A Practical Approach to Behavioral Job Duties

By Les Kertay, PhD, ABPP, LP

Chief Medical Officer
R3 Continuum

“Job demands” are a critical but often overlooked aspect of managing compliance under leave laws and the Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act (ADAAA). In sedentary and knowledge-based workforces, it is especially critical to understand behavioral demands — cognitive, emotional, and social. Unfortunately, employers have few clear resources to help. So how do we determine which duties are essential and/or what accommodations might make those duties possible?

Resources are available to help define essential duties of physically intensive jobs. The Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT)¹ and the Occupational Network Database (O-NET),² both by the U.S. Department of Labor, provide good detail on the physical requirements of many jobs. With respect to behavioral demands, however, the DOT is practically silent and the O-NET selections remain limited. The O-NET includes basic skills such as active learning, listening, critical thinking, speaking, and writing, but it is silent on most of the complex emotional and attentional demands of modern, high-stress positions.

Nevertheless, even when more definitive guidance is not available, an employer is still required to document job descriptions as benchmarks for judging compliance. Here is a step-by-step process for documenting essential job requirements:

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