me to post this addendum inspired by Lorenzo’s thread regarding his company’s recent Zero Tolerance policy towards tardiness. In it, he explains that his tardiness is due in part to a sleep disorder.

I too suffer from sleep apnea, and can relate to Lorenzo’s situation. Sleep apnea is a potentially fatal disorder, and affects your quality of life immensely. I realize that there have been threads already devoted to the subject, but I wanted to do two things: provide Lorenzo and others who may suffer from sleep apnea (and other sleep disorders) with a link I have found incredibly useful, and pose a question to you Dopers.

First, the link is Talk About Sleep

Second, the question is: Should sleep disorders be classified as disabilities, allowing employees to request accommodations within reasonable limits?

I have been an employer myself, and agree with posters who say that an employee must be expected to conform to the rules laid down by the company. To my knowledge sleep disorders are not generally classfied as a disability, and no accommodations are required by law to be offered to employees who suffer.

Sleep disorders are generally misunderstood, and with sleep apnea in particular, one of the most prevalent characteristics is not so much the poor quality of sleep, but the sometimes almost absolute inability to awaken at will.

I don’t want to bog this down with a lot of PSA style information on sleep disorders, but I’ve also noticed a great lack of awareness on the subject from people I interact with.

Your thoughts?

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The CEO of the company I work for suffers from sleep apnea and treats it with CPAP just like most folks do. And he is at work all the time - always the first there and usually the last to leave. So I don’t think using that as an excuse would fly at our company.

As far as whether sleep apnea is a real disabilitity, yes…if untreated. Don’t get me wrong, because I know a lot of people don’t seek treatment since CPAP can be very expensive as is the surgery, and many insurance companies provide only partial or no coverage at all for it. That said, is that an employer’s fault?

It’s no different than if you don’t get antibiotics to treat your infection because you can’t afford the cost or co-pay. The condition/ disease could become so bad you miss work, thus becoming a ‘disability’ in a sense.

I short, I don’t think an employer should recognize sleep apnea as being a qualifiable ‘disability’ any more so than other treatable conditions. I would expect them to allow you the time to schedule appointments for treatment, and perhaps if a doctor deems the patient is such an extreme case they can’t be treated with CPAP an exception could be made. In general though, I wouldn’t expect the employer to make allowances for this.