![]() ![]() While working from the home part or full time might be an option, reasonable accommodations can take many other forms. Employers cannot be forced to extend accommodations that would cause their business to suffer undue harm or significantly disrupt operations. Work-from-home options post-pandemic will not be feasible for all businesses, however, and you should not assume a work-from-home accommodation is necessarily a reasonable one for your employer. While working-from-home accommodations may have been unfeasible in early 2020, they may now be considered a more reasonable option if an employer was able to successfully adopt a work-from-home business model. Every job environment is unique, and every employer has had to adapt to the pandemic in its own way. Some businesses floundered, some thrived, and others simply course-corrected. Statewide regulations surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic have forced the hand of employers to experiment with work-from-home arrangements. The most evident shift is the work-from-home arrangement. ![]() This should be in writing whenever possible. If you are found to have a mental health condition that affects your ability to perform your essential job functions, it is important to give notice to your employer as soon as possible if you wish to explore workplace accommodation options. To be a “qualified person with a disability” you must meet the skill, experience, education, and job-related requirements and be able to perform the essential functions of your job with or without reasonable accommodation. Code § 12900), you are entitled to reasonable workplace accommodations to help you perform your job. If your employer employs five or more persons and if you are found to be a qualified person with a disability under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (Cal. However, anxiety disorders, depression, and related mental health conditions can constitute disabilities under the law. The general stress and anxiety we all feel from time to time regarding work, family life, and yes, even the pandemic, does not constitute a disability under California law. This is particularly acute with working mothers such as yourself who struggle with anxiety. Certainly, the COVID-19 pandemic can be described as a global traumatic event that has created unique stresses on many while exacerbating preexisting mental health conditions. Thank you for writing to us about this important and personal issue. Do I have any options that might ease my return to work? I worry about how I will readjust once I am asked to physically return to the office and how my anxiety will affect my performance. I think my symptoms are worse now than before the pandemic. I have had anxiety around the virus itself, and I’m juggling a high-pressure job while caring for two young children attending school on Zoom. I regularly experienced panic attacks, feelings of dread, and trouble concentrating, but never spoke to a medical professional about it. Before COVID-19 hit, I felt extremely stressed out at work and pushed to my limits emotionally, to the extent that I believed I might have an anxiety disorder. ![]()
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