“We’ll Try” Is Not ADA Compliance: How Employers Stall Accommodation Requests
- Anne Marie the AntiHR Lady
- Apr 20
- 8 min read
Updated: Apr 21
There is a version of ADA non-compliance that most employees don’t recognize while it is happening. It doesn’t come in the form of a denial.It doesn’t come with a clear “no.”
It comes wrapped in language that sounds reasonable, cooperative, even supportive.
“We’ll try.”“We’re working on it.”“We just need more time.”“Let’s revisit this later.”
And because those responses don’t sound like resistance, employees often accept them as progress. But in many workplaces, they are not progress. They are delay. And delay, in the context of the ADA, is not neutral. It is one of the most effective ways employers avoid their obligation to provide reasonable accommodations without ever having to say no.
Why “We’ll Try” Is Not Compliance
The ADA does not require employers to be vague. It does not require them to “consider” accommodations indefinitely. It requires them to engage in a timely, good faith interactive process. That process is supposed to lead somewhere.
It is supposed to result in an accommodation, an alternative, or a clear explanation for why the request cannot be granted. It is not supposed to leave the employee in a holding pattern where nothing is decided and nothing changes. But that is exactly what happens in many organizations.
Employers keep the conversation open without ever moving it forward. They respond just enough to avoid appearing unresponsive, but not enough to create accountability. They keep the request alive without resolving it. And while that is happening, the employee continues working under the same conditions that led them to request the accommodation in the first place.
That is not engagement. That is avoidance.
What Delay Actually Does
Employees tend to think of delay as inconvenience. In reality, delay shifts power. While you are waiting for a decision, several things are happening at the same time. You are continuing to work without the support you said you needed. That means your performance may suffer, your health may be impacted, and your stress level is likely increasing. At the same time, your employer is watching.
They are observing how you perform without the accommodation. They are documenting issues as they arise. They are assessing whether your limitations create operational challenges. And they are doing all of this while the accommodation request remains unresolved. That means the record that is being built during the delay does not reflect what you could do with support. It reflects what you are struggling to do without it. That distinction is everything.
Because if the situation escalates later, the employer is not pointing to the accommodation that was never implemented. They are pointing to the performance issues that occurred while you were waiting. That is how delay quietly works against you.
Why Employers Choose to Stall
There is a reason employers rely on delay instead of making a decision. Approving an accommodation creates an ongoing obligation. It requires the employer to adjust something—schedule, workload, location, expectations—and then maintain that adjustment. Denying an accommodation creates a different kind of risk. It requires the employer to justify that denial. It creates a clear moment that can be challenged. But delay allows them to avoid both.
If they stay in the middle—never fully approving, never clearly denying—they reduce immediate accountability. They can later say they were “working on it.” They can point to emails, meetings, and requests for additional information as evidence of engagement.
And in the meantime, the burden shifts to you.
How Delay Turns Into FMLA
In many cases, delay is not the end of the strategy. It is the setup. While your accommodation request is sitting in that “we’ll try” phase, employers often begin introducing another option: leave.
They suggest that maybe you should take time off. They frame it as concern for your health. They present it as a reasonable alternative while they “continue to evaluate” your request.
And this is where many employees get redirected without realizing it. Because once the conversation shifts from accommodation to leave, the employer is no longer focused on how to keep you working. They are focused on how to manage your absence.
Why Being Pushed to FMLA Often Does Not Work in Your Interest
This is the part that employees need to understand before they agree to anything. FMLA is not inherently bad. There are situations where leave is necessary and appropriate. But when leave is used instead of accommodation, it often creates a very different outcome than employees expect. What frequently happens is that the employer allows you to exhaust your available leave without ever resolving the accommodation issue that started the process.
During that time, you are not working. In most cases, you are not being paid or if you are you are using your leave. Financial pressure builds. Your connection to your role weakens. Your visibility disappears. And by the time your leave is nearing exhaustion, the employer has not actually solved anything. They have delayed it. Then the conversation shifts again. Now it becomes about whether you can return to work “fully.” Whether the business can support your limitations. Whether your role is still available in the same way. Whether expectations can be met.
At this point, many employees find themselves in an impossible position. They are told they need to return without the accommodation they originally requested. They are offered additional unpaid leave with no real clarity about the future. Or they are slowly pushed toward a decision to leave on their own.
And when employees quit out of frustration, financial pressure, or lack of options, the employer never has to resolve the accommodation request. They never have to formally deny it. They never have to implement it. From their perspective, the issue resolves itself.
