Changing Job Descriptions

HRPager

I'm trying to stay ahead of the ball game here - so this hasn't happened yet, but I'm looking for advice if we can do the following legally.

We have an employee who I've heard (never seen documentation or have been told by her) that has Cystic Fibrosis. She currently is working a fulltime office job. We do not feel that this job is fulltime anymore and would like to split the job between an office job and working with the Nursing Department running appointments (going to the pharmacy, running clients to the doctor, etc). Because of her condition, the VP mentioned that the running appointments might affect her condition in the winter months. (Right now I am unaware of her condition and she has not asked for accomodations, as the job hasn't changed yet.) Do you see any red flags with re-writing the job description to state both duties, and if she can't fulfill all the duties due to her condition, then we could change her to Part-time status and hire another part-time to work for the Nursing Department?

Thanks for your insight!

SMace

I think staying ahead of the game is getting you in trouble. Forget the "disability". Do what you have to for your defendable business reasons. When you present the job restructure, deal with the reasonable accommodation stuff then. If you change the way your going to deal with this restructure because you "heard" she has a disabilty, she is now regarded as disabled. She would be covered by ADA even if she did not have a disabilty.

Don D

Legally, the employee is already protected by the ADA, whether or not what you've heard is true. Not only have you regarded her as disabled, but the Vice President has as well and you've had at least one conversation regarding how the (alleged) disability might act up in the winter months. Boom, she is protected by the ADA. But, even at that, there has been no discussion of any limits on what she can do and there's been no conversation (nor has there been a need to have one) about accommodation. Restructure the job as your business needs dictate, have a conversation with those affected and see what falls out of the process. Just be real sure nobody is designing a way to limit her benefits by slicing her job in half and making her part time.