Did you know a firm’s biggest legal problem with telecommuting is the Americans with Disability Act (ADA)?

• Once your employees ask for help in accommodations, you are put on notice. You can’t ask for a diagnosis; you can only ask them what they are capable of and what their limitations are. Train your managers on this.
• Basically, anything other than having to wear glasses or contacts can be a disability.
• Employees are obligated to engage in a back and forth with the employee regarding proposed accommodations. You can get into legal trouble if you offer the whole accommodation package to the employee, saying “Here’s all that we are providing you, take it or leave it.”
• Reasonable accommodations take into account the size and resources of the employer (more employees and more money = greater duty).
• The employee is entitled to a reasonable accommodation. That accommodation might not be the employee’s choice.
• You can’t fire someone for conduct caused by their disability.

Source: Seattle Chapter SDA business practice dinner. Presenter Aaron D. Goldstein, Associate at Dorsey & Whitney, LLP; 10/15/15