Fitness For Duty

Book excerpt: When an employee's emotional problems affect workplace productivity and safety, employers have two conflicting obligations: they must protect the workplace and their workers from harm as well as consider the needs of the troubled employee. Legal standards require employee medical and mental surveillance but also restrict assessment and intervention. As a result, an employer's course of action is both ambiguous and perilous. Part of the process to protect the organization, the Fitness for Duty (FFD) Evaluation affirms the organization's commitment to intervening responsibly when a worker's mental impairment appears likely to bring harm to the organization. Indeed, the FFD may well be the employer's single most valuable legal protection. However, there are few standards and guidelines to follow in performing FFD Evaluations-also called Independent Medical Examinations (IME)-and no specific training available. Fitness For Duty: Principles, Methods, and Legal Issues offers a remedy by explaining how to apply forensic psychology to these cases-from every perspective. The author shows clinical psychologists how to do the evaluation, report the results, and support the results in the courtroom. He outlines the steps a human resources professional must follow to make the preliminary decision to obtain an FFD evaluation, what to expect, and what to do with the results. He also provides varied case studies that highlight a broad range of FFD issues in a wide variety of fields, including aviation, law enforcement, medicine, and non-safety related organizations; a specific chapter on employer liability vs. worker's rights; and advice on how to deal with legal issues. He carefully details broad standards and methods that can be applied to all blue and white collar fields. Employers, mental health providers, employee assistance professionals, security providers, human resources workers, and the legal community all factor into risk management, each with a different outlook. With so many things at stake-the reputation of the business, the safety of the workers, the legal and economic well-being of the organization-Fitness For Duty gives you the structure you need to coordinate these positions and make better risk management decisions.