Employee sleepwalks into co-worker's hotel room: Do you terminate or accommodate?

PositionYou be the Judge

Here's one they probably didn't teach you in HR school...

While at an out-of-town sales conference, a barely clothed female employee went sleepwalking, visited a male co-worker's room and crawled into his bed. The male employee called the HR director (who was also attending the conference), who came to the room and eventually was able to wake the sleeping woman. Hotel security escorted the disoriented/apologetic woman back to her adjacent room.

The next day, the woman told HR that she sleepwalked often as a child but rarely as an adult. HR suspended her without pay and suggested she see a doctor. She was terminated the next day for misconduct. At a doctor visit the following week, she was diagnosed with a sleepwalking disorder.

She sued, saying the firing was unlawful disability discrimination under the ADA. (Harkey v. NextGen Healthcare, 5th Cir.)

The ruling: Both the lower court and appeals court sided with...

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