how do I manage someone with extreme social anxiety who calls out before events?

A reader writes:

I manage someone with extreme social anxiety who seems a lot like person #1 in this column.

Lee is very good at their job-specific tasks, which are largely operational and do not require much social interaction with the team or outsiders. We have established some office protocols that help support them (allowing camera-off in Zoom meetings, using Teams chat as a communication tool, etc.)

However, we are a very small team and do have times when we need all hands on deck — for example, for an event for all of our clients, when I need Lee to do something like staff the registration table so other staff are free to lead parts of the event that are more related to their jobs. When that happens, Lee will frequently call out sick the day of and then we are scrambling. They will have known for many weeks about the event coming and never say to me in advance, “I don’t want to do this.” They know we are counting on them to show up, and even have tasks assigned to them during our planning meetings so these aren’t surprise or last-minute requests.

Lee does in fact get sick pretty often, and I’m not looking to question someone’s sick time needs. But the pattern is becoming a problem and I’m not sure how to proceed. Thoughts? How strongly can I say, “These events/activities are part of your job and I need to be able to rely you to show up”? (Especially if they aren’t really job-specific functions.)

How often do these events come up and how essential is Lee’s presence there?

If the events are fairly infrequent and the most disruptive part of Lee’s absence is the last-minute nature of it, can you reframe this as a medical accommodation? In other words, Lee has a medical condition (anxiety) that makes attending the events difficult, so you’re going to excuse them from being there because (a) attending isn’t an essential function of their job and (b) it’s easier to plan if you know from the start that Lee won’t be there rather than counting on their presence and then having to scramble at the last minute.

That would be in line with your obligations as an employer under the Americans with Disabilities Act, which says that an employee with a disability doesn’t need to be able to perform “marginal functions of a position” — only essential ones — in order to be protected. Marginal functions are ones that aren’t central to the job. To determine what functions are marginal vs. essential, the ADA looks at things like whether the function is included in the written job description, the amount of time the person typically spends performing the function, and the consequences of not requiring the person to perform the function. (This assumes that the issue is in fact anxiety and that it rises to the level where it would be considered a qualifying disability under the ADA — but you’re generally better off erring on the side of assuming it is, particularly if the circumstances on your team make it possible to do that, and assuming you don’t have reason to believe otherwise.)

On the other hand, if the events are frequent and it’s an essential part of Lee’s job to be there, that’s a different conversation. In that case, the conversation is: “We’re a small team and we need all hands on deck at events like X and Y. Showing up to do Z is a requirement of your job. You’ve frequently ended up not showing up the day of, which leaves us scrambling at the last minute. Obviously last-minute illnesses will happen, but I’m concerned about the pattern. Except in cases of real emergency, I need to be able to count on you to be there. Realistically, is that something you can do?”

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