What if an employee with work-related anxiety says she won’t return “until further notice”?

Anxiety, grievances, and open-ended leave requests can leave HR stuck between compassion and compliance. A federal appellate court just clarified what the ADA does, and does not, require.

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TL;DR: An employee told her employer she could not return “until further notice” because of anxiety. The Eleventh Circuit held that such indefinite leave is not a reasonable accommodation under the ADA. Employers must consider finite leave requests, but are not required to keep jobs open without an end date.
📄 Read the decision here.

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When leave turns into “until further notice”

After filing a grievance against her supervisor, the employee reported migraines and anxiety. A medical provider excused her until she could see her doctor, and that doctor later determined she was unable to return to work until further notice.

She told HR she would come back when cleared but gave no timeline. HR explained she was not yet eligible for FMLA leave, let her use paid time off, and warned that once her balance ran out she would be considered to have abandoned her job. The company did make a short, two-week accommodation but refused to extend additional leave. When she still had not returned, her employment ended.

And then she sued for violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

What the ADA really requires

The ADA requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations so that employees with disabilities can perform the essential functions of their jobs. But the duty only applies when the request itself is reasonable.

A medical leave of absence can be reasonable if it allows the employee to return in the present or near future. In this case, the employee never provided any estimate of when she might return, so the court viewed her request as indefinite. Because indefinite leave is not reasonable under the ADA, the employer had no obligation to grant more time off or to continue the interactive process.

The employee argued that asking for a definite period of leave would have been pointless because the company had a policy against granting extra leave. The court rejected this, noting she had already asked for additional leave but never provided a timeframe, and the record showed she did not know when she would be cleared to return. Her reference to two weeks related only to an appointment with a psychiatrist, not to an actual return-to-work date.

Employer ADA takeaways when faced with “until further notice”

🗓️ Press for specifics. An open-ended request is not required under the ADA. Always request medical documentation with an expected return date.

📑 Keep your paper trail. Written records of leave balances, deadlines, and warnings are often decisive in litigation.

🤝 Stay interactive when leave is finite. If a doctor provides a timeline for return, the duty to accommodate is triggered, and the interactive process must be genuine.

🔄 Employees don’t always get their first choice. Even if the length of leave may be reasonable, the law allows an employer to offer another accommodation that is also reasonable and enables the employee to perform the essential job functions.

⚖️ Recognize the limit. The ADA supports reasonable, finite accommodations. “Until further notice” crosses the line into indefinite leave, which is not required. (Although your mileage may vary under state and local law.)

The bottom line

When an employee with work-related anxiety refuses to return “until further notice,” the ADA does not require you to keep the job open. The law draws the line between reasonable leave that enables a return to work and indefinite absences that offer no clear path back.