Attorney Says Most Bosses Don’t Realize Depression Can Be A Disability & She ‘Loves’ Suing Employers For 'Perceived Discrimination'
"Those are my favorite kind of cases."
Roman Samborskyi | Shutterstock Depression is a debilitating medical condition that affects many people. It is so difficult to deal with that it is actually classified as a disability. Few people understand this, however, because it is not visible.
One lawyer reminded people that depression is, in fact, a disability.
Attorney Paige Sparks, known on TikTok as @lawyerpaige, is part of Sparks Law Firm. Sparks practice law in St. Louis and “primarily practices in the areas of employment law, criminal defense, and other areas of civil litigation.”
She recently discussed an interesting aspect of employment law on the podcast "The End is Near, So Let’s Drink Beer."
“My most common one is disability discrimination,” Sparks said. “A lot of employers … don’t realize what can be a disability.”
“Like, depression can be a disability depending on how it affects your life,” she continued.
Sparks went on to say that one of her lawsuits featured a boss who truly did not understand depression.
“I had a great lawsuit about that where the employer was like, ‘Oh, just man up! Be a man. Get over your depression. Everyone gets sad,’” she recounted.
Sparks said that many bosses are in the same situation and don’t know what constitutes a disability.
“‘Cause a lot of employers are ignorant to knowing what … smaller businesses especially, don’t know what their regulations are, what they should be doing, or they act first and ask questions later,” she said.
In another video, Sparks shared more information about suing employers for disability discrimination.
In a video Sparks made herself, she talked about disability discrimination and why she enjoys that kind of law so much.
“I love suing employers that don’t care to follow the law, or they think it doesn’t apply to them because they get really upset when I get involved,” she said.
“I have a case right now; I’m representing someone for disability discrimination, and not because they can’t work or they needed accommodations, but it’s because their employer decided that their disability prevented them from working when nothing happened,” she explained.
“There’s no reason to stop this person from working,” she said. “They’re fully able to do their job. Their employer just thinks they can’t because they have a disability. We call that ‘perceived disability discrimination,’ and I love suing for it.”
“This particular employer, I think, just was looking for any reason to get rid of my client, and so they said, ‘Oh, that’s right, you have a disability, and we think that prevents you from working,’” Sparks said. “They’ve never had an issue with it before. They weren’t even requesting accommodations. This person was just fired because they had a disability, and their employer didn’t like it.”
Conditions like depression are covered by the ADA.
According to the Department of Labor, “mental health conditions” such as depression are covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and employers are therefore obligated to accommodate employees who suffer from them.
“Many employers are aware of different types of accommodations for people with physical and communication disabilities, but they may be less familiar with accommodations for employees with disabilities that are not visible, such as mental health conditions,” they said.
Accommodations that employees may need for their mental health include being allowed to work remotely, flexible sick leave, and changes to the office environment, like eliminating things that make a lot of noise.
Although depression and other mental health problems are covered by the ADA and considered to be legitimate legal disabilities, many people still do not understand them.
Because these disabilities cannot be seen and are part of the brain and not the body, many overlook them or scoff at them, like the bosses Sparks spoke of.
Ending the stigma will take everyone working together, whether they struggle with their mental health or not. Then, perhaps, we can have equality in the workplace.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news and human interest topics.