Bi-Polar Disorder
Riley
52 Posts
Yeseterday, I received a phone call from one of our location managers saying two supervisors were taking an ee (who has only worked for us for 5 days, passed his pre-employement drug test and physical) to get tested for suspicion of drug use. He said the ee's behavior was very eratic, could not have a rational conversation and his body was not functioning normally. I reminded him of our co policy and he said they had followed it to a T. When they get to the testing site the supervisors call and said they can't get the urine sample bc the ee doesn't know what a cup is and can't wash his hands by himself. They end up taking him to the hospital where he is admitted. The hospital only tells us that he has been admitted and his emergancy contact has been notified. By this time the location manager and asst. manager are there as well. The location manager told me it looked like this person had been admitted before (just an opinion). They said they would have his emergancy contact (his mother) call us when she arrived. Sometime that afternoon he ended up having a seizure. Come to find out he has bi-polar disorder. His mother says he is perfectly normal when he is taking his medication. That is all fine with me but, when he is only been working for us for 5 days and already off his medication I am worried for the safety of other workers. This ee drives a feed truck feeding cattle. The feedyard is surrounded by potentially dangerous equipment and machines(loaders, feedmill, grinding equipment, not to mention animals who are totally unpredicatble). I am worried if he goes off his medication again he could seriously injure himself or another ee. Do to the nature of our industry, I don't think we could accomodate him with another position if asked.
My questions are:
What are my limitations under ADA?
How can we avoid situations like this in the future?
What could we ask on the pre-employement physical to be given a heads up on these kinds of situations, or can we?
Thanks for your help!
My questions are:
What are my limitations under ADA?
How can we avoid situations like this in the future?
What could we ask on the pre-employement physical to be given a heads up on these kinds of situations, or can we?
Thanks for your help!
Comments
The bottom line to this is that you need to talk to this person about what happened, perhaps involve your EAP if you have one, and decide whether or not reasonable accomodations are possible. If there really is danger to the employee or others be prepared to demonstrate that with documentation and opinions of experts (doctor perhaps) not with opinions of supervisors or HR.
>My questions are:
>
>What are my limitations under ADA?
I agree with all that has been said. In my estimation too many assumptions have been made and too many conclusions have been reached by those who are not trained or equipped to have done either. I know a bit about Bipolar but don't see a causal connection as you unfolded this scenario. Nor would I try to reach such a connection as I have no responsibility to do that. Not only is it very dangerous, it is potentially illegal.
>How can we avoid situations like this in the future?
What situations? If you mean how can I avoid hiring someone who may turn out to have a disability, you cannot. Nor should you attempt to under the law.
>What could we ask on the pre-employement physical to be given a heads
>up on these kinds of situations, or can we?
>
The only questions asked on a pre-employment physical should naturally be asked by the physician conducting the examination. As to the heads-up, you can educate the doctors at the clinic you use on the physical demands and job descriptions of each of your potitions and tell them you expect them to pass only those individuals who can perform the position's duties with or without reasonable accommodation. I've known of clinics that would indeed give a heads up to employers that the candidate has certain medical conditions not necessarily that would disqualify them for the position based on the law. They are buying themselves and the employer a lawsuit.
I'm reminded of something Gillian related 6 months ago, and I hate to misquote him; but, he spoke of asking a client company, "Tell me about your pre-employment physical procedures and policy." The client company said something like, "Oh, we don't really have one. We just send the ones who look sickly."
I also think that your supervisory staff who went on this mission, although well intentioned perhaps, managed to come back with far too much confidential information which probably has prompted them to speculate and reach conclusions that they are not capable of making. Please call them both in and tell them not to mention a word of any of this to another soul under penalty of termination. Their obligation and involvement ended with the reasonable suspicion procedure.
I guess I wasn't very clear in my questions. I do not want to aviod hiring people with disabilities,nor do I want to discriminate as I had a relative who had bipolar commit suicide. I think this is a very serious issue. I guess my question was, how do we, or can we learn about these situations before something like this happens again (We have several diabetics they tell us when thier blood sugar is getting low and they need to sit down and have a snack.) Can this man tell us when he is going through a particularly hard time? I guess we would like to have the information not to discriminate but to help the ee, but can we (the physian doing the pre employement physical) ask about previous/current illinesses? Or am I dreaming?!
We currently send most of our prospective ees to three different drs. I say most because our locations are spread out. These three drs. have the same form they fill out asking the same questions. I feel we have a fairly structured pre employment physical policy and it is always followed. We are in a small community so the drs. will call and let us know if the prospective ee cannot meet the physical demands of the job.
I contacted the job accomodation network to get a better idea of the possiblities. But I am having trouble getting ahold of him to consult with a Dr.
I will check out the EEOC site sounds pretty helpful.
Thanks everyone for all of your insights. I didn't realize how many ways a few people could view one topic!
It has a lot of very easy to understand information on it about when (pre hiring, post offer, current employee) an employer can ask medical questions and what questions an employer can ask. The doctor conducting the post offer/pre employment phyical can ask about medical conditions (its not much of a check up if the doctor doesn't ask). Whether that condition would effect the employee's ability to do the essential functions is a more difficult question. That will involve a truely individualized assessment of how the condition effects the employee.
Good Luck.