For Workers With Disabilities, Hybrid Work Is a Turning Point

BY Ashlie Fanetti | February 17, 2022

For Stacey Vizinat, who works as an analyst in the oil-and-gas industry in Louisiana, the shift to remote work during the pandemic has been a welcome change in her life. Vizinat has a disability, diagnosed as Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and Dysautonomia, which causes her daily pain, migraines and other symptoms. She can deal with them more easily in her own home, where she is in control of her surroundings.

“For me, working remotely has been mostly a blessing. The fact that I’m able to control my work environment at home is extremely beneficial,” Vizinat told From Day One. She said her interactions with customers have not changed much, since she already communicated with them mostly over the phone. Life has become simpler.

Vizinat represents millions of Americans–an estimated 26% of adults have some kind of disability–who found benefits in the remote-work revolution. They’ve been able to avoid the obstacles of commuting and the lack of accommodations in many workplaces. At the same time, they’ve benefited from swift improvements in communications technology, driven in part because suddenly more people needed them, including able-bodied workers.

Yet now comes a bittersweet turning point for workers with disabilities. As employers start ushering a return to the office, these workers face newfound challenges. On the one hand, they’re concerned that they will be forced back to workplaces not very welcoming to them. On the other hand, if they stay remote, they will lack the face time with managers and peers that leads to engagement and advancement on their work teams.

How the transition works out will depend on personal and management considerations in the months ahead. The success of remote work for people with disabilities varies based on the person, their disability type, and the nature of the job. Most individuals need to be well-organized and motivated to be able to work from home successfully, as well as having the resources to support such work, according to Sharon McLennon Wier, executive director of the Center for Independence of the Disabled, NY.

Productivity doesn’t seem to be a major consideration in deciding where employees should do their jobs, since most office workers have proven to be more productive from home, which may be even more true for workers with disabilities.

However, other factors to consider include the social aspect of work. Social isolation is something that people with disabilities are more likely to face in their lives than typically abled people. Working closely with others, for some of those people, becomes a way of meeting and networking with others. “It may be very conducive for that person to leave the home because if they just sit at home, they miss a big part of their socialization,” McLennon Wier said.

Vizinat acknowledges that the social aspect has been the only drawback of working from home. She doesn’t see her co-workers every day, as she did before. “So far, the only downside I’ve experienced from working remotely is not having in-person interaction throughout the days,” she said.

The lack of interaction is exactly why Jim Sinocchi, head of the global Office of Disability Inclusion at JPMorgan Chase, doesn’t think working fully remote is a good choice for his employees, whether they are disabled or not.

“Working from home is nice to have,” Sinocchi said. “But it’s not the road to success when you’re working in business.”

Jim Sinocchi of JPMorgan Chase during an onstage interview in 2019 with From Day One’s Carina Livoti (Photo by Steven Edson)

Sinocchi said it’s important for co-workers, especially those with disabilities, to go to work and meet other people. Engagement is key for employees with disabilities to be able to learn from their business colleagues, and it’s hard to do that outside of the office.

According to Sinocchi, working from home can also be limiting for workers with disabilities in terms of getting leadership positions because people need to see and talk to an employee for them to become part of the workplace culture and potentially a leadership team.

“Having a job is great,” Sinocchi said. “Being a leader and managing people and managing functions is even greater.”

Sinocchi said there is an assumption among some managers that hiring people with disabilities and letting them work from home is best for everyone involved, but he disagrees. He says the point of hiring people with disabilities is to get them out into the marketplace and into the infrastructure of business.

For Sinocchi, who is quadriplegic, part of the reason for hiring people with disabilities is so they are not hidden–and having them work fully remotely is failing that goal. “Working is healthy when you’re with people and you’re part of a community,” Sinocchi said.

Sinocchi welcomes the benefits that have come from remote work, like the application of video technology and job flexibility. New accommodation teams have been created to make the company more accessible to everyone, both online and in-person. “Technology has enabled people with disabilities to compete for jobs more than ever before,” Sinocchi said.

The solution to come out of all these considerations may well be a hybrid work arrangement, with accommodations for individual needs. That’s the direction Vizinat expects to take. “I really do not see myself working full-time in the office environment five-days-a-week ever again,” Vizinat said.

She goes into the office sometimes to reconnect with her colleagues, but feels it drains her. So the hybrid model may allow her to focus on her health and comfort in order to keep being of value to her employer, she said.

Sinocchi agrees that hybrid work options can be helpful because they offer employees flexibility in the workplace. The hybrid-work model, Sinocchi said, can help employers give able-bodied and disabled employees the same flexibility across the board and help create a level playing field. “The idea is, give us flexibility. Don’t segregate us.”

Ashlie Fanetti, From Day One’s winter intern, is a Wisconsin native who recently graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with a degree in journalism. She has been a reporter for six years and has written about everything under the sun, but especially enjoys reporting on diversity, equity and inclusion issues and underserved communities.

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