Should I let go of an employee for incapable to perform due to medical conditions? (employer, jobs)
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I have a part time handyman who refuses to do certain jobs citing medical condition. He supposedly has some heart condition; thus he refuses to lift a lot of stuff (like a 5 gallon of paint). While I understand the medical consideration, the fact that he cannot perform as other handymen is brewing discontent.
Making things worse, the staff in question feels he's JUSTIFIED in refusing to do certain tasks because of the medical condition. That attitude also gets to people.
Should I let this guy go? From management perspective, I need people to perform.
Nowadays, with ADA (American Disability Act), you cannot get rid of employees with such condition and/or "sickness" easily. You need to care for them. You need to try to put yourself into their shoe. You need to have compassion for them. Otherwise, you are a heartless person, or an evil. Ha ha.
I've worked with a few of those, even with someone who had a doctor's note saying she should not lift anything more than 2 lbs for a long, long time (LOL, can you imagine? but that was true). Here, many office workers have to do some lifting of 20 - 30 lbs. It's very tiresome and stressful to work with such people. Sometimes, I thought/think I'm going to be sick.
The ADA does not prevent any employer from getting rid of employees who cannot perform essential job functions. Yes, you can fire the person. You need to make sure that you have your ducks in a row.
First, they need medical documentation that they have a disability and that they need reasonable accommodations. Just telling you that they have a medical condition is insufficient.
You should have a written job description and a list of essential job functions.
What are the employee's documented physical limitations, and can they be reasonably accommodated? In the case of your current employee, if he truly cannot lift a 5 gallon can of paint and that task is an essential job function, can there be a reasonable accomodation? A reasonable accommodation in this case may be that the employee can't lift a 5 gallon bucket of paint, but that he can lift a 1 gallon can of paint five times.
The first thing that needs to be done is that someone in management, HR, or both needs to have a conversation with this employee advising him that he cannot perform essential job functions. If he is asking for reasonable accommodations he needs to produce sufficient medical documentation stating what he needs accommodation doing. Tell him that you will review the physician's paperwork to see if you can accomodate his restrictions. Ask him what he thinks a reasonable accomodation is. Document the conversation.
From what you describe, 'reasonable accommodation' (as required by law) would be easy to achieve in this case. Divide the paint into smaller buckets, get him a rolling cart, or have someone carry the bucket for him.
The other employees will be more content if they mind their own business, and if you stop commiserating with them. It isn't any of their business what medical conditions this employee has, or what accommodations you are providing for him to do his job. From a management perspective (your words), people who complain about their coworkers aren't any good to have around either.
Does this employee work with others, or does he go to clients by himself?
If he works with others, then divide the labor up so that he is not tasked with the lifting.
Under the ADA, you are generally expected to make a reasonable accommodation, which could include things like redistributing tasks so that he doesn't have to do the heavy lifting.
You should only resort to dismissal if you have made a serious, sincere effort to find accommodations, and nothing has worked. Even in this case, you would be wise to talk to a lawyer to document all your attempts at accommodating the condition that you made.
We have 3 handymen, who are supposed to be able to do everything (fix, build, paint, haul, clean, etc). As jobs come in, I assign them to whoever is available. For this employee, he only wants to or can do certain tasks. This means often he's standing around while others are sweating it out. Recently we renovated a laundry room and had to move 20 big machines out; that staff just stood by.
If I let this continue, I fear I cannot command others to work.
My first question is what have you done (which is allowed by law) to verify that this person in fact has a medical condition that meets the requirements of the ADA (or appropriate state law) to even make their claim of "health" valid? Hope you're not taking the worker's word alone without some form of verification, be it personal knowledge or a written medical certification by a health care professional.
So, exactly what is the condition, it's limits and what is the Reasonable Accommodation being sought? If you can't answer these, you're way in over your head on this subject!
We have 3 handymen, who are supposed to be able to do everything (fix, build, paint, haul, clean, etc). As jobs come in, I assign them to whoever is available. For this employee, he only wants to or can do certain tasks. This means often he's standing around while others are sweating it out. Recently we renovated a laundry room and had to move 20 big machines out; that staff just stood by.
If I let this continue, I fear I cannot command others to work.
Then try not sending him to jobs that are very heavy on hauling things. Part of running a business is that you have to try to plan ahead, and assign people to what they are most qualified for.
No business can always expect that every employee can perform every job function at all times.
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