Court Opinion

ID: 9895469
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-11-07 15:01:02.404289+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:12:52.552120
License: Public Domain

USCA11 Case: 22-11285    Document: 34-1      Date Filed: 11/07/2023   Page: 1 of 39

                                                  [DO NOT PUBLISH]
                                    In the
                 United States Court of Appeals
                         For the Eleventh Circuit

                           ____________________

                                 No. 22-11285
                           ____________________

        CIERRA GETER,
                                                       Plaintiﬀ-Appellant,
        versus
        SCHNEIDER NATIONAL CARRIERS, INC.,

                                                     Defendant-Appellee.

                           ____________________

                  Appeal from the United States District Court
                     for the Northern District of Georgia
                      D.C. Docket No. 1:20-cv-01148-SCJ
                           ____________________
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        2                           Opinion of the Court                  22-11285

        Before JORDAN, LAGOA, Circuit Judges, and CANNON,* District
        Judge.
        LAGOA, Circuit Judge:
                Cierra Geter worked for several years as a full-time, night-
        shift area planning manager (“APM”) for Schneider National Carri-
        ers, Inc., a transportation and logistics company. After being diag-
        nosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (“PTSD”), Geter took
        temporary leave from Schneider, as was her right under federal
        law. When her period of leave elapsed, Geter returned to work,
        but with an accommodation from Schneider: the company tempo-
        rarily allowed her to work part-time, and partly from home, for
        several months, even though the company did not employ any
        other part-time APMs. Geter requested that Schneider continue to
        accommodate her several more times, and Schneider obliged. But
        after about three months, Geter requested another accommoda-
        tion—a continuation of her part-time schedule and the ability to
        work remotely any time she was scheduled to work alone. Schnei-
        der denied this request and terminated her employment.
              Geter sued Schneider under the Americans with Disabilities
        Act (“ADA”), asserting failure-to-accommodate, discrimination,
        and retaliation claims. Those claims hinged largely on whether
        Geter is a “qualified individual” within the meaning of the ADA.
        See 42 U.S.C. §§ 12112(a), 12111(8). A person is a qualified

        * Honorable Aileen M. Cannon, United States District Judge for the Southern

        District of Florida, sitting by designation.
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        22-11285               Opinion of the Court                        3

        individual if she can “perform the essential functions of [her job]
        with or without reasonable accommodations.” Lucas v. W.W.
        Grainger, Inc., 257 F.3d 1249, 1255 (11th Cir. 2001); see also
        § 12111(8). Schneider moved for summary judgment on the
        ground that Geter was not a qualified individual because full-time
        work and in-person work were essential functions of her job that
        she could not perform. The district court agreed with Schneider
        and granted the motion for summary judgment.
               This appeal followed. After careful consideration, and with
        the benefit of oral argument, we hold that, on the record before us,
        there is no genuine dispute of material fact that full-time and in-
        person work were essential functions of Geter’s role. We thus af-
        firm.
                               I.     BACKGROUND
              A. Geter Is Diagnosed with PTSD and Panic Disorder.
               Schneider is a transportation and logistics company that op-
        erates twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. In July 2014,
        Schneider hired Geter as a full-time dispatch analyst. That position
        was—and Geter knew it to be—a full-time role. Schneider soon
        changed the “dispatch analyst” job title to “area planning manager”
        (“APM”).
               Geter’s responsibilities as an APM included coordinating dis-
        patching drivers with customer loads, assisting drivers in gathering
        paperwork and load information, taking calls and messages from
        drivers, and resolving any driver issues. One of her primary re-
        sponsibilities was supporting drivers. A job description for the role
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        4                       Opinion of the Court                  22-11285

        noted that the APM position was an “Exempt (Salaried)” role and
        listed a variety of “[e]ssential [j]ob [d]uties and [r]esponsibilities,”
        such as “[e]stablish[ing] [a] market plan,” “[g]enerat[ing] actions to
        improve key factor results,” and “regular and consistent attendance
        and timeliness.” The description clarified that these responsibilities
        were “not an exhaustive or comprehensive list of all job responsi-
        bilities, tasks, and duties,” as “[o]ther duties and responsibilities
        may be assigned and the scope of the job may change as necessi-
        tated by business demands.” Under another heading titled,
        “Skills/Behaviors Necessary to Perform Job,” the job description
        listed “[a]bility to develop relationships through interpersonal
        skills” and “[a]bility to work well in a fast paced, high pressure en-
        vironment.” This overall job description, according to Geter, “ac-
        curately reflected APM job duties.” And Geter specifically con-
        ceded that Schneider considered the ability to develop relationships
        with drivers to be an important part of the APM job.
               Geter worked at Schneider’s site in Fairburn, Georgia. She
        worked on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday from 11:00
        p.m. to 10:00 a.m.—a schedule Schneider called the “third shift.”
        Geter reported to operations team lead Travis Torrence, who su-
        pervised second- and third-shift APMs as well as driver team leads.
        Torrence reported to operations manager Doug Horton, who, in
        turn, reported to operations director Marianne Biskey-Rose. Be-
        tween 2018 and 2019, Audreianna Williams, Desmond Seymour,
        and Elaine Young also worked the third shift at the Fairburn loca-
        tion. Sometimes, Geter worked her shift alone, but there is a dis-
        pute in the record about how often she did. Geter insists she
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        22-11285               Opinion of the Court                        5

        typically worked alone only on Thursdays, while Torrence attests
        that she often worked alone, especially on Sundays. Geter testified
        that Schneider had lightly staffed her shift for “several years” and
        that she had often asked for additional support but received none.
               The Fairburn location had a lounge for drivers to visit before
        or after their workday. Near the lounge was Schneider’s opera-
        tions office, where APMs worked. Drivers often visited the opera-
        tions office to ask APMs for assistance with obtaining paperwork
        and load information. Between the office and the lounge, there
        was a printer located behind a locked door.
                 Geter maintains that her presence in the office was not nec-
        essary. She attests that she could access the printer remotely when
        she worked from home. Williams also attests—in general terms—
        that it was common for Fairburn APMs to work from home. But
        Geter acknowledges that Schneider’s Atlanta-based drivers appre-
        ciated when APMs were in the office and that Schneider wanted its
        APMs in the office for that reason. She also concedes that being in
        the office was necessary when drivers asked for help finding trucks
        or retrieving keys from the office lockbox. At least sometimes,
        driver team leads and intermodal operating specialists also assisted
        drivers with finding keys. But these employees did not work the
        third shift.
              Geter experienced significant mental health issues while em-
        ployed with Schneider. Shortly before Geter began working at
        Schneider, she was the victim of attempted sexual assault at a truck
        stop. In 2015, a healthcare provider diagnosed her with major
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        6                      Opinion of the Court                 22-11285

        depressive disorder. Later, in September 2018, Geter attempted su-
        icide. Geter then sought and obtained a leave of absence from
        Schneider under the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”).
        Geter’s psychiatrist, Dr. Cassandra Wanzo, subsequently diag-
        nosed Geter with PTSD and panic disorder in October 2018. Geter
        testified that her suicide attempt sprang from a combination of her
        “personal demons” and an excessive workload that she had, unsuc-
        cessfully, asked Schneider to alleviate. The parties do not dispute
        that Geter had a disability within the meaning of the ADA.
            B. Schneider Accommodates Geter After Her FMLA Leave.
                Schneider maintains a “Flexible Work Accommodation”
        (“FWA”) policy for “work arrangement[s] other than full time on-
        site, that [have] been agreed to by the associate and leader, and con-
        tinue[] to meet the business needs of the position.” A description
        of the FWA policy states that “[f]lexible work arrangements are at
        the sole discretion of Schneider.” Similarly, Schneider maintains a
        “Remote Work Policy” that allows employees to work remotely or
        “telework” if their supervisor approves the arrangement. The Re-
        mote Work Policy does not “apply to situations where associates
        work from home in remote locations on an occasional, incon-
        sistent, or temporary basis.” Schneider’s director of operations,
        Biskey-Rose, and a human resources (“HR”) employee for Schnei-
        der testified that supervisors had the discretion to allow employees
        to work from home because of emergencies or for specific personal
        reasons, but Schneider did not allow perpetual remote work.
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        22-11285               Opinion of the Court                          7