Now let’s be clear: using leave as a substitute for accommodation, or allowing a situation to deteriorate to the point where an employee is effectively pushed out, raises serious concerns under both the ADA and FMLA.
But the fact that something is not compliant does not mean it does not happen.
It happens often enough that you need to recognize it while you are in it—not after.
Before You Go to HR — Pause
One of the biggest mistakes employees make in these situations is going to HR without a strategy.
Not because HR should never be involved. But because once you involve them, the process changes. Once you speak, the clock starts. Your words are documented. Your situation is interpreted. And the company begins positioning its response. If you are not prepared for that, you can unintentionally weaken your own position before you even understand what is happening.
Once you speak:
The clock starts
The narrative begins forming
Your leverage starts to shift
That’s why you need to be prepared.
👉 Download my free resource:“Before You Go to HR: A Reality Check for Employees in
Hostile Workplaces”
If It’s Not Written, It Didn’t Happen
Delay thrives where documentation is weak. If conversations are happening verbally, if timelines are unclear, if expectations are shifting without being recorded, the employer controls the narrative. That is why documentation is critical. You need to track what you asked for, how it was framed, what responses you received, and how things changed over time.
At a certain point, you have to stop treating this as a delay problem and start recognizing it as a pattern. Your request isn’t being resolved, time is being used against you, and the conversation is shifting away from support and toward your exit—whether that’s acknowledged or not. When that happens, continuing to wait for the employer to “do the right thing” is no longer a strategy. You need to decide how you are going to move before your leverage is gone. And for many employees in this position, that means shifting from trying to fix the workplace to understanding how to leave it strategically, with as much control and protection as possible.
The AntiHR Exit Strategy System is for employees who need to understand how to recognize when the workplace has crossed the line, how to document in a way that creates leverage, how to communicate without weakening their position, and how to move toward a negotiated exit instead of an impulsive resignation.
Because sometimes the issue is not just getting the accommodation. Sometimes the issue is recognizing that the employer’s response to your accommodation request is part of a larger pattern that tells you exactly what kind of environment you are in.
That is when strategy matters most.
👉 Learn more HERE
Do Not Wait Until Things Get Worse to Start Documenting
If your employer is stalling your accommodation request, giving vague answers, or dragging out the process, you need documentation that is organized, specific, and usable.
That is where the AntiHR Documentation Journal comes in.
This is not just a notebook. It is a tool designed to help you track incidents, preserve timelines, document patterns, and capture what is happening while it is still fresh. Too many employees wait until the situation becomes unbearable and then try to recreate months of events from memory. That puts you at a disadvantage.
The Documentation Journal helps you create the paper trail you may later need for HR, an internal complaint, a negotiation, or simply to protect yourself from being gaslit about what happened and when.
If you are dealing with ADA delays, retaliation, shifting expectations, or workplace hostility, you should already be documenting.
Know Your Rights Before Your Employer Rewrites the Story
Documentation by itself is not enough if you do not understand the bigger picture of what your employer is doing.
That is why I also created the Roadmap to Understanding Your Workplace Rights.
A lot of employees know something is wrong, but they do not know how to name it, how to assess it, or how to respond strategically. The Roadmap helps you better understand the landscape you are dealing with so you can make smarter decisions about timing, communication, and next steps.
If your employer keeps saying “we’re working on it” while your condition remains unsupported, this is exactly the kind of situation where understanding your rights matters. You need to know when a delay is just a process issue — and when it is becoming part of a larger pattern of harm.
This is why I tell people all the time: do not just react. Learn what is happening, document it properly, and move with strategy.
Join the AntiHR Membership Community
And let me be clear: the AntiHR Membership Community is not just some passive add-on.
It is a place for people who want ongoing support while they are navigating real workplace problems in real time.
Inside the community, members get access to conversations about HR issues as they unfold, space to ask questions, practical insight about how workplace systems actually work, and resources that help them respond more strategically. It is also where I continue the kinds of conversations that cannot always fit into a single blog post or video.
If you are dealing with ADA issues, retaliation, performance management games, documentation concerns, or that sick feeling that something at work is shifting against you, the Membership Community gives you a place to stay connected to tools, resources, and deeper guidance.
Inside, we talk about situations like this in real time — because these issues don’t happen in a vacuum.
Final Thought
“We’ll try” is not a plan.
It is not a decision.
And in many cases, it is not compliance.
It is time.
And how that time is used—by you or by your employer—determines how this situation ends.
For more tips about navigating and escaping difficult HR situations:
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HR is not your enemy, but they are definitely not your friend.
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