Disability Discrimination Cost Me a Promotion

https://www.eeoc.gov/facts/performance-conduct.html#conduct

  1. May an employer discipline an employee with a disability for violating a conduct standard?
    Yes. If an employee’s disability does not cause the misconduct, an employer may hold the individual to the same conduct standards that it applies to all other employees. In most instances, an employee’s disability will not be relevant to any conduct violations.

  2. If an employee’s disability causes violation of a conduct rule, may the employer discipline the individual?
    Whether an employer’s application of a conduct rule to an employee with a disability is job-related and consistent with business necessity may rest on several factors, including the manifestation or symptom of a disability affecting an employee’s conduct, the frequency of occurrences, the nature of the job, the specific conduct at issue, and the working environment. These factors may be especially critical when the violation concerns “disruptive” behavior which, unlike prohibitions on stealing or violence, is more ambiguous concerning exactly what type of conduct is viewed as unacceptable.

Practical Guidance: Ideally, employees will request reasonable accommodation before conduct problems arise, or at least before they become too serious.52 Although the ADA does not require employees to ask for an accommodation at a specific time, the timing of a request for reasonable accommodation is important because an employer does not have to rescind discipline (including termination) warranted by misconduct. Employees should not assume that an employer knows that an accommodation is needed to address a conduct issue merely because the employer knows about the employee’s disability. Nor does an employer’s knowledge of an employee’s disability require the employer to ask if the misbehavior is disability-related.

The employer may refuse the request for reasonable accommodation and proceed with the termination because an employer is not required to excuse performance problems that occurred prior to the accommodation request.

Does this imply the opposite when the behaviors occur after the request?

Here's a big one:

Practical Guidance: An employer may need to determine what happens to an employee while it is handling a request for accommodation. For example, an employer might require an employee to perform only those functions of the job for which accommodation is not needed while processing the request. In other situations, it may be appropriate for an employee to take leave.

This is the information I am going off of (in addition to my experience). If I am not understanding, it is better to help me understand than just simply point out that I do not understand. I need advice, not small quips about what I don't know.

/r/legaladvice Thread Parent