                Schneider at first approved Geter’s FMLA leave from Octo-
        ber 9, 2018, through December 31, 2018. During that time, Schnei-
        der relied on Torrence, Williams, and Seymour to cover Geter’s
        shifts, with Torrence usually being the one to cover Geter’s Sunday
        shifts.
               Before Geter’s approved leave period ended, Geter submit-
        ted a “Return-to-Work” form completed by Dr. Wanzo. Dr.
        Wanzo stated that Geter could return to work at the beginning of
        January 2019 with restrictions—specifically, a work schedule of
        three days per week, ten hours per day, until mid-February. Geter
        also requested that she not be scheduled to work her Sunday shift
        so that she could attend a weekly PTSD support group on Monday
        mornings. Schneider agreed to provide Geter with these accom-
        modations.
               Dr. Wanzo wrote another medical note that Geter submit-
        ted to Schneider on January 21, 2019. The note requested an ex-
        tension of Geter’s part-time work schedule to March 20, 2019.
        Schneider again agreed. Around February 2019, Geter worked
        from home on several days when she was scheduled to work alone
        with Torrence’s permission.
                Geter’s reduced schedule burdened other Fairburn employ-
        ees, but Geter disputes the extent of the burden. Torrence, for his
        part, insists that he worked Geter’s Sunday night shift in addition
        to fulfilling his regular duties. Picking up the night shift meant that
        he would leave the office after an eight-hour shift at 7:00 a.m. and
        return to work at 1:00 p.m. to work another eight-hour shift. In all,
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        8                     Opinion of the Court               22-11285

        Torrence claimed that he worked between fifty-five and sixty hours
        per week while Geter worked part-time.
                Geter disputes Torrence’s account. She asserts that Tor-
        rence only “sporadically” covered her shifts and that other APMs
        who covered her shifts did not work overtime. But Geter does not
        dispute that because she, a night-shift APM, often worked alone,
        Schneider needed to staff other employees to cover any shifts that
        she missed or that those other employees had more work because
        of her absence. Indeed, Geter concedes that the Schneider employ-
        ees who covered for her “had to work harder on their scheduled
        shifts if other employees were absent.”
               On March 9, 2019, Dr. Wanzo submitted medical docu-
        ments and another request to keep Geter working part-time. But
        this time, Geter requested permission to work from home on
        Thursday, Friday, and any time she had to work alone. Dr.
        Wanzo’s proposal would have kept this arrangement intact until
        the end of April 2019.
               On March 18, 2019, a Schneider HR employee, Anissa
        Gauthier, emailed Dr. Wanzo to request more information about
        the new request. Dr. Wanzo responded with more medical docu-
        mentation and a request that Schneider allow Geter to work three
        days a week, ten hours a day, and from home on two of those days
        (Thursday and Friday) until June 5, 2019. Gauthier emailed Dr.
        Wanzo and Geter a copy of a letter with questions that had to be
        answered for Schneider to determine whether to accommodate
        Geter’s request. Gauthier observed that “[t]he end date of this
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        22-11285              Opinion of the Court                        9

        restriction has been extended 4 times and is appearing to be a per-
        manent restriction.” The email asked for a response “no later than”
        April 8, 2019. Geter provided the questions, which were contained
        in a letter attached to Gauthier’s email, to Dr. Wanzo.
           C. Schneider Terminates Geter’s Employment and Tempo-
                rarily Alters Its Policies During the COVID-19 Pan-
                                         demic.
                      1. Schneider Terminates Geter’s Employment
                Biskey-Rose, Torrence, and Schneider HR employee Ashley
        Jansen considered Geter’s accommodation request. Biskey-Rose
        asked Geter if she would switch her PTSD support group appoint-
        ment so that she could work the Sunday overnight shift, but Geter
        rejected this option because the other available support group ap-
        pointment conflicted with a doctor’s appointment. Torrence at-
        tested that Schneider considered reassigning Geter to another po-
        sition, but chose not to because Fairburn had only full-time posi-
        tions. Jansen and Biskey-Rose discussed the alternative of hiring a
        temporary employee to fill in for Geter, but they decided that this
        option was not prudent because of the time it would take to hire
        and train the new employee, as well as the difficulty of assigning a
        new employee to work the third shift by herself.
                These discussions were consistent with Torrence’s sworn
        testimony. Torrence attested that full-time work was an essential
        function of the APM position because Schneider could ensure that
        it had the resources necessary to support drivers and dispatch loads
        at all hours of the day only by hiring full-time APMs. Torrence also
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        10                    Opinion of the Court                 22-11285

        attested that while Geter worked for Schneider, in-person work
        was an essential function for second- and third-shift APMs because
        they needed to develop relationships with drivers, retrieve spare
        keys for drivers from the secure lock box, and print drivers’ paper-
        work.
                Thus, after consulting Jansen, Torrence and Biskey-Rose de-
        cided to terminate Geter’s employment effective April 12, 2019. A
        couple of weeks later, Dr. Wanzo finally responded to Gauthier’s
        letter, asserting that Geter could not work a Monday-through-Fri-
        day schedule and that Geter could not work in a fast-paced, high-
        pressure environment. In a declaration, Geter attests that other
        than her conversation with Biskey-Rose about switching her Mon-
        day group session so that Geter could work Sunday night, nobody
        from Schneider discussed a possible accommodation with her.
        Geter also insists that if Schneider had provided a short leave of
        absence through June 5, 2019, or offered to transfer her to the sec-
        ond shift, she would have accepted either accommodation. After
        Schneider fired Geter, it transferred Ryan Wheeler, another APM,
        from first shift to third shift when Williams resigned and hired two
        new people.
             2. Schneider Accommodates Other Employees in Various Circum-
                                        stances.
                Geter contrasts her experience with that of several other
        Schneider employees. The first employee is Tiffany Kitchens, a
        first-shift APM. Kitchens always worked with other APMs on her
        shifts and never alone. Kitchens once requested and obtained three
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        22-11285                   Opinion of the Court                               11

        weeks of FMLA leave. The same year she took leave, her mother
        suffered a stroke, and Schneider approved her for additional inter-
        mittent FMLA leave. But Kitchens testified that she did not use her
        approved leave and instead obtained permission from her supervi-
        sor to work remotely while her mother was in the hospital. Kitch-
        ens used vacation time for days that she needed to take off, and she
        continued to work full-time. Kitchens’s mother left the hospital
        after four months, at which point Kitchens returned to full-time
        work from the office.
                The record, however, is unclear regarding whether Kitchens
        worked remotely only as needed during those four months. Geter
        cites her own deposition testimony as establishing that Kitchens
        “worked remotely for at least four months.” Geter testified that,
        during that period, she knew from conversations with the first-shift
        staff that Kitchens was sometimes not in the office and that Kitch-
        ens sometimes worked reduced hours, sometimes worked re-
        motely, and sometimes was off. 1 When pressed for specifics, Geter
        testified that she did not know exact days but that “[Torrence]
        would definitely know that, and [Kitchens’s supervisor] would
        know that.” Geter also admitted that she was not in charge of

