What Employers Should Know About Workers Who Have Long COVID
Nearly 7 percent of U.S. adults—approximately 18 million people—have had long COVID, while 3.4 percent, or approximately 8.8 million, said they still had it as of 2022, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in findings published Sept. 26.
[...]
The symptoms of long COVID vary widely in their nature and severity, said Susan Bickley, an attorney with Blank Rome in Houston. Symptoms include anxiety, "brain fog," chest pain, change in smell or taste, cough, depression, diarrhea, difficulty concentrating, dizziness, exhaustion, fatigue, fevers, headache, heart palpitations, insomnia, joint or muscle pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, rash, shortness of breath, stomachache, and tingling feet or hands.
Some individuals with long COVID "report that they cycle through a variety of changing symptoms that seem to wax and wane, making their condition particularly difficult for employers to accommodate because it poses a moving target," Bickley said. "The symptoms are not necessarily predictable or manageable, and they may not present the same day to day."
...
Bickley noted that under the ADA, accommodations might also include:
- Remote work.
- Extended time to complete tasks.
- Flexible scheduling, particularly for intermittent symptoms.
- Part-time or modified work schedules.
- Job restructuring.
- Reassignment to a vacant position if the employee can no longer perform their job.
- Leave.
To read the full article, please click here.
"What Employers Should Know About Workers Who Have Long COVID," by Allen Smith was published in SHRM on September 29, 2023.