Based on this case study teach me how the topic of harassment-free environment relates to this.

Jury finds hotel failed to reasonably accommodate employee's disability, awards$20 million punitive damages. Reminders of the consequences of failing to accommodate employees' disabilities can be helpful. Often workplaces can get lackadaisical in failing to follow accommodation laws leading to employees' inability to adapt to their work tasks after becoming injured or disabled. In one case this type of lax attitude has proven severely costly, $20 million in damages to be precise. Daniel J.Callahan v. Marriott Marquis Hotel et al. is one such case study. After having been employed as a concierge at a Marriott hotel for almost three decades, Callahan suffered a spinal injury in 2014.

When he was finally able to return to work the following year with

the aid of a prosthetic and cane, his employer initially

accommodated him with a suitable chair. This preliminary

workplace modification eventually led to one disappointment after

another that included:

1. A request to park his car closer to the hotel was

labeled as a privilege by Marriott; Callahan was

ultimately charged $275 per month for a closer

parking spot;

1. The hotel's response to his appeal for a separate break

room (since restaurants and the employee caf were

too far for him) was to provide him with a packed

storage area with little space for movement and which

was also an unreasonable distance from his work area

and restroom;

1. After the hotel remodeled in 2018, even more

difficulties for Callahan arose: the new desks and mats

were not amenable to the disabled and neither was the

new design of the hotel floor plan that had the

breakroom and restrooms at a further distance than

before.

After Callahan's accommodation requests were repeatedly ignored,

his doctor recommended that his current situation was physically

detrimental to the point that he could no longer continue working in

that position. The jury's response to Marriott's disregard? It found that the hotel

giant had failed to engage in an interactive process and to provide

reasonable accommodation to Callahan, violating California's

disability laws. It awarded him $3.4 million in past non-economic

damages, $1.6 million in future loss of enjoyment of life, and $15

million in punitive damages. As an employer, it is important to recognize

when employees need accommodation and how best to go about handling their individual

situations.