        1 “The general rule is that inadmissible hearsay ‘cannot be considered on a

        motion for summary judgment.’” See Macuba v. Deboer, 193 F.3d 1316, 1322
        (11th Cir. 1999) (footnote omitted) (quoting Garside v. Osco Drug, Inc., 895 F.2d
        46, 50 (1st Cir. 1990)). We find that, on this point, Geter’s testimony is inad-
        missible hearsay, as there is nothing in the record to indicate that her state-
        ment would lead to admissible evidence at trial. Therefore, we do not con-
        sider this portion of Geter’s testimony.
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        12                    Opinion of the Court                22-11285

        approving Kitchens’s time off and had no access to her time rec-
        ords; as she stated, “[o]nly management and HR [have] those abil-
        ities.” Biskey-Rose, however, testified that Kitchens worked re-
        motely only as needed during that time.
               Additionally, Sarah Kopf, a second-shift APM, testified that
        she knew “there were people that were able to have” reduced
        schedules, but that she did not “know specifics.” Geter’s lawyer
        asked Kopf at her deposition who worked reduced schedules
        “[b]ased on [Kopf’s] personal knowledge.” Kopf testified that Geter
        had a reduced schedule “when [she] came back” and that Kitchens
        “had a reduced schedule when she came back as well.” But Kopf
        then qualified her testimony about Kitchens, saying, “I didn’t know
        the details though because I didn’t work with her on first shift.”
        Despite Geter’s and Kopf’s testimonies regarding their understand-
        ing that Kitchens worked reduced hours, however, Kitchens testi-
        fied that she worked full-time throughout the four-month period
        during which she sometimes worked remotely.
                The second employee Geter points to is Kopf. Kopf was a
        second shift APM who reported to Torrence and sometimes
        worked alone. Kopf testified that Torrence permitted her to work
        from home a few times in the case of an emergency, but she never
        requested or was approved for sustained remote work. She also
        testified that she never worked a reduced schedule and did not ask
        to work from home when she was scheduled to work alone.
               The third employee is Williams, who, as noted, was a third-
        shift APM whom Torrence allowed to work remotely throughout
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        22-11285                Opinion of the Court                          13

        the later stages of her pregnancy in late 2018 and early 2019. Be-
        ginning in February 2019, Williams took FMLA-covered maternity
        leave, and Schneider hired a temporary employee to replace her
        during that time.
               Finally, Geter points to Torrence, who she asserts “took off”
        approximately eighty days in 2018 and supports her contention
        with an attestation that she drew this information from the Fair-
        burn work calendar. But Geter did not append the calendar as an
        exhibit to any of her filings in the district court, and Schneider
        never produced it. The calendar is not part of the record on appeal.
            3. Schneider Reallocates Job Responsibilities After the Onset of the
                                   COVID-19 Pandemic.
               About a year after Geter’s termination, the COVID-19 pan-
        demic began. Schneider responded by making temporary adjust-
        ments to protect the safety of its employees. At first, Schneider
        transitioned APMs to full-time remote work, but it later adjusted
        the policy to two days a week of in-person work and three days a
        week of remote work. In March 2021, Schneider returned to a full-
        time, in-person schedule. Schneider also modified its protocol for
        printing in Fairburn during the pandemic. The company moved
        the printer to the drivers’ lounge so that APMs could remotely
        print paperwork for drivers. Further, during the pandemic, Schnei-
        der left the office unlocked for drivers to retrieve their keys while
        Fairburn employees worked from home, but since returning to in-
        person work, the company has kept the office locked.
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        14                        Opinion of the Court                     22-11285

               In April 2020, Schneider moved all of its APMs to Green Bay,
        Wisconsin, the site of its corporate office. Schneider planned this
        change before the pandemic. After the APMs moved to Green Bay,
        Schneider reassigned in-person driver-assistance responsibilities to
        the senior operating specialist (“SOS”) position. SOSs remained in
        Fairburn to retrieve keys from the lockbox as needed. Schneider
        also reassigned other in-person responsibilities that previously be-
        longed to APMs to other employees.
               D. Geter Sues Schneider and the District Court Enters
                      Summary Judgment in Schneider’s Favor.
               Geter filed suit against Schneider on March 12, 2020, assert-
        ing claims under the ADA for failure to accommodate, disability
        discrimination, and retaliation, and claims for race discrimination
        under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and 42 U.S.C. § 1981. 2 Even-
        tually, Schneider moved for summary judgment on all claims.
        Schneider argued that Geter’s failure-to-accommodate claim failed
        because she was not a qualified individual, she was not discrimi-
        nated against when her unreasonable request was denied, and she
        herself caused a breakdown in the interactive, accommodation pro-
        cess. Schneider similarly contended that Geter’s ADA discrimina-
        tion claim lacked merit because she was not a qualified individual
        and Schneider did not treat any similarly situated employee more

        2 The magistrate judge recommended that the district court deny Geter's race

        discrimination claims. Because Geter neither objected to the magistrate's rec-
        ommendation, nor raised the issue on appeal, we consider these claims aban-
        doned.
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        22-11285              Opinion of the Court                       15

        favorably. And Schneider argued that it should be granted sum-
        mary judgment on the ADA retaliation claim because Geter had
        not shown a causal relationship between her request for an accom-
        modation and her termination. Geter urged the district court to
        reject each of these arguments.
                A magistrate judge issued a report and recommendation on
        Schneider’s motion and recommended that the motion be granted.
        The magistrate judge first addressed Geter’s failure-to-accommo-
        date claim. Outlining the evidence, the magistrate judge observed
        that Schneider considered full-time, and in-person work essential
        for the APM position and concluded that under the governing law,
        Schneider’s determination was due substantial weight. The mag-
        istrate judge next considered Schneider’s FWA and remote-work
        policies. He concluded that the policies did “little to support
        [Geter’s] argument that working full-time or from the office are not
        essential functions” because the policies expressly depend on super-
        visors’ judgment and circumstance-dependent needs of each posi-
        tion. The magistrate judge also noted Geter’s own testimony that
        certain parts of her job could not be performed from home, as well
        as Kopf’s and Torrence’s testimonies to the same effect.
               The magistrate judge rejected Geter’s arguments that events
        postdating her termination supported her failure-to-accommodate
        claim. In particular, the magistrate judge deemed it insignificant
        that Geter could have accessed the Fairburn printer remotely be-
        cause while she was employed, the printer was in a locked office
        that drivers could not access without an APM. The magistrate
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        16                    Opinion of the Court                 22-11285

