Tag: Service Animals

Veterans in the Workplace

Published by Brett Holubeck on November 11, 2019

It’s Veterans Day. A great day to honor all those that have served our country in the military. For employment lawyers, businesses, and Human Resource professionals, it is a great time to review some of the special requirements of employing veterans.

The Benefit of Employing Veterans

Companies love veterans. The Center for Talent Innovation found that efforts to hire veterans can “consume as much as 20 or 30 percent of recruiting budgets at some large corporations.” There are a number of reasons for the efforts that these companies put forth to hire veterans.

First, military veterans often gain valuable skills while they perform their service. Sometimes these are hard skills like working on airplanes, coding various programs, and engineering. Oftentimes, it is the soft skills that are gained through military service. Typical Army training includes a lot of activities that help improve discipline, communication and working with a team, and a ton of confidence through overcoming obstacles. All of these are transferable to the workplace.

Of course, some of this recruitment may be due to requirements for federal contractors and subcontractors. The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs requires these companies to make special efforts to recruit veterans as part of the requirements to complete affirmative action plans.

One other advantage is that employers can receive a tax credit for hiring veterans (it is going to potentially go away if it is not renewed by December 2019). Employers can get $1,500-$9,600 in tax credits for the first year of their employment.

Possible Disability Issues

Many companies that employ veterans have concerns about PTSD and other disabilities that affect many veterans. About twenty-nine percent of recent veterans report having a service-connected disability. This compares to the nearly one in five people in the US (approximately 56.7 million people) that have a disability. A quick reminder, most disabilities are relatively easy to accommodate. Two-thirds of disabilities require less than $500 to accommodate and one quarter cost nothing at all. Having a disabled person can even be an advantage in the workplace as they may bring a different and often valuable perspective that would otherwise be missed. And after all, what would the world be without Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (composed when he was almost completely deaf), the music of Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles who were both blind, the inspirational story of Helen Keller (who as a deaf-blind woman lived a fascinating life and graduated from college nearly 90 years before the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed), and the challenges Franklin Delano Roosevelt faced from polio. The possibility of a disability should not deter companies from hiring veterans unless they cannot perform the job duties even with an accommodation.

PTSD and Veterans

One of the biggest challenges many companies face in employing veterans is Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). PTSD is not limited to individuals in the military but can affect anyone. It affects approximately 3.5 percent of U.S. adults, and an estimated 1 in 11 people will be diagnosed PTSD in their lifetime. Studies have shown that around 11% to 20% of combat veterans have PTSD.

A person develops PTSD when they are directly exposed to death, threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence. A person with PTSD has intense and disturbing thoughts that recur long after the traumatic incident that caused them ends and seeks to avoid any triggers that remind them of the traumatic event. These experiences can range from flashbacks; nightmares; intense sadness, fear or anger; and a sense of detachment from the world and other people. People with PTSD often seek treatment through therapy and medication.

How can employers accommodate PTSD at work? JAN has a great list of questions to consider to accommodate these individuals:

What limitations is the employee experiencing?
How do these limitations affect the employee and the employee’s job performance?
What specific job tasks are problematic as a result of these limitations?
What accommodations are available to reduce or eliminate these problems? Are all possible resources being used to determine possible accommodations?
Has the employee been consulted regarding possible accommodations?
Once accommodations are in place, would it be useful to meet with the employee to evaluate the effectiveness of the accommodations and to determine whether additional accommodations are needed?
Do supervisory personnel and employees need training?

Common accommodations for these individuals can include a flexible schedule and a modified break schedule. Employees with PTSD may be eligible for leave under the FMLA and the ADA. They may be eligible for intermittent leave under the FMLA based on the medical diagnosis of their doctors. As is common with accommodations, accommodating an individual with PTSD is likely a cost neutral accommodation (the accommodations involve changes to the workplace that do not require the employer to spend money, such as by purchasing special equipment, to accommodate the employee and allow them to work).

Service Dogs

Service animals cause many companies to panic. Many people have read about pets being claimed to be service animals when they lack any sort of training and are concerned about bringing animals into the workplace. However, services animals can be integrated into most workplaces relatively easily.

As with any other request for an accommodation (and assuming that the ADA applies), an employer needs to go through the interactive process with the employee to accommodate their request. I’ve written about that here.

JAN has a great explanation of how to assess whether to allow these animals in the workplace as an accommodation.

What this means for employers: When an employee with a disability requests to use a service animal at work, you have the right to request documentation or demonstration of the need for the service animal (when the need is not obvious) and that the service animal is appropriately trained and will not disrupt the workplace. However, while documentation demonstrating that an employee has a covered disability may come from a health care provider, you may need to consider documentation from other sources that explains the need for the service animal and that shows the animal is appropriately trained. Another option is to have a trial period; allow the employee to bring in the service animal on a trial basis to see if allowing the animal is effective and does not pose an undue hardship. There is no set time frame for a trial period, but one to six weeks might be enough time to assess the situation.

