Advising on how to reconfigure space and improve amenities is one way facilities managers are helping to get buy-in from workers as their organizations implement return to office policies. But there’s another role for facilities managers, and that’s advising on changes when workers seek individualized accommodations as a condition of working on-site, an employment law specialist says.
“Employees are saying they can’t come back to work for whatever reason,” Alex Reich, a partner at law firm Saul Ewing, told Facilities Dive. “The biggest bucket of these complaints is, generally, some sort of mental health issue like anxiety or depression.”
There’s a process under the Americans with Disabilities Act that organizations follow if an employee asks them to accommodate their issue, Reich says. The process is meant to be interactive: The employee says what they think they need and if the organization believes it can accommodate that reasonably, it can agree to do that. But if it believes the accommodation is unreasonable, it can propose an alternative and leave it to the employee to accept or not.
For employees working at a public agency or consumer-facing organization, the ADA has an appeals process; otherwise, the employee has a private right of action to sue if they think they’re being discriminated against. The process applies whether the issue is related to mental or physical health.
Facilities managers fit into this process as the specialists who can advise the organization’s HR and other leaders on what is and isn't a reasonable accommodation from a property management perspective, Reich says.
“HR goes to facilities and says, ‘We have an employee who’s claiming this,’” Reich said. “‘Let’s brainstorm ways that we can accommodate them, alleviate this issue, from the facilities standpoint.’”
If an employee has an allergy, for example, the facilities manager can advise on the reasonableness of the change the employee is seeking. Bringing in a dehumidifier is one thing; making a broader change to ventilation is another.
“As the employer, you’re allowed to say, ‘OK, we understand you have this limitation. You’re susceptible to the air quality,’” Reich said. “‘But we’re not going to give you the accommodation you want; we’re going to give you another accommodation that still satisfies your limitations to allow you to keep working, and that accommodation is going to be an air purifier in your office,’ or whatever the case may be.”
For organizations that have had experience under ADA, having employees ask for accommodations in exchange for returning to the office won’t be new; the issues are largely the same as under an ADA request. It’s about determining what is and isn’t reasonable for one individual, Reich said. If no agreement can be reached after an appropriately interactive process, the employer generally retains the right to let the person go if they won’t abide by the policy.
That makes the facilities manager an important part of the due process the organization engages in. “Management will want to make sure they’re doing enough to check the box,” Reich said. “If it goes before a judge, they can say, ‘We did our best to engage in that process.’”