        judge then explained that the relocation of APMs to Green Bay did
        not help Geter because at that time, Schneider reassigned the in-
        person aspects of APMs’ jobs to other positions, thus changing the
        nature of the APM role after Geter had left. The magistrate judge
        similarly reasoned that Schneider’s temporary transition to remote
        work during the pandemic showed that temporary remote work
        “may have been feasible with . . . extra measures in place,” but ul-
        timately conflicted with APMs’ essential functions and Schneider’s
        preferences.
                Ultimately, the magistrate judge concluded that full-time
        work, in-person work “when only one APM was scheduled,” and
        working in a fast-paced, high-pressure environment were all essen-
        tial functions of APMs at the time Geter was terminated. Whether
        Geter was a qualified individual for ADA purposes turned on
        whether she could perform those essential functions with or with-
        out a reasonable accommodation. The magistrate judge concluded
        that Geter could not do so and that she had not argued that she
        could.
                Next, the magistrate judge considered Geter’s discrimina-
        tion and retaliation claims. The magistrate judge found that
        Geter’s ADA discrimination claim failed because she had not
        shown that she was a qualified individual—the same showing she
        failed to make in support of her failure-to-accommodate claim. Ad-
        ditionally, the magistrate judge concluded that the ADA discrimi-
        nation claim failed because Geter did not show that Schneider
        treated a similarly situated comparator more favorably than her
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        22-11285               Opinion of the Court                        17

        nor produce other compelling circumstantial evidence in support
        of her claim.
                The magistrate judge then turned to the ADA retaliation
        claim. He concluded that the close temporal proximity of Geter’s
        termination to her request for an accommodation amounted to a
        prima facie showing of causation. He considered whether Schnei-
        der had articulated a legitimate, non-retaliatory reason for Geter’s
        firing. Here again Schneider argued that it had a legitimate reason
        for terminating Geter’s employment: she could not perform the es-
        sential functions of the APM position. The magistrate judge agreed
        that Schneider had carried its burden of showing a legitimate, non-
        retaliatory reason for Geter’s termination because Biskey-Rose,
        Torrence, and Jansen arrived at the decision to terminate Geter af-
        ter considering alternatives and determining that she could not per-
        form the essential functions of her job. And the magistrate judge
        found that Geter had not pointed to any probative evidence sug-
        gesting that their explanation for her termination was pretextual.
        Thus, the magistrate judge recommended granting summary judg-
        ment in favor of Schneider on the retaliation claim. Geter then
        filed objections to the report and recommendation.
                Over Geter’s objections, the district court affirmed the re-
        port and recommendation and dismissed Geter’s case. Tackling
        the failure-to-accommodate claim first, the district court found that
        the APM job description weighed more in Geter’s favor than
        Schneider’s. But the district court held that other factors, including
        the experiences of other APMs, Schneider’s judgment, and the
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        18                       Opinion of the Court              22-11285

        increased workload on other APMs resulting from Geter’s reduced
        schedule—including the undisputed absence of any part-time em-
        ployees in Geter’s APM position—favored Schneider. The district
        court also agreed that Geter’s testimony about Torrence’s taking
        around eighty days off in 2018 was inadmissible hearsay and, in any
        event, did not move the needle on Geter’s claim because Torrence
        had a different job. Based on these conclusions, the district court
        found that there was no genuine dispute of material fact that full-
        time work was an essential function of Geter’s job. It therefore did
        not consider whether in-person work or working in a fast-paced,
        high-pressure environment were essential.
              Accordingly, the district court adopted the report and rec-
        ommendation’s finding that Geter was not a qualified individual
        under the ADA. And, like the magistrate judge, the district court
        determined that Geter’s ADA discrimination and ADA retaliation
        claims failed for the same reason. Thus, the district court adopted
        and affirmed the report and recommendation’s finding that the
        claims failed.
             The district court entered judgment in favor of Schneider,
        and Geter timely appealed.
                        II.      STANDARDS OF REVIEW
               We review de novo a district court’s order granting summary
        judgment. Mech v. Sch. Bd., 806 F.3d 1070, 1074 (11th Cir. 2015).
        “Summary judgment is appropriate if ‘the evidence before the
        court shows that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact
        and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of
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        22-11285               Opinion of the Court                         19

        law.’” McCullough v. Antolini, 559 F.3d 1201, 1204 (11th Cir. 2009)
        (quoting Haves v. City of Miami, 52 F.3d 918, 921 (11th Cir. 1995)).
        When considering a motion for summary judgment, a court must
        “construe the facts and draw all inferences in the light most favor-
        able to the nonmoving party” and, if a conflict arises between the
        facts evidenced by the parties, “credit the nonmoving party’s ver-
        sion.” Feliciano v. City of Miami Beach, 707 F.3d 1244, 1252 (11th Cir.
        2013) (quoting Davis v. Williams, 451 F.3d 759, 763 (11th Cir. 2006)).
        “On motions for summary judgment, we may consider only that
        evidence which can be reduced to an admissible form.” Rowell v.
        BellSouth Corp., 433 F.3d 794, 800 (11th Cir. 2005); see also Fed. R.
        Civ. P. 56(c)(2).
               We review a district court’s evidentiary rulings for abuse of
        discretion, even when those rulings come at the summary-judg-
        ment stage. Jefferson v. Sewon Am., Inc., 891 F.3d 911, 919 (11th Cir.
        2018). And we may affirm a grant of summary judgment on any
        ground that finds support in the record. Roy v. Ivy, 53 F.4th 1338,
        1346 (11th Cir. 2022); Lucas, 257 F.3d at 1256.
                                 III.   ANALYSIS
               Geter argues on appeal that the district court erred in grant-
        ing summary judgment to Schneider on her failure-to-accommo-
        date, discrimination, and retaliation claims. She maintains that a
        reasonable factfinder could have concluded that she is a “qualified
        individual” under the ADA. Construing the undisputed facts in the
        light most favorable to Geter, we disagree and address each claim
        in turn.
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        20                     Opinion of the Court                 22-11285

                         A. Failure-to-Accommodate Claim
               Geter first challenges the entry of judgment against her on
        her failure-to-accommodate claim.
                The ADA provides as follows: “No covered entity shall dis-
        criminate against a qualified individual on the basis of disability in
        regard to job application procedures, the hiring, advancement, or
        discharge of employees, employee compensation, job training, and
        other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment.” 42 U.S.C.
        § 12112(a) (emphasis added). The ADA defines a “qualified individ-
        ual” as “an individual who, with or without reasonable accommo-
        dation, can perform the essential functions of the employment po-
        sition that such individual holds or desires.” Id. § 12111(8). And it
        defines the phrase “discriminate against a qualified individual on
        the basis of disability” as including “not making reasonable accom-
        modations to the known physical or mental limitations of an oth-
        erwise qualified individual with a disability who is an applicant or
        employee, unless such covered entity can demonstrate that the ac-
        commodation would impose an undue hardship on the operation
        of the business of such covered entity.” Id. § 12112(b)(5)(A). That
        definition forms the basis of failure-to-accommodate claims.
               A plaintiff can establish a prima facie failure-to-accommo-
        date claim under the ADA by showing that: “(1) he is disabled; (2)
        he was a ‘qualified individual’ at the relevant time, meaning he
        could perform the essential functions of the job in question with or
        without reasonable accommodations; and (3) he was discriminated
        against because of his disability,” i.e., his employer failed to
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        22-11285                   Opinion of the Court                               21

