Checklist · Labor and Employment

Requesting Leave or a Workplace Accommodation: A Practical Checklist

42 U.S.C. § 12111

Type
Checklist
Jurisdiction
National
Date
2024-11-26
Topic
Labor and Employment

This checklist runs a leave or accommodation request from the decision to ask through the return to work, in nine phases. Phases 1 and 2 cover preparation: reading the job description, identifying the limitation, and getting a certification that contains numbers rather than adjectives. Phase 3 supplies the request itself and the words that trigger the obligation. Phases 4 and 5 cover the interactive process, the certification exchange, and the designation notice most employees never receive. Phase 6 covers the request that is denied and the four moves that follow. Phase 7 covers the return to work and restoration. Phase 8 runs the employer's parallel obligations. Phase 9 covers exhaustion, which is where most of the damage happens. Model letters, a deadline table, a division of responsibility, and a ranked failure-mode list are included.

Requesting Leave or a Workplace Accommodation: A Practical Checklist

Labor and Employment > Leave and Accommodation | Published 26 November 2024 - Updated 18 July 2026 | UpLaw - uplaw.us

Phase 2 is the phase nobody does and the one that decides the outcome. A certification with numbers in it prevents almost every downstream dispute in this area.

The narrative is The Conversation Nobody Starts: Asking for Leave or an Accommodation at Work. The doctrine is Leave and Accommodation: A Comprehensive Guide to the FMLA, the ADA, and Pregnancy Protections. The forms are in The Employee Leave and Workplace Accommodation Toolkit.

Phase 1 — Before you ask

☐ Find your job description. It is the document the employer will reason from, and it defines the essential functions you must be able to perform with or without accommodation — 42 U.S.C. § 12111.

☐ Mark which functions the limitation actually affects. Most requests touch two or three of fifteen.

☐ Separate "how" from "whether." An adjustment to how a function is done is required. Removing the function is not.

☐ Check the employee handbook for: accommodation procedure, leave policy, attendance policy, and any policy promising more than the statutory floor. A policy promising more is generally enforceable.

☐ Check your eligibility for statutory leave — 29 U.S.C. § 2611:

  • ☐ 12 months of employment (need not be consecutive)
  • ☐ 1,250 hours actually worked in the past 12 months — paid leave does not count
  • ☐ 50 employees within 75 miles of your worksite

☐ If you fail one of those, do not stop. Accommodation law has a different and generally lower threshold, and state law frequently reaches smaller employers.

☐ Pull your last three performance reviews. They are the baseline that makes any later decline visible.

☐ Decide what you are actually asking for. Vague requests get vague answers. Specific, modest, and cheap requests get granted.

Phase 2 — The certification that works

☐ Take the job description to the appointment. The provider cannot address essential functions they have never seen.

☐ Ask the provider to state, in writing:

  • ☐ Date the condition began
  • ☐ Probable duration
  • ☐ Whether the condition is chronic
  • ☐ Frequency of episodic incapacity — a number per month, not "occasionally"
  • ☐ Duration per episode — a number of days
  • ☐ Whether onset is predictable
  • ☐ Functional limits with numbers: pounds, minutes standing, hours of screen time, driving
  • ☐ Whether intermittent or reduced-schedule leave is medically necessary, and why
  • ☐ Expected return-to-work date for continuous leave
  • ☐ Whether you can perform each listed essential function, addressed one at a time

☐ Reject "as needed." It is the most common phrase in these forms and the one that generates the most discipline. Ask for a range instead: "two to four days per month, one to three days per episode."

☐ Check that the form does not ask for family medical history. If it does, note it — 42 U.S.C. § 2000ff and 29 CFR Part 1635 restrict acquisition of genetic information.

☐ Keep a copy before you hand it in.

Phase 3 — The request

☐ Put it in writing. The law requires no magic words; the evidence requires a timestamp.

☐ Send it to a manager and to HR. A request that dies in one inbox is still legally effective — but only if you can prove it was sent.

Model request — accommodation

"I'm writing to request a workplace accommodation. I have a medical condition that affects [functional limitation — e.g., my ability to stand for extended periods and my vision in the afternoons]. My provider has recommended [specific adjustment].

Specifically, I'm requesting [1–3 concrete items], which I believe would allow me to continue performing all of the essential functions of my position.