What this means for employees: In addition to documenting they have a disability, employees who use service animals need to be able to show that the service animal is needed for disability-related reasons and that the service animal is trained to be in a work environment without disrupting the workplace or otherwise behaving inappropriately. If your doctor recommended the service animal, then your doctor should be able to verify that you need the service animal for disability-related reasons. Regarding your service animal’s training, in some cases documentation from the service animal trainer would be helpful. In other cases, you may want to offer to demonstrate how the service animal behaves in the workplace.

Service dogs can serve a variety of functions including helping those with autism, individuals that are hard of hearing, limited mobility, diabetics, individuals with allergies, and those with a disease or condition that causes seizures, PTSD, and other issues. Many people fail to recognize that an individual with a service animal may have an “invisible” health issue that the dog is meant to accommodate or help with.

If there is an employee that is allergic to dogs, then the company should work with that individual to address the issue. Possible solutions can include ensuring that the service animal and the employee with allergies work in different parts of the building, that they have a different pathway to areas of the building than the service animal, and the use of portable air filters.

Of course, service animals may not be able to work in all environments and it may not be possible to accommodate an individual with a service animal. Anyone that must work in a sterile environment (think surgery) may not be able to have a service animal while they are in that area, places where food is prepared or food processing plants in the areas where the food is made (they must still be permitted in cafeterias and dining areas), and anywhere else where they may not be able to physically go (places that can only be accessed by ladders, etc.).

Where to Recruit Veterans

As I mentioned, many companies actively seek veterans. So where are the best places to recruit veterans?

There are a number of sites that aim to help companies recruit veterans.
- https://recruitmilitary.com/
- https://www.hireheroesusa.org/companies/
- https://hireveterans.com/
- https://www.mynextmove.org/vets/
Many American Job Centers have a veterans and military transition center representative for veterans and companies that wish to hire them.
The American Legion and Recruit Military offer career fairs for veterans
Finally, and most importantly, establishing your organization as an organization that values veterans, reserve duty members, and other military personnel is probably the best way to hire veterans. Word of mouth is still one of the best ways to hire. One survey by SurePayroll Inc. found that small business owners preferred word of mouth referrals with 70% of small businesses using word of mouth to hire individuals compared to 37% that use job websites (companies can use more than one method to recruit).

Conclusion

Veterans have a lot to offer companies through the valuable training that they gained through their military service. There are a number of resources to help veterans find jobs, and there are a lot of resources to help employers interested in benefitting from the soft and hard skills many military members possess as a result of their service.

Lastly – Happy Veteran’s Day! Thank you so much to those of you who have served our country. We are thankful to have individuals like you who are willing and able to serve!

The information provided in this blog is for educational purposes only and is not legal advice. If you need legal advice, then you should speak with a lawyer about your specific issues. Every legal issue is unique. A lawyer can help you with your situation. Reading the blog, contacting me through the site, emailing me or commenting on a post does not create an attorney-client relationship between any reader and me.

The information provided is my own and does not reflect the opinion of my firm or anyone else.

Pets and the Workplace: Pets are Changing Work

Published by Brett Holubeck on January 31, 2019

Picture of a dog in sun glasses to tie into the theme of pets and the workplace — Photo by alan King on Unsplash

Pets are an integral part of people’s lives. Sixty-eight percent of US households, a total of 85 million families, own a pet which is up from 56% of households in 1988. In 2017, Americans spent $69.5 billion on their pets.

While older generations loved their pets, millennials seem to love their pets more than any previous generation and have made them an integral part of their lives. More millennials own pets than have children. In 2016, 48% of Millennial women (ages 20 to 35 at the time) were moms compared to 57% of women the same age in 2000. Approximately 73% of millennials currently own a pet. There are Twitter accounts with millions of followers about animals (Dog Feelings and Dog Rates), entire Reddit groups about pets (Reddit Dogs) and, of course, innumerable pet photos on Facebook. There is even a movie (and a forthcoming sequel) about what pets do when their owners are not home, which I am very excited to see with my kids.

People with Pets are Healthier

Pets do a lot of good for the people in their lives. Researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo discovered that in people already taking medication for hypertension, their blood pressure response to stress was cut by half if they owned a cat or dog.” Pets help people to socialize. A person that is walking a dog is a lot more approachable than a person merely walking down the street (except maybe if your dog is similar to mine- five whole pounds of fury). Pet owners also have a lower rate of obesity than non-pet owners. This comes as no surprise to me because I have to let my dog out practically every time I turn around.

Bringing Pets to Work

According to a 2016 report from the Society for Human Resource Management approximately 7 percent of offices in the US allow pets at work. Among the companies that allow pets are Amazon, Bissell, and Zoosk. 6,000 pets join their owners every day at the Amazon headquarters in Seattle. There is also a bring your dog to work day that some companies celebrate.

While this is not something that can be accommodated at every job (think about those that work in the food industry or elsewhere), there are workplaces where it can work, and companies should consider it. Pets and the workplace can work well together. Anyone that is in an office setting could potentially bring their pets to work with them.

