In August, I posted about a court decision under the Americans with Disabilities Act involving a county social services employee who had an alleged sensitivity to Bath and Body Works's Japanese Cherry Blossom scent. I noted that the court decision, which allowed the case to go forward, was based only on the allegations in the plaintiff's lawsuit and the initial response of the county ...

"Now, you know it's up to you whether or not you want to just do the bare minimum . . ."

I guess Joanna didn't need more than 15 pieces of flair, after all.

Did you know that three out of four federal appellate courts say that, if a disabled employee needs a transfer as a reasonable accommodation, you must normally give the disabled employee preference over better-qualified non-disabled ...

Last week, I posted about five ADA reasonable accommodations that employers never dreamed they would have to make. This week is the happy antithesis to that -- five ADA accommodations that an employer almost never has to make. As with last week's post, every one of these is 100% guaranteed true.

1. Create a job. It's always tempting, but you are not required under the ADA to create a job to ...

I know you're all poring over the Affordable Care Act, now that we have to comply with it, and trying to decide whether Chief Justice John Roberts is an evil turncoat, or a hero, or a "double agent" for the ACA's opponents . . . or for its advocates. (That's the trouble with those darned double agents.)

The heck with all that. Consider this a study break. Here are five ADA reasonable ...

As you all know, the Americans with Disabilities Act excludes "current users of illegal drugs" from protection. Meaning that an employer is free to take action against applicants or employees based on their current use of illegal drugs.

A question that has arisen a few times, and which I've managed to sidestep, has been this: What about current use of medical marijuana? Assuming the ...

Woody Allen once said, "80 percent of success is showing up." So true, so true!

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit* came out recently with a great decision on when "showing up" -- also known as "attendance" -- is an essential function of the job, and when an employer can terminate an employee for poor attendance even if the absences are caused by a "disability" within the ...

If your job makes you want to kill yourself, are you a "direct threat" to your own safety?

In what has to be one of the weirdest ADA cases I've seen, a woman (let's call her "Gladys") was hired as a temp for a tech company in Seattle (let's call it "Initech"). A month later, Initech brought Gladys on as a regular employee. A month after that, Gladys told Initech that she suffered from chronic pain ...

Never . . . well, hardly ever. ("What, never? No, never! What, never? Well . . . hardly ever! He's hardly ever sick at sea . . .")

Our friends at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently scored another big win in a pregnancy discrimination case -- actually got summary judgment against the employer, which is unusual. In this case, the employer apparently knew it had messed up ...

You bet! You may, and it's strongly recommended unless you are comfortable with the opinion of the employee's doctor.

First, by sending the employee to the doctor, you can verify the need for the reasonable accommodation. (Honestly, this is not a big deal because challenging the existence of an employee's medical condition is a losing battle most of the time.)

Second, you can determine ...

Over the next 7 business days, I'll have a series of short posts addressing common questions that employers have about the law. If there is an "FAQ" that you would like for me to address, please let me know in the comments box.

I may also have more in-depth postings as circumstances warrant.

Employer FAQ No. 5: Is there any difference between light duty and reasonable accommodation?

Most of ...