Can Problems Dealing With Supervisors, Coworkers, or the Public Help Me Qualify for Social Security Disability?

Can Problems Dealing With Supervisors, Coworkers, or the Public Help Me Qualify for Social Security Disability?

How Social Security Evaluates Your Ability to Interact With Other People at Work

You may understand what you are supposed to do.  You may be able to remember instructions.  You may even be able to concentrate well enough to perform the actual task.

But what happens when a supervisor corrects you?

What happens when a coworker irritates you?

What if being around strangers causes severe anxiety?

What if crowds trigger panic attacks?

What if PTSD causes you to constantly watch the people around you instead of concentrating on your work?

Maybe depression causes you to withdraw from everyone.

Perhaps you become angry or overwhelmed when someone criticizes you.

Or you may simply avoid leaving home because dealing with other people has become too difficult.

You may wonder “Can problems dealing with other people help qualify me for Social Security Disability?”

Yes.

Social Security specifically considers your ability to interact with others when evaluating the effects of a mental impairment, and this can be important because there is something nearly every job has in common: Eventually, you have to deal with other people.

Even a job with little or no contact with the general public ordinarily requires some ability to respond appropriately to supervisors and, frequently, coworkers.

The important question is not whether you like people, it is: Can you interact with other people appropriately, effectively, independently, and on a sustained basis well enough to maintain competitive employment?

Recommended Reading: Can Mental Illness Qualify Me for Social Security Disability Benefits? A diagnosis is only the beginning of a mental-health disability claim. Social Security also considers how your condition affects the abilities necessary to function in a work setting.

What Does Social Security Mean by “Interacting With Others”?

Social Security describes interacting with others as the ability to relate to and work with supervisors, coworkers, and the public.  In everyday language, Social Security is looking at questions such as:

Can you cooperate with other people?

Can you ask for help when you need it?

Can you respond appropriately to questions?

Can you understand and respond to social cues?

Can you handle criticism?

Can you accept correction from a supervisor?

Can you keep social interactions free of excessive irritability, anger, fear, conflict, or withdrawal?

Can you work around other people without becoming overwhelmed?

Can you maintain those abilities throughout the workday and workweek?

Those can be basic requirements of employment even when the actual job duties are relatively simple.

“I Don’t Like Being Around People” Is Not Enough

Some people are naturally introverted.  Some prefer to work alone.  Others simply do not enjoy dealing with customers.

That does not mean they are disabled.

Social Security is interested in functional limitations resulting from a medically determinable impairment.

There is a difference between “I prefer not to deal with people” and “Because of severe anxiety, I have panic attacks when I am around strangers.”

There is a difference between “I don’t like being criticized” and “Because of my mental-health condition, I become overwhelmed, angry, or leave when a supervisor corrects me.”

The issue is not personality or preference.  The issue is what your medical condition causes you to do—or prevents you from doing—in a work environment.

Dealing With the Public Is Only Part of the Problem

When people think about social limitations at work, they often think about customers, and that is certainly important.

A cashier may constantly interact with the public.  A receptionist may answer questions all day.  A salesperson may spend most of the workday dealing with customers.

Someone with severe social anxiety, PTSD, paranoia, panic disorder, or another condition may have significant difficulty performing that kind of work.

But suppose Social Security says: “Fine. We will limit you to a job with no public contact.”  Does that solve the problem?

Not necessarily-because there are other people at work.

What If I Cannot Deal With Coworkers?

Even jobs that do not involve the public may involve coworkers. A person who becomes severely anxious, suspicious, distracted, angry, or overwhelmed around coworkers may have difficulty even in a job that involves no public contact.

That is why it is important to distinguish among limitations involving:

The public;

Coworkers; and

Supervisors.

They are not necessarily interchangeable.

What If I Can Work Alone?

That may help explain your limitations, but very few competitive jobs involve literally no human interaction.  Even someone who performs most job duties alone generally has a supervisor.

The employee may need to receive assignments.

Report problems.

Ask questions.

Attend training.

Accept correction.

Respond to changes.

Notify someone when the work is finished.

So the question is not simply “Can I work by myself?”  It may be: “How much interaction can I tolerate, with whom, and under what circumstances?”

Dealing With a Supervisor Can Be Different From Dealing With a Stranger

This is an important distinction.  Someone may be perfectly capable of saying hello to a cashier at the grocery store.  That does not necessarily mean the person can appropriately interact with a supervisor eight hours a day.

A supervisor has authority.

A supervisor gives instructions.

A supervisor evaluates performance.

A supervisor may point out mistakes.

A supervisor may change assignments.

And sometimes a supervisor says: “You’re doing this wrong.”

For a person with certain mental-health conditions, accepting correction or criticism may be much more difficult than having a brief pleasant interaction with a stranger.

