An employee enters your office and states that his medical condition necessitates that he work from home. As an employer, must you meet this request in order to maintain compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act? The answer is no.
You and the employee need to discuss the request so that you understand why the disability might necessitate that individual’s working at home. He must explain what limitations from the disability make it difficult to do the job in the workplace and how the job could still be performed from his home. You may request information about the individual's medical condition, (including reasonable documentation,) if it is unclear whether it is a truly disability as defined by the ADA. You and the employee also may wish to discuss other types of accommodations that would allow the person to remain full-time in the workplace.
From the employer’s perspective, the employee to fully perform all essential job functions when working from home. If those job functions require working as part of a team, or face-to-face client contact, working from home may not fit your business needs.
However, if the job functions do not require on-site performance, then telecommuting could be a reasonable accommodation. Remember, reasonable accommodations should not unduly burden the employer. Review the needs of your business along with the employee’s essential job functions and individual needs. After examining the pros and cons of allowing the employee to telecommute, you may either allow the request or consider alternative accommodations. Bottom line: The ADA does not require the employer to honor all telecommuting requests.
In my opinion telecommuting is possible for professionals but it has to involve every employer AND Yes it can involve every Desk-worker !!!!
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This means Team-Building, Training on the job, Trust and unofficial gossip to match ideas....all during Telecommuting.
Posted by: Ruud | January 27, 2009 at 03:51 PM