I'm happy to provide medical documentation and to discuss alternatives if these particular adjustments don't work for the business. I want to keep doing this job well and I think these changes will let me do that.

Please let me know a good time to talk this week."

Model request — leave

"I'm writing to request medical leave. My provider has advised that I will need [continuous leave from [date] through approximately [date] / intermittent leave of approximately [n] days per month].

I've attached the certification. Please confirm: (1) whether this leave is being designated as protected leave and the date the twelve-month period is measured from; (2) how much of my entitlement will be counted; (3) whether any paid leave will run concurrently; and (4) what I need to do about benefit premiums during the leave."

☐ Ask the four questions in the leave letter. Employers are required to give a designation notice; asking in writing makes its absence conspicuous.

☐ Offer alternatives. "If that doesn't work, I'd also be able to do X or Y" moves the conversation forward and makes a flat refusal harder.

☐ State the intent to keep working. It is the single sentence that most changes how a request is received.

☐ Save a copy off company systems.

Phase 4 — The interactive process

☐ Expect a conversation. Bring the certification, the job description, and a short list of options.

☐ Talk about limitations, not diagnosis. You are not required to disclose the diagnosis, and volunteering the full medical history gives away privacy you did not have to give.

☐ Take notes the same day. Date, who was present, what was proposed, what was said. Plain language, no editorializing.

☐ If the employer proposes something different, evaluate it honestly. The obligation is to provide an effective accommodation, not your preferred one. A refusal of a workable alternative is the fastest way to lose a good case.

☐ If the proposal does not work, say why in writing — specifically, tied to the limitation.

☐ If nothing happens for two weeks, follow up in writing. Silence is a common employer failure mode and a good one to document.

☐ Escalate past the manager if the manager is the obstacle. Managers frequently do not know they were supposed to forward the request.

☐ Confirm the outcome in writing, whatever it is: "Confirming our conversation on [date]: the company has agreed to [X], effective [date]. I'll check back in [30 days] to confirm it's working."

Phase 5 — While leave or accommodation is in place

☐ Get the designation notice. If none arrives, ask again in writing. You cannot manage twelve weeks you cannot see.

☐ Track the balance yourself. Note the measuring method the employer uses — calendar year, fixed year, forward from first use, or rolling backward. The rolling method is the most common and the least intuitive.

☐ Confirm benefit premium arrangements. Coverage continues during protected leave on the same terms; the employee share still has to be paid.

☐ Respond to recertification requests promptly. Recertification at reasonable intervals is permitted; a note for every single absence is not.

☐ Note any contact from your direct supervisor to your provider. Clarification must go through a health care provider, HR professional, leave administrator, or management official — not the direct supervisor.

☐ Keep working within the accommodation. If it is not working, say so in writing and propose an adjustment. The process is iterative.

☐ Do not disengage. An employee who stops communicating converts an accommodation case into a performance case.

☐ Keep the folder current: request · certification · employer responses · job description · prior reviews · contemporaneous notes.

Phase 6 — If the request is denied

☐ Ask for the reason in writing.

"Thank you for letting me know the request was denied. Could you please confirm in writing the basis for the denial, whether any alternative accommodation was considered, and who made the decision? I'd like to propose an alternative."

☐ Propose an alternative immediately. A second proposal restarts the process rather than ending it.

☐ Escalate. The manager who says no is frequently not the decision-maker.

☐ Ask about reassignment, by name. Identify actual vacant positions — title, requisition number, posting date. A general request to be moved "somewhere" is easy to refuse; a specific one is not.

☐ Ask for the hardship analysis. "Could you help me understand the specific difficulty or expense?" Generalities are not undue hardship, and an employer that cannot quantify it has usually not analyzed it.

☐ If leave was denied on a defective certification, check whether you received written notice of what was missing and a reasonable period to cure. You are entitled to both — 29 U.S.C. § 2613.

☐ Calendar both deadlines:

☐ Understand that these two do not expire together. The leave claim routinely survives after the charge deadline has passed. See Filing and Pursuing an Employment Discrimination Charge: A Practical Checklist.

Phase 7 — Return to work

☐ Confirm the return date in writing and ask what documentation is required.

☐ Fitness-for-duty certification may be required where the employer has a uniform policy, and may be required to address the specific essential functions identified in the designation notice — but not more.

