(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Disability and remote work - pt. 2 [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-01-01 Well, HR came in just under the wire, apparently. They sent a formal response to my request for reasonable accommodation at 8pm on Friday — I just saw it, because I’ve obviously been off work for the weekend. The upshot is — no remote work, try these things for 60 days to ‘make sure they’re effective.’ - Use a fan - Use a freezer to put ice packs in - Take a break to cool down (but if you take more than 15 minutes you need to use sick leave) It’s almost insulting. For a recap, I have dysautonomia, which means I don’t thermoregulate properly. I’ve gotten heat exhaustion in 15 minutes, going for a light walk in 80F temperature with no humidity. I’m housebound because of it — I only leave home either in the middle of the night, the depths of winter, or with someone constantly watching me to make sure I get medical attention if I faint or become seriously ill. Fans and ice packs help. They don’t fix the problem, which is that the office is hotter than my body can tolerate, and they aren’t going to adjust the thermostat for 4500 people. So here’s my response. I tried all of these accommodations in previous positions while working in-office, and I typically had a medical emergency (heatstroke, fainting causing dislocated or sprained limbs, etc.) every couple of months, as well as about halving my productivity because tachycardia caused me to be unable to think clearly. This is an improvement from not using these accommodations, when I was getting heat exhaustion several times per week, but not sufficient for safe or effective work. If they need to be trialed for sixty days, can I have some assurance that the performance drop I have warned about will not be held against me for my probationary evaluation? Of course, I intend to do my best, but I do anticipate there will be a significant effect on my performance. (Specifically, I will be unable to think straight due to tachycardia, and symptoms will not fully dissipate for about a week after each in-office workday, leading to both trailing effects in the days after working in-office, and cumulative effects from week to week.) In addition, when should I be contacting you about workplace-related injuries and illness? Does heat exhaustion qualify, or only heatstroke, or only if I need to be taken to the ER for it? If I faint in the office, should I report any visible marks like significant bruises, or only if I sprain, break, or dislocate something? If I dislocate my hip and need to seek medical attention before nerve damage occurs, will I need to take a full sick day, or only for the portion of the workday I’ve missed due to injury? Is it relevant to the worker’s compensation process that heatstroke causes cumulative injury, so each time I get heat stroke, my threshold for getting it again is lower and I’m even more housebound than before? All of those are quite likely – I had a medical emergency of this sort in the office every couple of months before I worked from home - so I want to be prepared. I should also add if I haven’t made it sufficiently clear – the biggest accommodation and help working from home provides is that I can adjust central cooling and lower the overall temperature. I cannot adjust the air conditioning in the Ziggurat, nor can I turn off central heating and open windows in winter. Any other accommodation is a stopgap to reduce the incidence of injury, but it will neither fix the problem nor avoid it. So… we’ll see what happens. I was just going to post the obnoxious amount of stuff I need to pack — and I might do that tomorrow — but… jeez. More news and none of it good. Is this level of liability and pure human suffering really worth it? I guess so, if you’re Governor Newsom, the man reportedly requiring all employees to work in-office regardless of disability or hardship. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/1/1/2214862/-Disability-and-remote-work-pt-2?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/