What must an employer do if it suspects that an employee performance problem is caused by a medical condition?
An employer who is faced with substandard performance by an employee, need not automatically determine whether the performance problem is caused by a disability covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act. Often, however, the employer is already aware that the employee has a medical problem and suspects that the performance problem is related. In that situation, the employer may have an obligation, before firing or disciplining the employee, to determine whether the performance problem is, in fact, caused by a disability, and whether the problem would be alleviated with some reasonable accommodation. For example, an employer may have been informed by the employee that he or she has been diagnosed with clinical manic depression, and may then see a decline in the employee’s performance. The employer need not assume that the performance problem is caused by the depression, but may ask the employee whether he or she has any explanation for the problem. If the employee states that it is
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