☐ Check the restoration. You are entitled to the same or an equivalent position — 29 U.S.C. § 2614. Equivalence includes:

  • ☐ Pay and benefits
  • ☐ Shift and schedule
  • ☐ Worksite and commute
  • ☐ Reporting relationships and direct reports
  • ☐ Status and opportunity for advancement

☐ If restoration is to something different, ask why in writing. A lateral title with a worse shift is not automatically equivalent.

☐ If you have permanent restrictions, this is a new accommodation request. Make it explicitly — 42 U.S.C. § 12112, 29 CFR Part 1630.

☐ Watch the review cycle. A rating that drops immediately after a return is the classic retaliation fact pattern. The standard is broad — Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. White, 548 U.S. 53 (2006) — and requires only some harm, Muldrow v. City of St. Louis, 601 U.S. 346 (2024).

Phase 8 — The employer's checklist

☐ Central intake. Route every request to a trained administrator. The manager's only job is to escalate, and the manager's knowledge is imputed to the employer whether or not they escalate.

☐ Recognize requests without magic words. Notice of a condition plus a work connection is enough.

☐ Send the eligibility, rights and responsibilities, and designation notices. Every time.

☐ Use a certification form with the essential functions attached and the genetic-information safe harbor notice.

☐ If a certification is incomplete, say so in writing, specify what is missing, and give a period to cure.

☐ Do not let the direct supervisor contact the provider.

☐ Keep medical information in a separate, access-limited file.

☐ Run the interactive process and document it — dates, options considered, reasons for rejection. Good-faith efforts also matter to punitive exposure, 42 U.S.C. § 1981a.

☐ Quantify undue hardship or do not assert it. Assessment is against the employer's overall resources, not the department's budget.

☐ Make direct-threat determinations individually, on current medical evidence — Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Echazabal, 536 U.S. 73 (2002).

☐ Run an actual reassignment search across open requisitions before any separation.

☐ Do not terminate automatically at leave exhaustion. See Phase 9.

☐ Update job descriptions before requests arise. A description written after the request carries little weight.

☐ Handle pregnancy requests as accommodation requests, not as leave triggers. Forced leave where a workable adjustment exists is generally non-compliant.

Phase 9 — Exhaustion, where the damage happens

☐ Employee: request additional leave in writing BEFORE the entitlement runs out.

"My protected leave is scheduled to be exhausted on [date]. My provider has advised that I will be able to return on [specific date], approximately [n] weeks later. I am requesting that additional period as a reasonable accommodation and have attached an updated certification. I will provide a further update by [date] if anything changes."

☐ Make it finite. Additional leave with an end date is frequently reasonable. Indefinite leave usually is not, because it does not enable performance in the foreseeable future.

☐ If you cannot give a date, ask your provider for their best estimate and a review date. "Approximately eight weeks, reassess on [date]" is a request that can be granted. "I don't know" is not, even when it is true.

☐ Employer: never operate an automatic termination trigger at week 13. Additional finite leave is an accommodation, and a policy that terminates without individualized assessment produces systemic liability rather than individual liability.

☐ Employer: document the hardship if the additional leave truly cannot be granted — coverage costs, project impact, the specific attempts made.

☐ Both: revisit reassignment at this point, as the accommodation of last resort.

The deadline table

Deadline Window Runs from Consequence
Employee notice of foreseeable leave 30 days Knowledge of the need Leave may be delayed
Employee notice of unforeseeable leave As soon as practicable The need Same
Employer eligibility / rights notice Days after the request The request Interference exposure
Employer designation notice Days after the determination The determination Employee cannot manage the balance
Certification return ~15 days The request Leave may be denied
Cure of a defective certification Reasonable period, after written notice The notice Denial without notice is a violation
Discrimination charge 180 / 300 days The act The disability or pregnancy claim
Suit after right-to-sue ~90 days The letter The federal suit
Leave claim 2 years; 3 if willful The violation Survives the charge deadline
Wage / lactation claim 2 years; 3 if willful The violation That claim
Uniformed service claim No general limitation — 38 U.S.C. § 4323 — —

Who does what

The employee, before asking. Phase 1 and Phase 2 — the job description and the certification with numbers. Nothing else in this checklist matters as much, and neither step requires a lawyer.

The health care provider. Frequency, duration, predictability, and function-by-function limits. The most useful thing anyone does for a leave case is tell the provider what the form actually needs to say.

The employee, ongoing. The written request, the follow-ups, the same-day notes, and the folder.