        reasonably accommodate him. Lucas, 257 F.3d at 1255. An accom-
        modation is reasonable “only if it enables the employee to perform
        the essential functions of the job.” 3 Id.
                The parties do not dispute that Geter is disabled within the
        meaning of the ADA, so only the second and third failure-to-ac-
        commodate elements are at issue. Additionally, Geter does not
        contest that, at the time of her termination, she could not work
        full-time or in-person whenever she was scheduled to work alone.
        Nor does Geter dispute that Schneider had no designated part-time
        employees in the APM position at the time she sought the accom-
        modations, or that Schneider had to have another employee cover
        Geter’s in-office duties when she worked reduced hours or worked
        remotely. Instead, she argues that neither full-time work nor in-
        person work was an essential function of her job. The district court
        concluded that Geter was not a qualified individual because full-
        time work was an essential function of Geter’s job that she could

        3 We have held that the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting framework applies

        to ADA discrimination claims, and we have passingly suggested that it governs
        failure-to-accommodate claims. See Holly v. Clairson Indus., L.L.C., 492 F.3d
        1247, 1255 (11th Cir. 2007) (suggesting that the framework applies at least to
        discrimination claims); Earl v. Mervyns, Inc., 207 F.3d 1361, 1365 (11th Cir.
        2000) (suggesting in passing that the framework applies in considering a fail-
        ure-to-accommodate claim). But in an unpublished case, we held that the
        McDonnell Douglas framework does not apply to failure-to-accommodate
        claims. Nadler v. Harvey, No. 06-12692, 2007 WL 2404705, at *9 (11th Cir. Aug.
        24, 2007) (“[W]e join [our sister circuits] today and hold that McDonnell Douglas
        burden-shifting is not applicable to reasonable accommodation cases.”). We
        need not resolve this matter because Geter has not shown that she is a quali-
        fied individual, which is her initial burden under either approach.
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        22                        Opinion of the Court                       22-11285

        not perform. The magistrate judge, however, determined that
        both full-time work and in-person work when only one APM was
        scheduled to work were essential functions of Geter’s position.
        Although the district court did not reach the magistrate judge’s rec-
        ommendation that in-person work when only one APM was sched-
        uled to work was also an essential function of Geter’s position, the
        parties fully briefed this issue to the Court and, as noted above, we
        can consider and affirm the judgment on any ground that finds sup-
        port in the record. See Lucas, 257 F.3d at 1256. On appeal, Geter
        raises both issues. We thus address both whether full-time or in-
        person work were essential functions of Geter’s job. 4
                “‘Essential functions’ are the fundamental job duties of a po-
        sition that an individual with a disability is actually required to per-
        form.” Earl v. Mervyns, Inc., 207 F.3d 1361, 1365 (11th Cir. 2000).
        “Whether a function is essential is evaluated on a case-by-case basis
        by examining a number of factors.” Davis v. Fla. Power & Light Co.,
        205 F.3d 1301, 1305 (11th Cir. 2000). An important factor is the
        employer’s judgment as to whether a function is essential.

        4 Geter concedes in her initial brief that “[s]he had trouble working in a fast-

        paced, high-pressure environment throughout her employment with Schnei-
        der, not beginning with her need for accommodations in 2018 and 2019.” Ad-
        ditionally, Geter did not dispute that working in a fast-paced, high-pressure
        environment was an essential function of her position, instead challenging
        Schneider’s position that she could not perform this function. The magistrate
        judge thus concluded that working in a fast-paced, high-pressure environment
        was an essential function of Geter’s position. The district court, however, did
        not address whether working in such an environment was an essential func-
        tion, and we likewise do not address the issue here.
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        22-11285                Opinion of the Court                         23

        Congress provided in the ADA that “consideration shall be given
        to the employer’s judgment as to what functions of a job are essen-
        tial, and if an employer has prepared a written description before
        advertising or interviewing applicants for the job, this description
        shall be considered evidence of the essential functions of the job.”
        42 U.S.C. § 12111(8). We have said that the employer’s assessment
        deserves substantial, but not conclusive, weight. See Holly v. Clair-
        son Indus., L.L.C., 492 F.3d 1247, 1258 (11th Cir. 2007).
               Federal regulations identify several other relevant factors,
        including “(1) the amount of time spent on the job performing the
        function, (2) the consequences of not requiring the incumbent to
        perform the function, (3) the terms of the collective bargaining
        agreement, (4) the work experience of past incumbents in the job,
        and (5) the current work experience of incumbents in similar jobs.”
        D’Angelo v. ConAgra Foods, Inc., 422 F.3d 1220, 1230 (11th Cir. 2005)
        (quoting Davis, 205 F.3d at 1305); see also 29 C.F.R. § 1630.2(n)(3).
        These regulations also enumerate several bases for concluding that
        a job function is essential, e.g., if the position exists to perform the
        function, if there are a limited number of employees available
        among whom the performance of the job function can be distrib-
        uted, or if the function is highly specialized and the incumbent in
        the position was hired for his or her ability to perform the particu-
        lar function. See 29 C.F.R. § 1630.2(n)(2).
                                   1. Full-Time Work
                We begin with the district court’s conclusion that working
        full-time was essential for third-shift APMs.
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        24                     Opinion of the Court                22-11285

                First, we must consider Schneider’s judgment as to what
        functions are essential. See Holly, 492 F.3d at 1258. Geter acknowl-
        edges that we must consider Schneider’s assessment that full-time
        work was essential for Geter’s position, but argues that Schneider’s
        APM job description “is substantial evidence that in Schneider’s
        judgment full-time work is not essential” and weighs in her favor.
        Geter overstates her case. It is true that the description did not
        explicitly state that the APM role was full-time. But it did identify
        the APM position as “Exempt (Salaried)” and noted that it was not
        “an exhaustive or comprehensive list” of all essential duties. This
        is further supported by the offer letter submitted to Geter in July
        2014, which explicitly characterized the position as “[f]ull time; 40
        hours per week.” The APM job description thus does not reveal a
        genuine dispute of material fact as to whether full-time work was
        an essential part of the job.
               But other available evidence supports the conclusion that
        Schneider deemed a full-time schedule essential to the third-shift
        APM role. Despite the job description, Geter testified that she
        knew she was assuming a full-time position when she was hired.
        Schneider did not hire any part-time APMs at Fairburn. Torrence,
        Geter’s supervisor, attested that full-time work was essential to
        supporting drivers, considering that drivers were on the road and
        could encounter problems twenty-four hours a day, seven days a
        week. Further, because the third shift was lightly staffed such that
        third shift APMs often worked alone, it was particularly critical for
        third shift APMs to work each of their scheduled shifts.
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        22-11285               Opinion of the Court                       25

