worker makes use of the lavatory stall with the door large open — Ask a Supervisor

A reader writes:

I’ve (what I feel is) an outlandish query for you, however I promise it’s true. It comes from my coworker’s partner.

At her place of employment, they’ve discovered it tough to retain anybody within the administrative assistant place. It appears like there was numerous turnover in that position, to the purpose that administration is determined to retain somebody … anybody! The present admin assistant, lets name her Feyre, has some private hygiene points (i.e. not showering, coming to work unkempt in worn sweatpants, and so on.) which needed to be addressed by whoever oversees her.

Whereas addressing private hygiene just isn’t out of the realm of potentialities within the office, one startling revelation was that different coworkers have walked into the lavatory the place Feyre was “doing her enterprise” with the stall door large open! The affronted different worker excused themselves instantly and thought it an accident. Nonetheless, this saved taking place and a sample emerged.
Administration approached Feyre with this, and he or she mentioned she has extreme claustrophobia the place she will be able to’t use the lavatory with the door closed. As a way to accommodate her, administration made it clear she should both shut the stall door or use the personal accessible bathroom down the corridor. She has refused to do that, and continues to be utilizing the bathroom with the stall door large open. As administration is determined to retain somebody on this place and her work is mildly passable, they nonetheless need to preserve her.

I’m clearly not on this scenario as I don’t work there, however I do numerous the hiring/HR at my smaller group so I’m each horrified and fascinated at what administration’s subsequent steps must be. We’re in Canada so the legal guidelines could differ, however at what level does the employer exceed their responsibility to accommodate an worker for one thing like this? What could be the easiest way for administration to navigate this example?!

There are every kind of lodging that may be made for claustrophobia, however “use the bathroom with the door large open in a rest room the place different persons are current” just isn’t one in all them. I can’t communicate to Canadian regulation, however I think it’s the identical as U.S. regulation on this circumstance: lodging can’t require that different individuals’s rights be violated, and Feyre’s coworkers have the suitable not be topic to an observe that includes them being repeatedly and involuntarily uncovered to a colleague along with her pants down.

Having Feyre use the personal accessible bathroom down the corridor was a superb answer. Since she’s refused to do this, they should discover out why. Is it too removed from her desk and he or she typically wants the lavatory extra urgently? In that case, can her desk be moved? Or is it a closed door that’s the difficulty for her, interval? In that case, they want a lawyer to information them right here. My intuition is that that’s a scenario that may’t be resolved — as a result of, once more, lodging can’t violate different individuals’s rights (which is why you may’t, for instance, set lodging that embrace issues like “by no means has to talk to feminine workers” or “have to be permitted to run nude by means of the hallways”) — however while you’re on the level of denying a medical lodging, you need a lawyer that can assist you navigate it.

On this case, it sounds just like the employer desires to throw up their palms and say, “Oh properly, she’s going to make use of the lavatory with the door open, nothing we are able to do” as a result of they need to preserve her within the job. However the workers there could be on stable footing in the event that they needed to push again and say, “No, we’re not keen to be uncovered to this.”