The employer's leave administrator. Notices, certification handling, the interactive process record, and the reassignment search.

The manager. Escalate. That is the whole job, and failing it is the employer's most common route to liability.

Counsel. The denial response, the deadline analysis, and — for the employer — the exhaustion policy, which is the highest-value single document to fix.

Failure modes, ranked

  1. Never asking, and accumulating a documented performance decline with no protection.
  2. A certification that says "as needed" instead of giving numbers.
  3. Employer terminating automatically at leave exhaustion.
  4. Asking orally and keeping nothing.
  5. Missing the charge deadline while the leave claim quietly survives.
  6. Requesting indefinite leave rather than finite leave with an end date.
  7. Naming one accommodation and treating refusal of it as the end.
  8. Disengaging after a denial.
  9. Volunteering the full diagnosis and medical history.
  10. Employer demanding a diagnosis rather than limitations.
  11. Employer denying leave on a defective certification without written notice and a cure period.
  12. Employer letting the direct supervisor contact the provider.
  13. Employer asserting undue hardship without numbers.
  14. Employer writing the job description after the request.
  15. Employer responding to a pregnancy request with forced leave.

Items 1, 2, and 4 all happen before anyone has done anything wrong to anyone.

The authorities in one place

Provision What it governs Who uses it
29 U.S.C. § 2601 Findings and purposes of federal leave law Both
29 U.S.C. § 2611 Eligibility — 12 months, 1,250 hours, 50/75 Phase 1
29 U.S.C. § 2612 Entitlement — 12 weeks, qualifying reasons, intermittent leave Phase 3
29 U.S.C. § 2613 Certification, second and third opinions, cure rights Phases 2, 6
29 U.S.C. § 2614 Restoration to the same or equivalent position Phase 7
29 U.S.C. § 2615 Interference and retaliation — two distinct theories Phase 6
29 U.S.C. § 2617 Remedies; 2 years, 3 if willful; no exhaustion Phase 6
29 U.S.C. § 2619 Notice posting Phase 8
29 CFR Part 825 Leave regulations Both
42 U.S.C. § 12102 Definition of disability — construed broadly Phase 1
42 U.S.C. § 12111 Qualified individual, essential functions, undue hardship Phase 1
42 U.S.C. § 12112 The accommodation obligation Phase 3
42 U.S.C. § 12117 Enforcement — borrows the Title VII procedure Phase 6
42 U.S.C. § 12201 Benefit plans Phase 8
42 U.S.C. § 12203 Retaliation, coercion, interference Phase 7
29 CFR Part 1630 Accommodation regulations Both
42 U.S.C. § 2000e Sex discrimination including pregnancy Phase 8
42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2 The substantive prohibition Phase 8
42 U.S.C. § 2000e-3 Retaliation Phase 7
42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5 Charge deadline: 180 / 300 days Phase 6
42 U.S.C. § 2000ff Genetic information, including family history Phase 2
29 CFR Part 1635 Safe harbor notice on certification forms Phases 2, 8
42 U.S.C. § 1981a Compensatory and punitive damages; good-faith defense Phase 8
42 U.S.C. § 1988 Attorney fees Phase 6
38 U.S.C. § 4311 Uniformed service discrimination Military
38 U.S.C. § 4312 Reemployment rights Military
38 U.S.C. § 4313 The escalator principle Military
29 U.S.C. § 1161 Continuation coverage after employment ends Phase 7
29 U.S.C. § 1140 Firing to prevent a benefit from vesting Phase 6

Leading cases: US Airways, Inc. v. Barnett, 535 U.S. 391 (2002) (seniority systems) · Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Echazabal, 536 U.S. 73 (2002) (direct threat to self) · Raytheon Co. v. Hernandez, 540 U.S. 44 (2003) (neutral no-rehire policies) · Ragsdale v. Wolverine World Wide, Inc., 535 U.S. 81 (2002) (designation failures require harm) · Cleveland v. Policy Management Systems Corp., 526 U.S. 795 (1999) (reconciling inconsistent disability statements) · Nevada Department of Human Resources v. Hibbs, 538 U.S. 721 (2003) and Coleman v. Court of Appeals of Maryland, 566 U.S. 30 (2012) (state employers) · Bostock v. Clayton County, 590 U.S. 644 (2020) (sexual orientation and gender identity).

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