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The Employer Handbook Blog
Can an Ignored Accommodation Request Turn a Performance Firing Into an ADA Claim?
The employee asked for help completing his work. Months later, the unfinished work became the reason for firing him.
TL;DR: A federal appeals court rejected an employee’s intentional disability discrimination claim because the decisionmaker did not know about his disabilities. But it revived his failure-to-accommodate claim because HR and the deputy chief allegedly failed to act on requests for help that might have prevented the performance problems leading to his termination. Employers need a process that connects accommodation requests to the people managing the employee’s work.
The old accommodations worked. The new arrangement did not.
A fire district employee had a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder that affected him during prolonged or intense stress. For more than a decade, his former supervisor gave him extra time, prioritized his tasks, and reduced workplace stress. The opinion says he performed well with that help.
A new supervisor continued extending deadlines but allegedly stopped prioritizing assignments and frequently changed expectations. After the employee struggled with six assigned tasks, he told HR that the shifting expectations aggravated his disabilities. He requested a less stressful environment, answers to his questions, and help prioritizing the work. He later made a similar request to another supervisor. A federal appeals court ultimately revived his failure-to-accommodate claim at summary judgment while rejecting his intentional-discrimination claim.
The employer won one ADA claim and lost summary judgment on another
The decisionmaker fired the employee for poor performance after none of the six tasks was completed to his satisfaction. Because no one had told him about the disabilities, the appeals court rejected the intentional-discrimination claim. His independent assessment also defeated the argument that he merely rubber-stamped another supervisor’s recommendation.
But the court revived the failure-to-accommodate claim. A jury could find that the requested accommodations would have helped the employee complete the work, particularly because he had performed similar tasks under the former supervisor’s approach. He first requested accommodations more than three months before the firing, and his successor completed some of the reassigned tasks within about 90 days.
The employer still may win. A concurring judge questioned whether his requests were sufficiently specific, reasonable, or even accommodation requests at all. The district court will address those questions on remand.
HR can reduce this risk by converting an employee’s broad request into specific proposed changes, evaluating whether they would help the employee perform essential duties, and sharing the resulting plan with the supervisors responsible for the work.
Three lessons from an accommodation request that never reached the decisionmaker
Organizational notice does not guarantee operational follow-through
HR and one supervisor allegedly knew about the disabilities, while the decisionmaker did not. A defined handoff should tell the appropriate managers what approved adjustments affect deadlines, priorities, feedback, or supervision without unnecessarily disclosing medical information.
Broad requests need concrete follow-up questions
“Less stress” and “better guidance” leave too much unanswered. HR should ask what specifically needs to change, for how long, and how the change would help the employee perform a particular job function.
Performance management and accommodation review must share a timeline
The employee sought help while the six tasks remained unfinished and was later fired for that unfinished work. Before discipline becomes termination, decisionmakers should know whether a pending or denied accommodation request relates directly to the performance problem.
The employee received roughly 22 months to finish the assignments. The accommodation claim survived anyway because the dispute was also about the kind of help he received during that time.