3rd Shift Disability Resources

[happyclouds]

Hello Guys! I am medically unable to work night shifts. I came across several posts here that were full of misinformation about the law. I wanted to provide those of you who may need it with some resources about the law and disabilities. Not a lawyer, just lots of experience with the law (the good side!). Obviously get a lawyer if you need one!

1) The Americans with Disabilities Act protects you provided you can perform the essential functions of the job with or without accommodations.

2) It is illegal for your employer to ask you about a disability, and you are not required to disclose it.

3) Your employer can only make you undergo a pre-employment physical if they have given you a conditional offer of employment.

4) You can ask for an accommodation at any time, including after receiving a job offer but before starting as well as during a probationary period.

5) This may include being moved ahead of other people on a seniority list i.e. those waiting to move from day shift to night shift.

6) This also applies even if those more senior than you are more qualified than you.

Finally: Does your job include working nights/rotating shifts as an essential function? The courts are split and their rulings have depended on many details. There's more info in the resources below.

Resources:

Disability Discrimination in the Workplace: An Overview of the ADA | Nolo.com

Getting Hired With a Disability | Nolo.com

Essential Job Functions Under the ADA - Disability Discrimination | Nolo.com

The ADA: Your Responsibilities as an Employer

ENFORCEMENT GUIDANCE: REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION AND UNDUE HARDSHIP UNDER THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT

http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/psych.html

[MunoRN, RN]

I don't know that you've reduced the amount of misinformation related to this topic more than you've added to it.

While you don't have to reveal your medical condition any more than is is required to establish a need for accommodation, you are required to disclose your disability when requesting accommodations, otherwise there is no way of knowing what accommodations you are asking for.

You don't actually have a right to ask for accommodations that involve no longer have to perform an essential job function, so if the position you've been hired for specifies working at night, then that is an essential job function. The only examples where employees with valid disabilities are able to get around that have been where the employer did not adequately specify that the position involved working nights.

If your claim is that working nights is unhealthy for you, then you still haven't made a claim that's any different than what any other night shift worker can claim. For everyone that work nights, there is an increased risk of cancer, heart attack, stroke, and diabetes. Common symptoms include weight gain, mood instability, endocrine imbalance, impaired immune system, etc.

That doesn't mean that an employer won't just decide to give you preferential treatment just avoid the potential hassle you might cause them, but you're still left with the question of whether or not that's a moral thing to do. Everyone who works night shift is essentially sacrificing the extent of their lifespan, which is why there is generally an expectation that this burden is shared to one degree or another. To you really want to work somewhere that you'll be viewed as the nurse who felt someone else should have to cover your fair share of that burden?

[OscarTheOwl]

Some things just can not be accommodated. Applying for a position that requires night shift and not having the ability to work nights is like applying to work at a peanut factory with a severe peanut allergy. You could surely get a note saying you need accommodations due to a medical condition, but it would make zero sense.

If you have a night shift allergy, avoid the night shift.

[OscarTheOwl]

Some posting here are saying a day position doesn't even have to "open up." They are saying that by virtue of the ADA, a senior, full time day shift employee must be moved to night shift as part of their accommodations.

Shut the front door! Life is not fair but that is really super duper not fair:mad:

[Julius Seizure]

While you don't have to reveal your medical condition any more than is is required to establish a need for accommodation, you are required to disclose your disability when requesting accommodations, otherwise there is no way of knowing what accommodations you are asking for.

To clarify, you dont have to reveal it to any immediate supervisors. Yes, obviously somebody somewhere needs to know what the disability is that prevents you from being able to work nights, but that information isn't required to be given to your immediate supervisor. All THEY have to know is that the HR people have looked over the paperwork and its legit, and it says that you can't work nights (or whatever your particular accommodation is).

[MunoRN, RN]

To clarify, you dont have to reveal it to any immediate supervisors. Yes, obviously somebody somewhere needs to know what the disability is that prevents you from being able to work nights, but that information isn't required to be given to your immediate supervisor. All THEY have to know is that the HR people have looked over the paperwork and its legit, and it says that you can't work nights (or whatever your particular accommodation is).

HR is still part of "your employer", and it doesn't matter if you have paperwork that says you can't work nights, if working nights is part of the job then they don't have to accommodate you.

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

One time poster does not have a CLUE what he/she is talking about. Likely will not return to answer our reasonable doubts.

The only 'medical condition' I can see as precluding night work would be Type I DM. Newly diagnosed and not 'in the groove' of DM management yet.