The Difference Between Accommodation and Enabling
Managers supporting an employee with a mental health condition often worry about the same thing: "Am I helping, or am I making it worse?" It's a fair question. There's a real difference between accommodation, which supports recovery and performance, and enabling, which quietly lets a problem grow. Knowing the line makes you a better and more confident manager.
Accommodation
Accommodation is a reasonable, often temporary adjustment that lets a capable person do their job while managing a condition - a modified schedule, flexible location, adjusted duties, time for appointments. It's tied to a plan, has structure, and supports the person toward functioning. It's also, frequently, a legal duty.
Enabling
Enabling is the absence of structure - indefinitely lowered expectations with no plan, avoidance of honest conversations, or covering for problems in a way that removes any path to improvement. It feels kind in the moment and tends to harm the employee and the team over time.
How to tell them apart
Accommodation has a plan, a purpose, and usually a review point. Enabling drifts. Accommodation is developed with HR and the employee's care providers; enabling is improvised alone. If you can't say what the adjustment is for or when you'll revisit it, you may have crossed the line.
Good accommodations lean on a clinical plan. CorpCARE's physician-led model gives HR and managers the guidance to accommodate well, not just generously.
Sources
- Alberta Human Rights Commission. "Duty to accommodate at work." https://albertahumanrights.ab.ca/issues-at-work/duty-to-accommodate-at-work/
- Alberta Human Rights Commission. "Disability, illness, and injury." https://albertahumanrights.ab.ca/issues-at-work/disability-illness-and-injury/