Could a Medical Condition help you Turn your Current Job into a Great Work at Home Job under the American Disabilities Act?

by Work-at-Home.org

Under the American Disabilities Act (ADA) employers are required to make “reasonable accommodations” for employees with certain medical conditions if doing so will allow them to remain full time employees despite their medical condition. For example, if, because of his or her medical condition an employee with a disability is unable to obtain special transportation to commute to work in time for the usual work hours, an employer may allow that employee to work different hours to accommodate the employee’s special needs. Doing so would be considered a ‘reasonable accommodation’.

So, if you have a condition that is defined as a “disability” by the ADA that makes it impossible for you to keep your full time ‘on site’ job but you feel you could successfully do that job from home, talk to your boss about the possibility of allowing you to work at home. He or she may be able to make slight modifications to your job and make a ‘reasonable accommodation’ that would include you working from home.

Your boss does not have to allow you to work at home simply because you request it or because you need it if there is another accommodation that can be made for you or if allowing you to work from home is unreasonable. For example, some jobs are impossible to do from home while in other situations it may be too costly or disruptive for an employer to allow you to work from home. Not all jobs are suitable for work in the ‘virtual’ world and not all jobs can be done from home.

But other jobs can successfully be done at home with or without making a few changes that will allow you to work where you live. It is reasonable for you to expect that minor changes to your job be made if those minor changes are the only obstacles to you working at home. For example, if your current job involves communicating with other employees and you currently do that by written memos in the office and in person at the office, you could still perform your job at home effectively by communicating by email or phone.

If you can no longer keep your full time job and want to convert your job to a work at home job, talk to your employer. You may want to prepare for your meeting in advance by reviewing the essential job functions of your current job and finding easy, inexpensive, non-disruptive ways that you can do those same essential functions from home. The easier you make it for your boss to convert the job, the higher the chances that you’ll be successful. When you’re ready and you have a plan, discuss your essential job functions with your boss and explain why you can’t perform them onsite at your employer’s place of business, but why and how you CAN do your job at home.