In my position as a corporate employee relations manager for a Fortune 100 company, I was called by a manager who wanted to terminate the employment of one of her subordinates.
The manager headed a sales department and her chief complaint about this particular employee was that he couldn't handle sales presentations.
He would present information out of order and in some cases would forget to disseminate part of the presentation altogether.
I interviewed the employee to hear his side of the story and was amazed to hear him agree with his supervisor.
As we talked, I noticed that his attention span seemed short, and his recitation of the challenges he was facing seemed eerily familiar.
I asked if he had ever sought assistance or counseling and he remarked that he hadn't; but his wife had suggested several times that he should have a medical checkup because she thought there was a problem.
I echoed his wife's suggestion and encouraged him to tell his doctor exactly what he had told me about his difficulties.
In the meantime, suspecting the possibility of an undiagnosed learning disability, I arranged with his supervisor, with the employee's consent, to modify his work schedule.
He stopped giving sales presentations and was assigned other duties in the office.
Several weeks later, this young man called me back.
He thanked me profusely for my encouragement and informed me that after seeing his doctor and taking a battery of tests, it was determined that he was suffering from attention deficit disorder.
The reason this man's recitation of difficulties had sounded eerily familiar is that someone I know quite well has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
With the employee's permission (California law is very strict about respecting privacy in the matter of disabilities), I spoke to his supervisor and explained the problem.
While she was sympathetic to his disability, she was also very forthright about what she wanted to do.
She felt that his disability was not her problem and she wanted to continue with the termination.
I explained that legally we were obligated to make attempts to accommodate his disability.
(Based on the supervisor's negative attitude, I didn't bother suggesting that perhaps we also had a moral obligation to help him as well, although I firmly believe we have such an obligation.
) Reluctantly, the supervisor agreed not to proceed with the termination at that time.
I immediately commandeered another employee in the human resources department and asked her to help find another position in the company for which this young man might qualify.
Before sending this HR employee on the hunt for available jobs, I suggested she look for something involving computers.
The person I knew with ADHD had built a successful career in the computer field and I had read about how many people with ADD (attention deficit disorder) and ADHD do well in this field.
I don't really understand the underlying principles of why this field often works for people who have short attention spans, but the fact that it does is all that mattered to me at that point in time.
Several weeks later, with more than a little arm twisting, a job in another department, involving computer work, was offered to the employee.
He gratefully accepted and the "case" was closed.
A few months had passed and I wondered how things were going.
The HR employee called the computer department supervisor and asked how things were working out.
You cannot imagine how thrilled we were to hear that this transfer was a great success.
The job and the man made a great fit; the new supervisor was grateful that we found him such a terrific employee; and the legal department was relieved that we had provided an accommodation in compliance with the law.
For my part, I was ecstatic that we had a win/win situation.
The company won because we had the right employee in the right job.
The employee won because he was able to keep working, maintaining his self-respect and supporting his family.
Whenever we received pushback from supervisors who didn't want to accommodate disabled employees, I related the story of this young man.
We see people with disabilities and we create assumptions.
But I am reminded of what my torts professor taught me in law school many years ago:We we assume, we make an ass out of you and me.