That is why “He was polite to the receptionist at his doctor’s office” does not necessarily establish: “He can appropriately respond to supervision in a competitive workplace.”

The nature, duration, frequency, and demands of the interaction matter.

“I Don’t Handle Criticism Well.”

That statement needs more explanation.

Most people do not enjoy criticism.  The important question is: What actually happens when you are corrected?

Do you become anxious but continue working?

Do you cry?

Do you shut down?

Do you become angry?

Do you argue?

Do you leave?

Do you have a panic attack?

Do you obsess about the criticism for the rest of the day?

Does it interfere with your concentration afterward?

Have you lost jobs because of how you reacted to supervisors?

Specific examples can be far more useful than saying “I have trouble with authority.”

What If Anxiety Makes It Difficult to Be Around Strangers?

Severe anxiety can affect social functioning in many different ways.  Someone may:

Avoid crowded places.

Refuse to go somewhere alone.

Experience panic in public.

Avoid eye contact.

Have difficulty speaking with strangers.

Leave stores before finishing shopping.

Become overwhelmed in waiting rooms.

Avoid telephone calls.

Depend upon a family member to speak for them.

Those activities may provide evidence concerning how anxiety affects social functioning, but again, context matters.

Being able to briefly purchase groceries does not necessarily demonstrate an ability to interact appropriately with supervisors, coworkers, and customers throughout a forty-hour workweek.

PTSD Can Affect How You Respond to Other People

PTSD may affect much more than memories of a traumatic event.  A person may experience:

• Hypervigilance;
• Irritability;
• Difficulty trusting others;
• Exaggerated startle responses;
• Avoidance;
• Emotional withdrawal;
• Anxiety;
• Anger; or
• Difficulty feeling safe around other people.

Imagine working in an environment where people regularly walk behind you.

Or where unexpected noises occur.

Or where coworkers approach without warning.

Or where a supervisor raises his or her voice.

Someone with PTSD may respond very differently to those ordinary workplace events than someone without the condition.

The relevant question is how those symptoms affect the person’s ability to function around other people on a sustained basis.

Recommended Reading: PTSD and Social Security Disability

Depression Can Cause Social Problems Too

Depression is sometimes viewed only in terms of sadness, but severe depression may cause a person to withdraw.

You may stop returning telephone calls.

Avoid friends.

Stay in your bedroom.

Lose interest in conversations.

Become irritable.

Have difficulty responding appropriately to other people.

A person does not necessarily have to suffer from “social anxiety” to have a serious limitation in social interaction.

Different diagnoses can produce similar functional limitations, that is another reason Social Security’s focus on function rather than merely diagnosis is so important.

Recommended Reading: Why Functional Limitations Matter More than a Medical Diagnoses.

What If I Get Angry Easily?

Anger and irritability can be relevant when they result from a medically determinable impairment and interfere with appropriate workplace behavior.  But simply saying “I get angry” does not tell the whole story.

How often?

What causes it?

What happens?

Do you raise your voice?

Argue?

Walk away?

Become verbally aggressive?

Have difficulty calming down?

Has this happened at previous jobs?

Have you been disciplined?

Have you been fired?

Have family members noticed a significant change in your behavior?

Those details help distinguish ordinary frustration from a functional limitation that may interfere with employment.

What If I Have Had Problems at Previous Jobs?

Your actual work history may provide useful evidence. Suppose you repeatedly had conflicts with supervisors after your condition became severe.

Perhaps you were written up for inappropriate interactions.  Maybe you left work after being corrected.  Perhaps coworkers complained about your behavior.  Maybe you repeatedly changed jobs because you could not tolerate working around other people.

Those facts may help demonstrate how your condition functions in the very environment Social Security is trying to evaluate—a workplace.

But context is important.  One disagreement with one bad supervisor does not necessarily establish a disabling social limitation.  A repeated pattern related to documented symptoms may tell a very different story.

What If I Get Along With My Family?

That does not necessarily establish that you can interact appropriately in a workplace as Family relationships and workplace relationships are very different.

Your spouse may understand your condition.  Your children may know when to leave you alone.

Your family may tolerate behavior that an employer would not.

You may be comfortable with three people you have known for thirty years but unable to tolerate strangers.  Social Security recognizes that functioning may vary depending upon who the other people are and the nature of the relationship.

So:

“I get along with my wife.”

does not necessarily mean:

“I can appropriately interact with supervisors, coworkers, and the public forty hours a week.”

What If I Go to Church?

This is another activity that requires context.  Simply stating “I attend church” may not tell us very much.

Do you attend every week?

Do you sit in the back away from other people?

Do you arrive late and leave early to avoid crowds?

Do you speak to anyone?

Does a family member accompany you?

Have you had to leave because of anxiety?

Do you attend a small service with people you have known for years?

Again, Social Security may consider daily activities, but the details of what the activity actually involves matters.

