THE FINE ART OF REQUESTING
JOB ACCOMMODATIONS
Even
though the request is for a reasonable accommodation to help me do my job
better – something granted by federal law to qualified individuals with
disabilities – it’s not always easy to ask.
Who
wants to come off demanding or whiny, or be perceived as “one of those needy
wheelchair people” who can’t do a job without special treatment?
How
will a supervisor react?
Will
he or she be supportive and understanding, deny the request, or, even worse, be
confrontational?
It’s
easy to view someone else’s situation and cooly reply “they can’t do that to
you – it’s illegal.”
While
a person with a disability may very well have legal remedies if denied
reasonable accommodation, nobody wants it to come to that. Work is stressful
enough.
I’ve
been in the workforce about a decade and have worked for several bosses.
They
had different attitudes and different reactions to my requests for
accommodations.
Some
of the variation must be chalked up to their personalities, something I
couldn’t control. Yet a significant factor was my how I went about making the
request, something I could control.
ARTICLE CONTINUES TOMORROW -- MARCH 14
EDITOR'S NOTE:
This was written
by our expert before she came to the Sunshine State. All negative anecdotes and complaints about
bosses are based on incidents in Ohio, not Miami.
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