How Does Working Remotely Impact My Reasonable Accommodations?

Employers must still provide reasonable accommodations to their remote workforce

By Katrina Styx | Reviewed by Canaan Suitt, J.D. | Last updated on May 14, 2024 Featuring practical insights from contributing attorney Anthony J. Sperber

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, many Americans were required to work from home because of the Coronavirus. Since then, many employees have continued to work remotely full or part-time. This raises questions about employers’ responsibilities and employee rights when remote workers no longer report to a formal office.

Anthony Sperber, an employment attorney in Berkeley, California, says the two most common issues he saw during the pandemic were: “One, are they going to be laid off because of this, and two, if they had had any accommodations before, would those still be in place during this and or after? In other words, will this somehow reset or upset whatever they had worked out before?”

Your Rights at the Office Still Apply at Your Home Workspace

Just because you’re doing remote work doesn’t mean employment laws no longer apply.

“[Employees] essentially have all the rights that they had before,” Sperber says. Even while doing telework, you are considered to be “at work” whenever you are doing your work. “And so if the accommodation used to be you came in to work or left at a certain time, or you were allowed certain kinds of breaks because you needed to do that, that will be true of your home work time the same way it was at the office.”

Flexible Work Hour Accommodations

One common accommodation issue is working hours. An employee who was allowed to work a flexible work schedule may be faced with companies scheduling new meetings or deadlines to keep teams connected remotely.

“If you say everybody’s got to be on an 8:30 phone call, but a mother has to be doing child care at that time, or the employee—because of a sleep problem or physical problem—has to be doing other things, and they were never in the office at that time. But now they’re expected to be, and even though it’s virtual, attendance might still be difficult,” Sperber says.

[Employees] essentially have all the rights that they had before… And so if the accommodation used to be you came in to work or left at a certain time, or you were allowed certain kinds of breaks because you needed to do that, that will be true of your home work time the same way it was at the office.

Anthony J. Sperber

Reasonable Accommodations for Physical Equipment

Reasonable accommodations extend to physical equipment like voice-to-text systems for employees who can’t type or ergonomic standing desks for those with chronic back issues. “You had [this equipment] at work. But now you don’t have those things. What [the employer] should do, for occupational safety, is get those things to your house,” Sperber says. “Because that is the office now. So all the things that were at the office, within reason, should be at your home office so you can do your work.”

However, “within reason” is key here. A company may determine that it’s not practical or that it’s too expensive to distribute large amounts of equipment to employee’s homes, especially in the near-term. In those cases, Sperber says it’s important to engage in an interactive process where employees and employers can work out a remote work arrangement that’s agreeable to both.

Not having access to reasonable accommodations can impact not only an employee’s health but also their performance, Sperber says, so it’s important to address issues as early as possible. “They don’t want to keep plowing through something that’s not really working for them and then have, not just physical problems, but people could start having performance problems because of their work environment,” Sperber says. “And then those work-related performance problems can be used against them in their employment reviews.”

Red Flags for Remote Employees to Watch For

There are a few red flags that remote employees can watch for when they are asked or told to work from a home office space.

“If they’re being asked to do things they hadn’t done before, and if it’s professionally outside their wheelhouse, or they’re being asked to work hours or with materials that they’re not comfortable with, they should address that so they don’t get themselves into trouble,” Sperber says.

“And certainly, any time they are having physical or emotional problems with what’s going on, they should raise those with their managers or human resources.

When to Get an Employment Law Attorney Involved

When should employees consider getting an employment attorney involved? “It’s one of those things that you can’t quite put an exact timeline on,” Sperber says. “Hopefully, people sort of know it when they get there. I would think, in general, it would be after they’ve already done their best to make telecommuting work. If their efforts are not successful or they’re being treated in a way that they think is inappropriate, and they have tried to address that problem and they still have concerns, that would be a good time to reach out to somebody.”

Visit the Super Lawyers directory to find an experienced employment lawyer in your area. For more information about reasonable accommodations under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and state laws, see our overviews of discrimination law and employment law.

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