Recommended Reading: Why Does Social Security Care About My Activities of Daily Living?

What If I Go Grocery Shopping?

The same principle applies.  There is a difference between someone who spends two hours shopping alone in a crowded store and someone who:

Goes late at night to avoid people.

Uses self-checkout.

Goes only with a spouse.

Runs in for one item.

Leaves when the store becomes crowded.

Uses grocery pickup because entering the store causes anxiety.

The statement: “Claimant shops for groceries” does not necessarily describe the person’s actual level of social functioning.

Recommended Reading: Will Social Security Use My Activities of Daily Living Against Me?

What About Social Media?

Being able to communicate online does not necessarily establish an ability to interact appropriately face-to-face in a workplace.  Online communication can allow a person to:

Choose when to respond.

Stop interacting.

Delete a message before sending it.

Avoid eye contact.

Avoid crowds.

Take time before answering.

Communicate from the safety of home.

Those circumstances can be very different from having a supervisor standing beside you asking why an assignment is late; however, extensive online activity involving sustained, complicated, or frequent interaction may still be relevant.

As with other daily activities, context matters.

What If I Appear Friendly at My Doctor’s Appointments?

Medical records may contain observations such as: “Pleasant and cooperative.”  “Good eye contact.”  “Appropriate interaction.”

Those observations are relevant evidence, but they should be considered in context. A short, structured appointment with a healthcare provider is not necessarily equivalent to:

Dealing with a supervisor.

Working beside coworkers.

Handling dissatisfied customers.

Accepting criticism.

Responding to workplace conflict.

Doing those things repeatedly throughout an eight-hour day.

A person can be polite to a doctor for fifteen minutes and still have serious difficulty sustaining appropriate social interaction in competitive employment.  That is why, when you are talking with your medical care provider, you should always be sure to let them know how being among groups of people, or being in a stressful situation, affects you.

 

The Amount of Interaction Can Matter

Social limitations are not necessarily all or nothing.  A person may be capable of occasional interaction but not frequent interaction.

Someone may tolerate coworkers but not the public.

Someone else may tolerate brief public contact but react poorly to supervision.

Another person may function adequately when working independently but become overwhelmed in team settings.

That is why a mental RFC may need to address the type, frequency, and nature of social interaction the person can tolerate.

A restriction simply saying “Limited interaction with others” may not tell the entire story.

What Does “Occasional Interaction” Really Mean?

Social Security uses frequency terms in various vocational contexts, but the important issue in a mental RFC is not simply attaching a label.

Consider the practical questions:

Can you have brief contact with a supervisor several times during the day?

Can you work beside coworkers without interacting with them constantly?

Can you tolerate a customer asking a question?

Can you handle an unexpected confrontation?

Can you accept correction?

A claimant’s limitations need to be described in terms that reflect what the evidence actually shows.

What If I Need a “Supportive” Supervisor?

Some people function reasonably well when dealing with a particularly patient or understanding supervisor.  Perhaps the supervisor explains things calmly.  They avoids criticism.  They repeatedly redirects the employee and may help them perform job duties at times.

That may help the person keep a particular job, but it can also raise an important question:

Is the person functioning under ordinary competitive employment conditions, or because someone is providing unusual support?

Social Security considers the amount of support and assistance a person requires when evaluating mental functioning.

Social Problems Can Affect Attendance Too

Suppose you can perform the actual job duties, but anxiety becomes so severe that you cannot make yourself enter the building several days each month.

Or conflict with a supervisor causes you to leave work.

Or panic attacks cause you to go home early.

Then the social limitation may create another vocational problem:  attendance and reliability.

That illustrates why Social Security’s functional areas often overlap.  A problem interacting with others may also affect concentration, persistence, adaptation, attendance, and ultimately the ability to sustain employment.

How Does Social Security Rate Problems Interacting With Others?

When evaluating adult mental impairments, Social Security considers four broad areas of functioning:

1. Understanding, remembering, or applying information;
2. Interacting with others;
3. Concentrating, persisting, or maintaining pace; and
4. Adapting or managing oneself.

Social Security rates the degree of limitation as: see 20 C.F.R. Part 404, Subpart P, Appendix 1, § 12.00F(2):

• None: You are able to function in the area independently, appropriately, effectively, and on a sustained basis.
• Mild: Your ability to function that way is slightly limited.
• Moderate: Your ability to function that way is fair.
• Marked: Your ability to function that way is seriously limited.
• Extreme: You are not able to function in that area independently, appropriately, effectively, and on a sustained basis.

A marked limitation means the person’s ability to function independently, appropriately, effectively, and on a sustained basis is seriously limited.

An extreme limitation means the person is unable to function in that area independently, appropriately, effectively, and on a sustained basis.

But, as with the other areas we have discussed, those ratings are not the end of the analysis.