                To counter this evidence, Geter argues that Schneider’s
        FWA policy shows that APMs could be accommodated with part-
        time arrangements because the policy itself “contains no carve-out
        for APMs.” But Geter’s logic is flawed. The FWA policy was, on
        its face, not generally applicable to all Schneider employees; the
        policy permits flexible work arrangements only on a case-specific
        basis, upon approval by the employee’s supervisors, and when the
        arrangement mutually benefits both Schneider and the employee.
        Thus, because the FWA policy does not apply to employees except
        in very specific circumstances, there was no need for the policy to
        carve out the APM position. And again, other record evidence in-
        dicates that the third-shift APM position was not well-suited for
        part-time work because third-shift APMs were often assigned to
        work alone. That is one reason why Geter’s reduced schedule
        caused others, including Torrence, to be reassigned to her shifts.
               Thus, for these reasons, the FWA policy does not cast doubt
        on Schneider’s judgment that full-time work was essential. And
        that judgment is due substantial weight. See Holly, 492 F.3d at 1258.
               We next consider “the consequences of not requiring the in-
        cumbent to perform the function”—i.e., of not requiring Geter to
        work full-time. D’Angelo, 422 F.3d at 1230 (quoting Davis, 205 F.3d
        at 1305). The record speaks directly to this factor because Schnei-
        der allowed Geter to work part-time for several months. Accord-
        ing to Geter, Torrence covered for her only “sporadically” and
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        26                      Opinion of the Court                    22-11285

        other employees who covered for her did not work overtime. 5
        But these assertions are largely beside the point. Geter does not
        dispute that because she often was assigned to work alone—as
        were other third-shift APMs—Schneider needed to staff other em-
        ployees to cover for any shifts that she missed, or that other em-
        ployees had more work as a result of her absence. Indeed, she
        acknowledges in her brief that other employees “had to work
        harder”—and had to work the night shift—in her absence. The
        burdens that Geter’s part-time schedule caused other Schneider
        employees to bear weigh in Schneider’s favor. See 29 C.F.R.
        § 1630.2(n)(2)(ii) (stating that a “function may be essential because
        of the limited number of employees available among whom the
        performance of that job function can be distributed”); Holbrook v.
        City of Alpharetta, 112 F.3d 1522, 1528 (11th Cir. 1997) (affirming
        grant of summary judgment and explaining that a “minor ‘reshuf-
        fling’ of . . . assignments proposed by [the plaintiff] necessarily
        would require the reallocation of an essential part of his job”).
               And the mere fact that Schneider managed to get by for
        three months while Geter worked part-time does not create a gen-
        uine dispute of material fact. In Holbrook, for example, we affirmed
        the grant of summary judgment to an employer despite evidence
        that the employer temporarily “was able to accommodate [the
        plaintiff]” because the previous accommodation “may have ex-
        ceeded that which the law requires” and the “decision to cease

        5 Because the parties dispute the extent to which Torrence covered Geter’s

        shifts, we must credit the nonmoving party’s account at summary judgment.
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        22-11285              Opinion of the Court                       27

        making those accommodations” does not violate the ADA. 112
        F.3d at 1528. We follow the same course here.
               Next, we turn to “the current work experience of incum-
        bents in similar jobs.” D’Angelo, 422 F.3d at 1230 (quoting Davis,
        205 F.3d at 1305). Geter argues that the experiences of other APMs
        show that full-time work was not essential. In particular, Geter
        emphasizes Kopf’s testimony that some people worked reduced
        hours and Geter’s own testimony that Torrence took off around
        eighty days throughout 2018.
                A review of the record shows that Kopf’s testimony does not
        create a genuine dispute of material fact. Kopf testified that she
        knew of only two other APMs who worked reduced hours—Geter
        and Kitchens. But Kopf also made clear that she knew no “specif-
        ics” or “details” about Kitchens’s arrangement because she did not
        work the same shift. Kitchens, by contrast, testified that although
        she worked remotely during the period she was approved for
        FMLA leave, she did not work a reduced schedule. Given Kitch-
        ens’s testimony about her own schedule, Kopf’s vague and equiv-
        ocal testimony that Kitchens worked part-time is not enough to
        create a genuine dispute of material fact about whether Kitchens
        worked full-time. See, e.g., Wolf v. Coca-Cola Co., 200 F.3d 1337,
        1343 (11th Cir. 2000) (finding that the testimony supporting the
        non-moving party at summary judgment “simply [was] too indefi-
        nite to meet” that party’s burden and that other testimony was “too
        ambiguous to create a genuine dispute of material fact”); Jefferson,
        891 F.3d at 924–25 (affirming district court’s exclusion of
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        28                         Opinion of the Court                         22-11285

        conclusory testimony because the affiant did not provide sufficient
        facts to conclude that the witness had personal knowledge of the
        issue, and observing that we have “consistently held that conclu-
        sory allegations without specific supporting facts have no probative
        value” (quoting Leigh v. Warner Bros., Inc., 212 F.3d 1210, 1217 (11th
        Cir. 2020))); see also Kernel Recs. Oy v. Mosley, 694 F.3d 1294, 1308
        (11th Cir. 2012) (discounting “general and ambiguous deposition
        testimony, without the inclusion of specific facts,” at summary
        judgment as “insufficiently probative”).
               Moreover, even if Kopf were right that Kitchens temporarily
        worked a reduced schedule, that would not be material to Geter’s
        claim. Kitchens worked a different, more heavily staffed shift that
        could be more easily covered by others, reported to a different su-
        pervisor, and she was approved for FMLA leave—i.e., was entitled
        not to work at all—for at least much of the time that she worked
        from outside the office. 6 Kitchens’s situation is thus a poor com-
        parison to Geter’s request for further accommodation. And the ex-
        periences of Schneider employees in similar positions reinforces
        Schneider’s view that full-time work was essential for APMs, and
        particularly for third-shift APMs like Geter.

        6 An employee who is eligible for FMLA leave is entitled to take leave, but, in

        contrast, a qualified individual with a disability is entitled only to a reasonable
        accommodation under the ADA. See 29 C.F.R. § 825.702(a) (explaining that
        “the leave provisions of the [FMLA] are wholly distinct from the reasonable
        accommodation obligations of employers covered under the [ADA]” (altera-
        tions in original)).
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        22-11285               Opinion of the Court                        29

               Relatedly, Geter argues that the district court abused its dis-
        cretion in excluding her testimony that Torrence took time off in
        2018. See Jefferson, 891 F.3d at 924 (reviewing evidentiary ruling at
        summary judgment for abuse of discretion). We disagree. First,
        Geter fails to persuade us that Torrence’s alleged time off even
        matters. Torrence was an operations team lead and Geter’s super-
        visor; he was not an APM. So, his alleged absences imply nothing
        about the essential duties of APMs.
                Second, even if Torrence’s absences were relevant, the dis-
        trict court also did not abuse its considerable discretion in exclud-
        ing Geter’s hearsay testimony based on the unproduced calendar.
        Geter argues that the calendar would be admissible as a business
        record at trial. See Fed. R. Evid. 803(6). We are not persuaded.
        Because the calendar is not in the record, we cannot speculate that
        the calendar will turn up before trial. Further, we cannot speculate
        that the unproduced calendar will fall within the business records
        exception. Cf. Jones v. UPS Ground Freight, 683 F.3d 1283, 1294 (11th
        Cir. 2012) (“The possibility that unknown witnesses will emerge to
        provide testimony on this point is insufficient to establish that the
        hearsay statement could be reduced to admissible evidence at
        trial.”). Indeed, “admissibility under the business records exception
        boils down to reliability, ‘and a trial judge has broad discretion to
        determine the admissibility of such evidence.’” United States v. Ah-
        med, 73 F.4th 1363, 1382–83 (11th Cir. 2023) (quoting United States
        v. Joseph, 978 F.3d 1251, 1265 (11th Cir. 2020)). Thus, based on the
        record before us, we conclude that the district court did not abuse
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        30                       Opinion of the Court                     22-11285

