Office manager takes "workplace accommodation" too far, forces worker to use accommodation to the point of injury then writes them up

Brad Dickson • Managing Editor

Feb 16, 2024 6:00 PM EST

Flexibility, accommodation, and adaptation are all important when it comes to having a happy working life. What better feeling is there than knowing that your employer cares enough to take your needs into consideration?

Still, while it's nice to have an employer spending the time and resources to ensure you have the things you need… Is it really an accommodation when you're forced to have the accommodation? That really doesn't sound all that accommodating, and it sounds more like someone is trying to tick boxes off so that they can talk about how accommodating they are.

See, there was this thing that happened in workspaces in the early-to-mid 2000s where everyone was absolutely obsessed with "ergonomics" as a way to reduce a worker's risk of Repetitive Strain Injury. It was the first time we, in Western society, had considered the fact that slamming humans into a cubicle and making them do unnecessary repetitive motions on a keyboard while sitting in the worst chair in human existence might be a bad thing… And it was revolutionary. Workplaces everywhere were paying through the nose for "experts" to come in and assess their workplaces, with expensive and sometimes unnecessary equipment being ordered en masse to solve the risk of workers being out with an annoying repetitive strain injury.

Sure, this overall was a good thing. But like with everything else we tend to do, we took it too far… Resulting in ridiculous situations like the one described in the story below where employers blamed their worker's injuries on them spending too much time on the computer at home—all in the name of ergonomics.