As stated above, there are some health benefits from having pets that employees may also experience if they bring those pets to work including lower amounts of stress. Also, this is a perk that the employees that have pets really love. They get to spend more time with their dogs and cats and do not need to worry about what their pets are doing at home all day. As long as the pets are not inhibiting employees from doing their jobs (like this cat), making a mess, or causing allergic reactions, then this is something that may be possible in a lot of offices and can help attract talent. Especially when we know people are looking for jobs that accommodate their lifestyles and perception of work-life balance, allowing them to bring someone they love (their pet) to work may be something they really enjoy and value.

If any of these issues become a concern, then the best option is to address them with the employees. Obviously, if someone is severely allergic to a cat or dog, then you will need to either rescind the policy (if the workspace is small) or limit the policy to certain parts of the building. If an animal is not well-behaved, then the company will need to address it with the owner and should consider banning the animal from the premises.

Also, you should place some limits on the kinds of pets that are allowed on the property. I would limit the policy to dogs and cats (you may be required to allow miniature horses ), also maybe considering the limitation of breeds given aggressive nature similar to what breeds house insurance will not cover on homes. Lastly, no one needs to bring their emotional support alligator to work.

Service Animals Must be Allowed on the Property

One quick side note. All businesses that are open to the public must generally allow people to bring their service animals into the facility. The ADA National Network provides a great explanation of what a service animal is:

A service animal means any dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability. Tasks performed can include, among other things, pulling a wheelchair, retrieving dropped items, alerting a person to a sound, reminding a person to take medication, or pressing an elevator button.

Titles II and III of the ADA permit the owners of these service animals to be present anywhere members of the public, program participants, customers, or clients are allowed.

Jacquie Brennan and Vinh Nguyen at the ADA National Network write that

When a person with a service animal enters a public facility or place of public accommodation, the person cannot be asked about the nature or extent of his disability. Only two questions may be asked:
1. Is the animal required because of a disability?
2. What work or task has the animal been trained to perform?

Allowing an employee to bring their service animal to work may be a reasonable accommodation. It will depend on the job that the employee does to determine whether allowing a person to bring an animal is a suitable accommodation.

Pet Insurance and Companies

One of the incentives that some companies have begun to offer their employees is pet insurance. Currently, only 1-2 percent of pet owners have insurance for their pets.

As I said before, people love their pets and 68% of US households have a pet. Because companies are always in competition to attract the best talent, some companies have begun offering pet insurance. It is something that all companies should consider. Currently, about 1 in 3 Fortune 500 companies offer pet insurance.

Why are companies offering this benefit? Owning a pet can be expensive, especially when these animals get sick or injured and they need to go to the vet. On average, a dog owner will spend more $700 on veterinary bills per year and a cat owner will spend a little over $300. Pet insurance is a perk that the company can give to show employees that they care., and it is something that could be beneficial to most of a company’s workforce.

Pet Leave and the Workplace

Pets get sick. Many companies do not recognize the need to care for a pet as a sufficient reason for that person to stay home from work. However, other companies have begun to see the importance of this to their employees and have started to allow employees to call off sick to care for their sick pet. Some companies allocate a specific number of hours for employees to use to care for their pets. While others have allowed employees to use their sick or vacation time to take care of a pet. Truthfully, regardless of your policy, it is probably a good idea to allow people to take off time to care for their pets.

Consider a pet owner whose dog has to get emergency surgery. If you do not allow that employee to take off work, then they are going to be upset with the company. If they do come to work, they will not be focused on their job because the will be too worried about their pet. Unless it is really necessary for them to be at work, some time off can make the employee feel appreciated by the company and motivate them to work harder when they return.

New Pets and Pawternity Leave

Some workplaces are offering a new benefit for employees: the chance to bond with a new puppy. About 5% of pet owners have been offered paid leave from their job to adjust to owning a pet. Other employers allow employees to take off several days without pay while they adjust to owning a dog.

Again, while this is not right for every business, it can be something that is useful to attract millennials because so many of them have pets. It can help create a culture where the employees feel like the employer cares (and hopefully actually does care) about employees.

Pet Bereavement

Unfortunately, pets die. The death of a pet can even be as hurtful as the loss of a human significant other. It is an even more tragic experience when the pet owners have young children that also experience the loss of their pets. Many parents do not send their children to school the day or a couple days after they lose a pet when those children are young. The kids are devastated. The parents are too.

Again, allowing employees that need time to adjust to the loss of a pet can be incredibly helpful. This is a small benefit that can easily be included as part of the reasons that an employee may use sick leave, vacation time, or paid time off. Doing so will make the employee feel valued and will help them to be motivated when they return.

Conclusion

Pets and the workplace may seem like a combination that does not mix. However, as companies continue to compete for talent, it is a benefit that all companies need to consider. Most of the people in your office probably have a pet. Some of them will even have more than one pet. Providing benefits that help employees with pets is a way to improve morale and show employees that a company cares and recognizes what is important to them both inside and outside of the workplace.

The information provided is my own and does not reflect the opinion of my firm or anyone else.