        its discretion in determining that Geter’s testimony about the cal-
        endar was inadmissible hearsay.
                Therefore, viewed as a whole, the record establishes that
        full-time work was an essential function of Geter’s job. Schneider
        determined that a full-time schedule was an essential aspect of the
        third-shift APM position. Schneider’s judgment is entitled to sub-
        stantial weight regardless of other evidence. But on the record be-
        fore us, the other relevant factors—the consequences of Geter’s
        part-time schedule, the experiences of other Schneider employees
        in similar positions, and the limited number of employees available
        to cover Geter’s missed shifts—also uniformly weigh in Schneider’s
        favor.7 Geter, by contrast, has not pointed to record evidence suf-
        ficient to create a genuine dispute of material fact. We thus hold
        that, based on the record evidence, the district court did not err in
        concluding that full-time work was an essential function of Geter’s
        job. See Terrell v. USAir, 132 F.3d 621, 626 (11th Cir. 1998) (finding
        unreasonable a requested part-time accommodation, where the
        employer had no part-time jobs at the time the employee requested

        7 We do not consider several of the factors mentioned by our precedents be-

        cause they are unhelpful in the context of this record. For example, we have
        no need to analyze “the amount of time spent on the job performing the func-
        tion” because doing so would be circular: the function we are considering is
        how much time Geter needed to be working. See D’Angelo, 422 F.3d at 1230
        (quoting Davis, 205 F.3d at 1305). We also need not consider the terms of any
        collective bargaining agreements and the work experience of past incumbents
        in Geter’s job because the record contains no evidence of either. See id.
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        22-11285                Opinion of the Court                          31

        the position, and where the employer would have had to create a
        part-time position to provide the requested accommodation).
               To be clear, our holding should not be read to lessen the
        need for or the possibility of allowing part-time work arrangements
        as a reasonable accommodation under the ADA. Indeed, part-time
        work could well be a reasonable accommodation in some circum-
        stances, particularly where the employer has part-time jobs readily
        available. Id. Congress specifically provided that “‘reasonable ac-
        commodation[s]’ may include . . . part-time or modified work
        schedules.”      42 U.S.C. § 12111(9)(B); see also 38 C.F.R.
        § 18.412(b)(2). But whether an accommodation is reasonable is an-
        alytically separate from the threshold question of whether an em-
        ployee is a qualified individual. An employee is “qualified” under
        the ADA only if she “could perform the essential functions of the
        job in question with or without reasonable accommodations.” Lucas,
        257 F.3d at 1255 (emphasis added); see also 42 U.S.C. § 12111(8). “In
        other words, the ADA does not require [the employer] to eliminate
        an essential function of [the plaintiff’s] job.” D’Angelo, 422 F.3d at
        1229 (alterations in original) (quoting Davis, 205 F.3d at 1305). And
        under our precedents, whether a function such as full-time work is
        essential is a fact-intensive inquiry that depends on the circum-
        stances of the case. See, e.g., Davis, 205 F.3d at 1305.
               Other courts have adopted this approach. For instance, in
        Hostettler v. College of Wooster, 895 F.3d 844 (6th Cir. 2018), the Sixth
        Circuit considered whether full-time work was an essential func-
        tion of an employee’s job. See id. at 855–56. Although the court,
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        32                      Opinion of the Court                    22-11285

        viewing the specific record before it, concluded that full-time work
        was not essential and reversed the district court’s grant of summary
        judgment, it recognized that the essential-function “analysis does
        not lend itself to categorical rules—‘it is highly fact specific.’” Id. at
        854 (quoting Mosby-Meachem v. Memphis Light, Gas & Water Div.,
        883 F.3d 595, 605 (6th Cir. 2018)); The court also explained that
        “‘[r]egular, in-person attendance is an essential function’ of most,”
        but not all, jobs, and “courts must perform a fact-intensive analy-
        sis” in determining if it is. Id. (alteration in original) (quoting EEOC
        v. Ford Motor Co., 782 F.3d 753, 762–63 (6th Cir. 2015) (en banc)); see
        also Browning v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 178 F.3d 1043, 1048–49 (8th
        Cir. 1999) (explaining that an employee was not a qualified individ-
        ual because she could not work her full-time job at the time of his
        termination).
                We agree that determining what job functions are essential
        is a fact-specific endeavor. Terrell, 132 F.3d at 626 (“Whether an
        accommodation is reasonable depends on specific circum-
        stances.”). So while we reach a different result than the Sixth Cir-
        cuit in Hostettler in assessing the distinct record before us, we also
        recognize that, in other contexts, there will be cases in which an
        employee points to evidence that would permit a reasonable fact-
        finder to determine that full-time work is not an essential function
        of the particular job at issue.
                                    2. In-Person Work
               Geter also contends that in-person work was not an essential
        function of her job. We turn first to Schneider’s judgment
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        22-11285                 Opinion of the Court                            33

        regarding the APM job. Although Geter argues that Schneider did
        not consider in-person work essential, the record shows otherwise.
        The APM job description listed “regular and consistent attendance
        and timeliness” as essential. Torrence attested that in-person work
        was essential to Geter’s job. And Geter herself testified that Schnei-
        der’s wanted its APMs in the office because Atlanta-based drivers
        appreciated when APMs were physically present. In short, there is
        no real dispute that Schneider considered in-person work essential
        to Geter’s job. And again, Schneider’s judgment is entitled to sub-
        stantial weight. See Holly. 492 F.3d at 1247.
               Next, we address “the current work experience of incum-
        bents in similar jobs.” D’Angelo, 422 F.3d at 1230 (quoting Davis,
        205 F.3d at 1305). Geter argues that the work experiences of other
        APMs support her position that in-person work was not essential.
        The best comparator for Geter is Williams, another third-shift
        APM who Torrence sometimes permitted to work remotely dur-
        ing the later stage of her pregnancy in early 2019. 8 Williams’s
        vague testimony about this temporary arrangement lends minimal
        support to Geter’s argument, but ultimately, it does not move the
        needle. The record contains no details about how often Schneider
        permitted Williams to work remotely or how the company man-
        aged when Williams was scheduled to work alone. Schneider also
        knew that Williams would soon take FMLA-covered maternity
        leave and, as a result, was hiring a temporary employee to cover

