employment
Is it legal in California to require extra behavior/communication from a single employee?
<p><em>Apologies if this is not the right forum for this question.  Please feel free to close if it should be asked elsewhere.</em></p>

<p>I was recently terminated from employment due to poor performance.  About a year ago, my mother passed away, and the psychological trauma was extreme.  I already suffer from clinical chronic depression, and this even took a toll on me.</p>

<p>For a six-month period, there were several instances where I missed work without notice.  Admittedly, I could have communicated an out-of-office status, but my depression seemed to overwhelm me to a point where it was difficult to communicate.  Upon a conversation with my manager, I communicated that I understood the need/requirement of communication, and I began seeking intense therapy (both alone and with group support) on Mondays.  My employer made accommodations to this and allowed me to work only Tuesday-Thursday.</p>

<p>Two months ago, I was asked by my manager when Mondays were going to be available again, and I was told my team/colleagues were feeling a lack of cohesion with the team on my part.  I told her I'm still working through this loss and therapy has been immensely helpful, but she pushed the cohesion issue again.  I felt guilted/pressured into willfully terminating my Monday therapy.</p>

<p>A month ago, I accidentally only requested 2 days of PTO (in our PTO system) for a trip to celebrate my mother's passing.  I communicated effectively with the team that I would be gone for three days, and they even marked it appropriately in our team-level capacity sheet.</p>

<p>I was confronted two weeks ago by my manager stating that I am not communicating well enough with my team, and that no one was aware of this extra day.  To that end, I was given an ultimatum.</p>

<p>I was told I had to perform the following tasks every day:</p>

<ul>
<li>An end-of-day status, consisting of what I planned to accomplish today, what I actually accomplished, and plans for the next day</li>
<li>Attendance to all scheduled meetings, unless I was sick.</li>
<li>In our team chat software (Slack), I must "@here" anytime I was away from the keyboard, or send an e-mail to all team members.  @here sends a notification to all team members' screens in case they have the software minimized.</li>
</ul>

<p>Each of these things are not required by any other team member.  While I don't mind guided direction to regain team cohesion, these requests--especially the "@here" portion, felt extremely degrading, especially if I just had to use the restroom.  Furthermore, throughout these next two weeks, it also felt like a slap in the face when other team members would just send a non-notifying message if they were going to be away or offline.</p>

<p>Last week, I @here'd that I was feeling under the weather and would work remotely from home.  That afternoon, I was feeling light-headed, and so I communicated that, accidentally without the "@here."  I was terminated yesterday explicitly for this.</p>

<p>I am in an at-will employment state, so I do understand that employment can be terminated at any time, but I still feel concerned that my reason for termination was that I was not following rules that only I was given as an ultimatum for employment.  If it matters, all my team members are of the same role/level as me.</p>

<p>Update: Part of my concern is that I was also encouraged to terminate therapy, even with knowledge that I am suffering from a medical condition exacerbated by recent events.</p>

<p>You were on a performance improvement plan, those often require special requirements of the employee.</p>

<p>I'm sorry your mother died, but a year seems like a very long time to take, and your company was very kind to give you that long. </p>

<p>I am not a lawyer but I sincerely doubt there is anything actionable here. </p>

<p>If you were suffering a disability, you needed to request reasonable accommodation </p>

<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/performance-conduct.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/performance-conduct.html</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/psych.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/psych.html</a></li>
</ul>

<p>If either you didn't request reasonable accommodation for a disability, or if your employer's communication plan <em>was</em> reasonable accommodation, or if no reasonable accommodation was available, they can require almost any kind of communication from you.</p>

<p>In an at-will employment setting, no reason is needed for firing you. Although, they can't fire you <em>because</em> of your disability. This relates to the reasonable accommodations in the previous paragraph. If they provided reasonable accommodation and <em>then</em> determined that you were still unable to meet their needs, the firing complies with the ADA.</p>

<p>Whether you were due reasonable accommodation and if so, whether their accommodation was reasonable are not answerable based on the facts provided.</p>
