“She Never Asked for Anything”: The Sentence That Triggers a FEHA Case
“She never asked for anything” is the sentence that turns a manageable performance issue into a FEHA case.
Under FEHA, the duty to engage in the interactive process is not triggered by a formal accommodation request. It is triggered when the employer knows — or reasonably should know — that an employee has a disability that may be affecting work. Mental disabilities are inside FEHA on the same footing as physical ones. Depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and PTSD all qualify, and FEHA’s threshold is lower than the ADA’s, which means more conditions are protected here than in most other states.
The break point at a small employer is almost always the manager who has been watching it happen. The employee has been late, has been tearful in a one-on-one, has mentioned therapy or medication in passing, has been absent on a pattern that lines up with a known stressor. The owner or HR-of-one decides to terminate for “performance” without ever asking the question the statute requires.
The proof pressure shows up the moment the termination is challenged. The plaintiff’s lawyer will ask whether the employer knew. The manager’s notes — Slack messages, text threads, and performance memos referencing “burnout” or “personal stuff going on” — will answer that question, and the answer will be yes.
Failure to engage in the interactive process is an independent FEHA violation. The employer does not get to argue that no accommodation was actually available. The duty is procedural — sit down, ask the question, document what was discussed — and skipping it is its own claim, with its own remedies.
The corrective frame is not a checklist. It is a habit: when a manager sees signals that something is going on with an employee’s health, the response is to ask, document, and route the question to whoever handles accommodation requests. The employee does not have to use the word “accommodation.” The employer’s duty turns on knowledge, not vocabulary.
A small employer who treats “she never asked” as a defense has already lost the procedural piece of the case.
This post shares general information based on common patterns I see in California workplaces. It is not legal advice, does not create an attorney-client relationship, and outcomes depend on specific facts — no lawyer can guarantee a result. Past results do not guarantee or predict future outcomes. AI may have been used to create this post. All content reviewed by a CA attorney before publication. This post may be attorney advertising.