I Don’t Meet a Mental Health Listing—Do My Social Limitations Still Matter?

Yes.

This is important.  A claimant may have significant problems interacting with others without satisfying all of the requirements of a mental-health Listing.  If the severe impairment does not meet or medically equal a Listing, Social Security generally proceeds to assess the person’s Residual Functional Capacity, or RFC.

The RFC may include restrictions involving interaction with:

• The public;
• Coworkers; and
• Supervisors.

Depending upon the evidence, it may also address the frequency and nature of those interactions.

Recommended Reading: What Is Residual Functional Capacity and Why Does It Matter in My Social Security Disability Claim?

What Happens at a Social Security Disability Hearing?

At a disability hearing, an Administrative Law Judge may ask a vocational expert to consider a hypothetical person with particular limitations.  For example, the hypothetical might involve someone who can perform certain work but:

Cannot interact with the general public.

Can have only occasional interaction with coworkers.

Can tolerate only limited interaction with supervisors.

Or cannot perform work requiring teamwork or close coordination with others.

The vocational expert may then testify about whether jobs remain available for someone with those limitations.

That is why simply saying “The claimant has severe anxiety” does not completely describe the vocational problem.

The more useful question is “What does the anxiety prevent the claimant from doing in a work environment?”

Recommended Reading: What is a Vocational Expert?

The Law

Under 20 C.F.R. §§ 404.1520a and 416.920a, Social Security evaluates adult mental impairments using four broad areas of mental functioning, including interacting with others.

Section 12.00E2 of the Adult Listing of Impairments describes interacting with others as the ability to relate to and work with supervisors, coworkers, and the public.

Examples include cooperating with others; asking for help when needed; initiating or sustaining conversation; understanding and responding to social cues; responding appropriately to requests, suggestions, criticism, correction, and challenges; and keeping social interactions free of excessive irritability, sensitivity, argumentativeness, or suspiciousness.

Social Security considers whether a person can function independently, appropriately, effectively, and on a sustained basis.

If a severe mental impairment does not meet or medically equal a Listing, Social Security generally proceeds to a more detailed assessment of the claimant’s mental Residual Functional Capacity.

The broad paragraph B rating for interacting with others is not itself a complete mental RFC assessment. The RFC should describe the specific work-related limitations supported by the record.

The Bottom Line

Problems dealing with supervisors, coworkers, or the public can be extremely important in a Social Security Disability claim, but saying “I don’t like being around people” is not the disability standard.

The better questions are:

Can you deal appropriately with strangers?

Can you work around coworkers?

Can you cooperate when necessary?

Can you ask for help?

Can you accept instructions from a supervisor?

Can you handle criticism or correction?

Can you control anger, anxiety, fear, or withdrawal sufficiently to remain at work?

Can you do these things throughout a normal workday and workweek?

And there is one particularly important distinction:

Being able to avoid the public is not the same as being able to avoid supervisors.

There may be jobs with little public interaction.  There may be jobs requiring limited coworker interaction, but competitive employment ordinarily requires some ability to receive instructions, respond to supervision, accept appropriate correction, and behave appropriately around other people.

The real question is not simply: “Can you be around people?”  It is: “Can you interact with the people a job requires you to deal with, in an appropriate and reliable manner, often enough to maintain employment?”

Experience With Social Security Disability Claims

At Powell & Denny, P.C., we have extensive experience representing individuals whose physical conditions, mental-health conditions, or combination of impairments prevent them from maintaining employment. Mental-health disability claims often turn on limitations that are difficult to see during a brief conversation or medical examination. The evidence should explain how the condition affects the abilities actually required in the workplace—including dealing with supervisors, working around coworkers, interacting with the public, accepting criticism, controlling behavior, maintaining concentration, and functioning reliably throughout a normal workweek.

Recommended Reading: How Does Social Security Evaluate My Ability to Handle Stress and Changes at Work? In the next article in this series, we will look at Social Security’s fourth broad area of mental functioning: adapting or managing oneself—including what happens when routines change, something goes wrong, work becomes stressful, or you have to respond to demands you were not expecting.

An experienced Social Security Disability attorney can evaluate your medical evidence together with your vocational factors to determine how the law applies to your specific situation.  At Powell & Denny, we have represented injured and disabled workers throughout Alabama for more than 30 years. We understand that serious claims are rarely decided by a diagnosis alone. They are decided by how the injury affects the person’s ability to function, work, and earn a living.

If you have questions about an Alabama Workers’ Compensation claim, or a claim for Social Security Disability benefits, don’t hesitate to contact the experienced attorneys at Powell and Denny today a free consultation; remember. Virtual appointments are available through Zoom so you can meet with one of the attorneys of Powell and Denny from wherever you live, and remember-there is no fee unless you win.

Powell & Denny: We Work When You Can’t.

Offices in Birmingham, Alabama and Huntsville, AL