Question: A top-performing full-time employee was authorized to work part-time so he can go to school. Another employee, who is aware of the accommodation that was granted, has also asked to switch to part-time so she too can go to school. The organization does not want to grant the accommodation to the second person because her performance has not been very good. Is it okay to be inconsistent here?
Correct: In most situations, consistency is very important. However, you minimize risk by having a solid, defensible, business-related reason for granting a request in one case but not in another.
If you believe, based on the employee’s performance, that she could not satisfactorily complete the essential functions of the job with part-time hours, you could deny the request based on performance. Just be sure that you have documented the performance concerns and that you can reasonably explain why part-time hours would worsen performance. You will also want to be certain that the employee whose request was granted does not have any similar performance issues.
A final note: if the under performing employee were to improve her performance in the future, it would be in your best interest to re-review her request.
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