Los Angeles Employment Lawyer Blog

Clinical depression can be devastating to yourself, friends, family members and your social life. But it also can affect your work. Oversleeping, an inability to focus, lack of motivation to do even simple tasks—these are all symptoms of clinical depression that can make work life difficult and tedious. While there are treatments for clinical depression such as therapy and medication, sometimes the symptoms continue to effect life in the workplace. Clinical depression is a recognized disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act and State Law. You have the right to reasonable accommodations in the workplace to assist your needs to do your job effectively.

In order to have reasonable accommodations in the workplace, your employer must know that you have a disability. You should arrange a confidential meeting with your supervisor to disclose your disability, and negotiate reasonable accommodations. These accommodations may be that you need to leave work early to get to therapy sessions, or that you may need more time to accomplish a task that requires great concentration. As long as your request is reasonable and does not place an undue hardship on your employer, your employer must accommodate your request. Further, once you have tried to negotiate accommodations with your employer, you cannot be fired simply for your disability. This is known as wrongful termination.

If you have clinical depression, and you are concerned that you are not receiving adequate reasonable accommodations, or you have been retaliated against or wrongfully terminated due to your disability, call the Law Offices of Greenberg & Rudman LLP at 1-800-252-9776 for a free consultation regarding your legal rights and how one of our experienced employment lawyers may be able to help you.