Work stress and the ADA

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about stress, and the anxiety it can, and often does, cause.

Stress induced anxiety can cripple someone. According to the Anxiety and Depressions Association of America:

• 72 percent of people who have daily stress and anxiety say it interferes with their lives at least moderately.
• 40 percent experience persistent stress or excessive anxiety in their daily lives.
• 30 percent with daily stress have taken prescription medication to manage stress, nervousness, emotional problems, or lack of sleep.
• 28 percent have had an anxiety or panic attack.

What happens, however, when the thing inducing the stress and anxiety is the workplace itself? What are an employer’s obligations under the ADA to accommodate this mental health disorder?

It’s amazing what one finds while packing

Yesterday afternoon, I received the following email from a co-worker:

To: Office All
Subject: Pardon the office all email 

I am sure you all have found interesting things that you had completely forgotten as you cleaned up your workspaces. I have no idea where I obtained this, but I hope you find it as funny as I did.

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How do we start to STOP sexual harassment?

www.pinterest.com/pin/202802789447314070

Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Louis CK, Mark Halperin, Bill O’Reilly, Roger Ailes … the list of men accused of sexual harassment and other sexual misconduct seems to know no end.

I very much hope that we have reached the beginning of a cultural watershed against sexual harassment in America. Which is undoubtedly a good thing, especially when you consider a recent Washington Post survey reporting that nearly one-third of women have received an unwanted sexual advance from a co-worker.

All of which begs the question … if sexual harassment is so prevalent in the American workplace, how do we start having a conversation about how to stop it?

WIRTW #484 (the “happy place” edition)

What’s your happy place?

Where do you take your mind when you’re just having a bad day, when you have to deal with that employee, when a client chews you out (I know, that never happens), or when you otherwise need a mental breather from the world and all of its evil and other craziness?

Mine is watching my kids play music.

9.8 million reasons to consider transferring a disabled employee to a vacant position

Photo by Taber Andrew Bain
Licensed via Creative Commons 

Earlier this month, American Airlines agreed to pay $9.8 million to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit brought by the EEOC.

The agency claimed that the employer’s return-to-work policy—which allegedly refused to consider transfers to open positions for disabled employees, but instead required the employees to apply for and compete for vacant position upon their return to work—violated the ADA.

What’s the worst employee exit you’ve ever seen?

There is a right way to quit a job, and a wrong way to quit a job.

Last week, a Twitter employee demonstrated the worst of the latter.