[nagdu] Need Advice About Allergic Coworker

[Jordan Gallacher]

Your co-worker is not protected by the ADA and therefore he needs to deal
with it.  You have every right to access all parts of your workplace,
including that chain smoker's lab, without any restrictions.  I would hope
management is aware of him and that his symptoms are only showing up at
home.  If I were a manager at your workplace, I would keep a close eye on
that guy and take it from there.
Jordan

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Alysha
Sent: Tuesday, December 28, 2010 5:38 PM
To: nagdu at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nagdu] Need Advice About Allergic Coworker

Hello,
I was hoping some of you might have some suggestions for me about how to
deal with an issue I've been having with a coworker who is allergic to my
seeing eye dog Hammar. I've been at this job for about 6 months now, and I
was originally assigned to work in his lab. He first mentioned that he was
having problems with allergies after about a week, and I moved to another
lab. Everything was fine until about a month ago, but one day I forgot and
brought Hammar into his lab. He complained about having an allergic reaction
that night, and he took 2 or 3 days of sick leave because of it. My
supervisor (who I think feels terrible about the whole thing) reminded me to
keep Hammar out of his lab, and I apologized and said that I had no problem
doing that as long as he wasn't restricted in other areas of the building.
After that, my coworker has repeatedly mentioned having reactions to Hammar
from being in common spaces (break room, conference room, etc.) where Hammar
has also spent time. Now I'm worried that I might be prevented from bringing
my dog to areas of the building where I commonly have meetings and eat
lunch. The kicker is that neither I or anyone I've talked to have ever once
seen this man sneeze, have red or swollen eyes, blow his nose, or wheeze,
and all of his reactions seem to happen once he's at home and away from the
source of the allergy. I was told by another coworker that he said he almost
had to go to the emergency room because of his allergies, but that a fever
was one of his symptoms. As far as I know, fevers aren't caused by
allergies. At the time of this reaction, almost everyone in the office had
been sick with fevers and colds. He has apparently had breathing problems at
home, but he's a chain smoker. I have heard him complain once at work of
itching, but that's it. So maybe my dog is part of his problem, but his
reactions could definitely be caused by something else as well.

I'm wondering what I should do in this tricky situation? I'm really not OK
with having to leave Hammar in my lab the entire time I'm at work,
especially if the allergy complaint isn't actually legitimate. I suggested
to my supervisor that we have a cleaning crew come to the break/conference
room more often to vacuum (which really needs to happen allergies or no
allergies), and I'm also going to suggest we add a HEPA filter there to help
keep dander out of the air. I groom Hammar an absolute minimum of every
other day, and I always sit in the same place for meetings and lunch. But
any thoughts on what my rights are or what I should do if my coworker isn't
happy with these solutions?

Thanks,
Alysha
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