The needs of the many...reasonable accommodation

By Jack Tuckner, Esq.You know how in one of the Star Trek movies, Mr Spock (not Dr. Spock who I met actually 29 years ago, when my oldest daughter was born...really nice pediatrician) says to Kirk, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of a few, or the one?"That's what disability analyses are in the workplace. The needs of the individual - you - with your condition, your bona fide disability under federal law and what the employer (the many) needs to do to 'reasonably accommodate,' to be flexible to your needs--that to the employer (the many)--is basically a pain in their butt, because it’s higher maintenance, more cost, but they have to do it under the law and that's the balance, that's the test of reasonable accommodation.