April GPSHRM Monthly Meeting

"When Does Eccentric Become Dangerous "

                     Speaker:  Sacha Dyson, P.A.          

Overview: 

Mental illness in the workplace causes great uncertainty for HR professionals and requires a complicated analysis of an alphabet soup of employment laws, including OSHA, ADA, FMLA, and GINA.  A fitness-for-duty examination may help provide certainty, but this subject has been the source of increased EEOC scrutiny.  Indeed, in recent years, the EEOC filed a lawsuit against an employer based on an allegedly over broad medical release for a fitness-for-duty examination.  This subject requires HR professionals to balance the rights of the individual and other employees against the backdrop of the insecure world in which we live.  In this session, we will explore these issues as well as provide suggestions for creating a compliant fitness-for-duty process and addressing obstacles encountered in that process.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn the legal issues employers face when dealing with mental illness in the workplace

• Know the questions to ask when dealing with an employee who exhibits peculiar behavior in the workplace

• Understand how to create a compliant fitness-for-duty process

 Biography: 

Sacha Dyson is currently a partner in Thompson, Sizemore, Gonzalez & Hearing, P.A. – a law firm located in Tampa, Florida, who represents businesses, governmental entities, and educational institutions in labor, employment, education, housing, and other civil rights disputes.  She is board certified in labor and employment law by The Florida Bar.  She received her undergraduate degree, with honors, from Rochester Institute of Technology in 1998, and her law degree, cum laude, from Stetson University College of Law in 2001, where she served as Executive Editor of the Stetson Law Review from 2000 to 2001 and graduated in the top ten percent of her class.  From 2001 to 2003, she served as a law clerk to United States Magistrate Judge Howard T. Snyder, and from 2003 to 2005, she served as a law clerk to then United States Magistrate Judge Marcia Morales Howard.  Thereafter, in November 2005, she joined Thompson, Sizemore, Gonzalez & Hearing, P.A.  In July 2007, she returned to serve as a law clerk to Judge Marcia Morales Howard, who had been recently confirmed as a United States District Judge.  At the conclusion of her clerkship, in February 2009, Ms. Dyson rejoined the firm.  She is a member of The Florida Bar, the Hillsborough County Bar Association, the Tampa Chapter of Federal Bar Association, and the Tampa Bay Inn of Court.  She also is a member of the Executive Council of the Labor and Employment Section of The Florida Bar.  Additionally, she was selected as a Super Lawyers Rising Star in 2011 and 2012, a Super Lawyer in 2013, 2014, and 2015, and 2016, and a Florida Legal Trend Up and Comer in 2014.d sometimes a little comedy in all of his speaking topics.