        8 Although Kitchens also worked remotely at times while her mother was sick,

        Kitchens was a first shift APM who, unlike Geter, never had to work alone.
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        34                     Opinion of the Court                 22-11285

        for Williams. Geter, by contrast, continually requested accommo-
        dations with no definite end dates and specifically requested that
        she be allowed to work both remotely and alone.
                The next factor is “the consequences of not requiring” Geter
        to work at the office. D’Angelo, 422 F.3d at 1230 (quoting Davis, 205
        F.3d at 1305). Geter’s own deposition testimony shows why this
        factor weighs heavily in Schneider’s favor. Geter testified that if
        Schneider approved her to work from home every time she was
        scheduled to work alone—as she requested in April 2019—she
        would have still needed someone in the Fairburn office to assist
        with unanticipated driver issues, retrieving keys, and finding
        trucks. Geter’s admission that someone needed to be in the office
        when she was scheduled to work alone hurts her argument that in-
        person work was not essential. Schneider was “not required by the
        ADA to reallocate job duties in order to change the essential func-
        tions of [Geter’s] job.” Holbrook, 112 F.3d at 1528 (quoting Milton
        v. Scrivner, Inc., 53 F.3d 1118, 1124 (10th Cir. 1995)).
                Geter resists this conclusion by arguing that the Fairburn of-
        fice’s operations after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic prove
        that being in the office to retrieve keys for drivers and help them
        find trucks was not necessary. This argument lacks merit. The
        bare feasibility of temporarily suspending a function in response to
        the COVID-19 pandemic does not demonstrate that the function
        was not essential. The only way Schneider could allow Geter to
        work remotely when she was scheduled to work alone was to keep
        the office unlocked during her shift to allow drivers to obtain keys.
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        And although the company left the office unlocked for a short time
        at the beginning of the pandemic, it has required locking the office
        ever since its return to in-person work. Accepting Geter’s argu-
        ment that Schneider should have permitted her to work remotely
        and alone would require Schneider to (1) jeopardize company
        property by leaving its office unlocked and unattended all night or
        (2) assign someone to be physically present in the office, thus
        demonstrating the necessity of physical presence. Because Geter’s
        argument that Schneider should return to its pandemic-era policies
        collapses into an argument that Schneider should effectively excuse
        Geter from performing a fundamental function of her job, we re-
        ject it.
                Geter again stresses Schneider’s FWA and remote-work pol-
        icies. But those policies neither create a genuine dispute or mate-
        rial fact nor contravene the more specific evidence that APMs did
        not work remotely under them for any sustained period. Kitchens,
        to be sure, might have worked remotely some days during the
        four-month period that her mother was in the hospital, but Kitch-
        ens was approved for FMLA leave and the arrangement was tem-
        porary. Kitchens also worked a different, more heavily staffed shift
        and, unlike Geter, never worked alone. Kitchens’s temporary ar-
        rangement thus indicates little about the essential functions of
        Geter’s role.
                Last, Geter points to Schneider’s 2020 relocation of APMs to
        Green Bay and reallocation of responsibilities among its positions
        after it terminated her employment. But Schneider’s pandemic-era
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        36                      Opinion of the Court                  22-11285

        changes only confirm that in-person work was essential for APMs
        like Geter when she worked there. See, e.g., Browning, 178 F.3d at
        1048–49 (framing the relevant question as whether the employee
        “was . . . a qualified individual at the time of her termination”); Ter-
        rell, 132 F.3d at 626 (focusing on “when Plaintiff demanded such a
        position”). When Schneider relocated APMs, it had to reassign the
        essential, in-person aspects of the APM job to SOSs in Fairburn.
        Geter cannot rebut evidence that in-person work was an essential
        function of her job by arguing that Schneider should have simply
        eliminated the function. See Holbrook, 112 F.3d at 1528.
                For these reasons, in-person work was essential to Geter’s
        job. The experiences of other APMs, like Williams, provide at best
        only minimal support for Geter’s argument. But every other per-
        tinent factor—Schneider’s judgment and the consequences of per-
        mitting Geter to work remotely any time she worked alone—
        strongly supports Schneider’s view that in-person work was essen-
        tial to Geter’s job. After all, Geter, at her deposition, admitted that
        key aspects of her job required her physical presence in the office.
                Accordingly, there is no genuine dispute of material fact that
        full-time and in-person work were essential functions of Geter’s
        job. The district court properly granted summary judgment to
        Schneider on Geter’s failure-to-accommodate claim.
                               B. Discrimination Claim
              Geter also maintains that the district court improperly
        granted summary judgment to Schneider on her ADA discrimina-
        tion claim. We apply the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting
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        22-11285               Opinion of the Court                         37

        framework when evaluating ADA discrimination claims. See Holly,
        492 F.3d at 1255. “To establish a prima facie case of discrimination
        under the ADA, a plaintiff must show: (1) he is disabled; (2) he is a
        qualified individual; and (3) he was subjected to unlawful discrimi-
        nation because of his disability.” Id. at 1255–56. For the reasons
        discussed in Geter’s failure-to-accommodate claim, we conclude
        that Geter’s ADA discrimination claim fails because she is not a
        qualified individual. We thus conclude that the district court
        properly granted summary judgment to Schneider on Geter’s ADA
        discrimination claim.
                                 C. Retaliation Claim
                The ADA also provides that “[n]o person shall discriminate
        against any individual because such individual . . . made a charge,
        testified, assisted, or participated in any manner in an investigation,
        proceeding, or hearing under this chapter.” 42 U.S.C. § 12203(a).
        We assess ADA retaliation claims under the McDonnell Douglas bur-
        den-shifting framework. See Stewart v. Happy Herman’s Cheshire
        Bridge, Inc., 117 F.3d 1278, 1287 (11th Cir. 1997). “To establish a
        prima facie case of retaliation, a plaintiff must show: (1) statutorily
        protected expression; (2) adverse employment action; and (3) a
        causal link between the protected expression and the adverse ac-
        tion.” Id. Once that initial showing is made, the burden shifts to
        the employer to “come forward with legitimate non-discrimina-
        tory reasons for its actions that negate the inference of retaliation.”
        Id. If the employer does so, the plaintiff “must then demonstrate
        that [she] will be able to establish at trial that the employer’s
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        38                     Opinion of the Court                 22-11285

        proffered non-discriminatory reasons are a pretextual ruse de-
        signed to mask retaliation.” Id.
                The district court determined that Geter made a prima facie
        case of retaliation, and that Schneider articulated a legitimate, non-
        discriminatory reason for terminating Geter—that Geter could not
        perform her job’s essential functions. Neither party challenges
        these conclusions. So we will assume without deciding that the
        district court was correct to proceed to the third question posed by
        the McDonnell Douglas framework: whether Geter can establish that
        Schneider’s proffered reasons for her termination were pretextual.
               She cannot. Geter’s only argument for pretext is that she
        was “capable of performing the essential functions of her job with
        her requested reasonable accommodations,” and thus “any reason
        for terminating her employment rather than allowing her the ben-
        efit of reasonable accommodations is pretext for discrimination
        and retaliation.” So again, Geter links her retaliation claim to her
        failure-to-accommodate claim: she can succeed only by establish-
        ing that full-time work and in-person work were not essential func-
        tions and that Schneider failed to reasonably accommodate her.
        But for the reasons we have discussed, there are no genuine dis-
        putes of material fact that Geter could not perform the essential
        functions of her job. Accordingly, we conclude that the district
        court correctly entered judgment against her on her retaliation
        claim.
                              IV.    CONCLUSION
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        22-11285               Opinion of the Court                       39

              For the reasons discussed, we affirm the district court’s grant
        of summary judgment in favor of Schneider.
              AFFIRMED.