ALZHEIMERS?
jensco5
4 Posts
I am not even sure this would fall under this category, but I am hoping someone might still have the answer.
We are a non-profit organization with over 50 employees.
We are questioning our Accountant, who has been with us just over a year. He has been making some critical errors within our agency, mainly involving him forgetting to do time critical accounting tasks associated with his positions. He has missed deadlines for financial reports, which has cost the agency money. We are seriously wondering if he could be in the early stages of Alzheimers.
Would this fall under ADA? We have started documenting problems with him, but we are afraid of letting him go, do to the possiblity of him falling under ADA.
Any ideas?
Thanks
We are a non-profit organization with over 50 employees.
We are questioning our Accountant, who has been with us just over a year. He has been making some critical errors within our agency, mainly involving him forgetting to do time critical accounting tasks associated with his positions. He has missed deadlines for financial reports, which has cost the agency money. We are seriously wondering if he could be in the early stages of Alzheimers.
Would this fall under ADA? We have started documenting problems with him, but we are afraid of letting him go, do to the possiblity of him falling under ADA.
Any ideas?
Thanks
Comments
In other words, if he doens't raise the explanation that he has a disability, whatever it is, that he thinks is cauing him to make erros, and there is nothing obvious otherwise in his condition, then don't consider him disabled; treat him as you would any poor peformer in his situation (without regard to medical condition). You'd be stereotyping him in violaiton of ADA if you just assumed he had Alzheimers and dealt with him on that basis. You'd also be creating ADA eligibility for him when in fact, he may not be disabled.
If he offers up that he has either Alzheimers or any other medical conditon that could reasonably appear to cause his errors, then you would need to check it out to determine if he is in fact disabled under ADA and what if any reasonable accommodations would allow him to perform the accounting duties. This is called the ADA "interactive process."
Take a look at EEOC's materials on ADA...the links are:
The ADA Handbook for small emplyers - [url]http://www.eeoc.gov/ada/adahandbook.html[/url]
EEOC Guidances and "FAQs" on ADA, Dsiabilities, Medical Inquiries and Reasonable Accommodations - [url]http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/guidance.html[/url]
There are a couple guidances to take a look at among several related to EEOC issues in general. So, scroll down the entire page and look at the ones for ADA.