Superficial Contact in Normal Work Duties

We addressed the issue of superficial contact with supervisors as incompatible with reacting appropriately to criticism from a supervisor.  We separately address the question on qualitative versus quantitative contact with supervisors and coworkers.  This typically engenders a re-definition of terms by the ALJ or the ALJ just ignores the cross-examination that in turn leads to a lengthy appeal.  In this piece, we address a method that uses vocationally recognized and relevant terms for which we have hard data.  We start with the assumption in the hypothetical question to occasional superficial contact with the public, coworkers, and supervisors.  The vocational expert identified three occupations representing a significant number of jobs.  It is now time for cross-examination. 

Q. Do you consider coordinating with other people to be superficial?
Q. Do you consider factual information exchange to be superficial?
Q. Do you consider gentle persuading to be superficial?

Coordinating with other people and persuading other people fall outside the superficial box.  Those two questions should get a "no."  That leaves factual information exchange to be the focal point of potentially superficial.  We used office clerks, general (SOC 43-9061) in the most recent articles, so we continue to use them as illustrative here. 

43-9061.00 (office clerks, general)

Series ID: ORUC1000075800001030

Not seasonally adjusted

Series Title: % of office clerks, general; type of interaction with regular contacts is factual info exchange

Requirement: Cognitive And Mental Requirements

Occupation: office clerks, general

Estimate: type of interaction with regular contacts is factual info exchange

Year	Period	Estimate
2017	Annual	30.7

https://beta.bls.gov/dataViewer/view/timeseries/ORUC1000075800001030

Series ID: ORUC1000075800001036

Not seasonally adjusted

Series Title: % of office clerks, general; type of interaction with other contacts is factual info exchange

Requirement: Cognitive And Mental Requirements

Occupation: office clerks, general

Estimate: type of interaction with other contacts is factual info exchange

Year	Period	Estimate
2017	Annual	51.2

https://beta.bls.gov/dataViewer/view/timeseries/ORUC1000075800001036

As between the two types of contacts, interacting with regular contacts is limited to factual information exchange in a smaller percentage of jobs -- general office clerks coordinate or persuade in the majority of jobs. 

Series ID: ORUC1000075800001031

Not seasonally adjusted

Series Title: % of office clerks, general; type of interaction with regular contacts is coordinating

Requirement: Cognitive And Mental Requirements

Occupation: office clerks, general

Estimate: type of interaction with regular contacts is coordinating

Year	Period	Estimate
2017	Annual	62.8

https://beta.bls.gov/dataViewer/view/timeseries/ORUC1000075800001031

Series ID: ORUC1000075800001032

Not seasonally adjusted

Series Title: % of office clerks, general; type of interaction with regular contacts is gentle persuading

Requirement: Cognitive And Mental Requirements

Occupation: office clerks, general

Estimate: type of interaction with regular contacts is gentle persuading

Year	Period	Estimate
2017	Annual	6

https://beta.bls.gov/dataViewer/view/timeseries/ORUC1000075800001032

Having suspected and then confirmed the inference, we can confidently state that the data shows that 30.7% of general office clerks are limited to factual information exchange as an expected part of the job performance.  We now turn to frequency.  

Series ID: ORUC1000075800001050

Not seasonally adjusted

Series Title: % of office clerks, general; frequency of contact with regular contacts is continuous

Requirement: Cognitive And Mental Requirements

Occupation: office clerks, general

Estimate: frequency of contact with regular contacts is continuous

Year	Period	Estimate
2017	Annual	21.6

https://beta.bls.gov/dataViewer/view/timeseries/ORUC1000075800001050

Series ID: ORUC1000075800001051

Not seasonally adjusted

Series Title: % of office clerks, general; frequency of contact with regular contacts is more than once per hour

Requirement: Cognitive And Mental Requirements

Occupation: office clerks, general

Estimate: frequency of contact with regular contacts is more than once per hour

Year	Period	Estimate
2017	Annual	53.4

https://beta.bls.gov/dataViewer/view/timeseries/ORUC1000075800001051

Series ID: ORUC1000075800001052

Not seasonally adjusted

Series Title: % of office clerks, general; frequency of contact with regular contacts is more than once per day

Requirement: Cognitive And Mental Requirements

Occupation: office clerks, general

Estimate: frequency of contact with regular contacts is more than once per day

Year	Period	Estimate
2017	Annual	21.5

https://beta.bls.gov/dataViewer/view/timeseries/ORUC1000075800001052

The data change the terminology.  Continuous translates over to constant easily.  More than once per hour is the corollary for frequent and more than once per day is the corollary for occasional.  If we use contact with other contacts, we get the phrase for seldom or never:

Series ID: ORUC1000075800001048

Not seasonally adjusted

Series Title: % of office clerks, general; frequency of contact with other contacts is no more than once per day, including never

Requirement: Cognitive And Mental Requirements

Occupation: office clerks, general

Estimate: frequency of contact with other contacts is no more than once per day, including never

Year	Period	Estimate
2017	Annual	31.9

https://beta.bls.gov/dataViewer/view/timeseries/ORUC1000075800001048

Getting to that definition has the serendipity of providing a hold on how many general office clerks have no contact with the public -- other contacts.

Now we get to the point where commonsense controls. Who is more likely to have contact with coworkers and supervisors to coordinate activity, unskilled or skilled workers? Who is more likely to have their work checked by a coworker or supervisor regularly during the workday, unskilled or skilled workers? This is our last data point for this discussion:

Series ID: ORUC1000075800001075

Not seasonally adjusted

Series Title: % of office clerks, general; work review is more than once a day

Requirement: Cognitive And Mental Requirements

Occupation: office clerks, general

Estimate: work review is more than once a day

Year	Period	Estimate
2017	Annual	32.2

https://beta.bls.gov/dataViewer/view/timeseries/ORUC1000075800001075

Series ID: ORUC1000075800001076

Not seasonally adjusted

Series Title: % of office clerks, general; work review is once per day

Requirement: Cognitive And Mental Requirements

Occupation: office clerks, general

Estimate: work review is once per day

Year	Period	Estimate
2017	Annual	29.8

https://beta.bls.gov/dataViewer/view/timeseries/ORUC1000075800001076

Series ID: ORUC1000075800001077

Not seasonally adjusted

Series Title: % of office clerks, general; work review is at least weekly

Requirement: Cognitive And Mental Requirements

Occupation: office clerks, general

Estimate: work review is at least weekly

Year	Period	Estimate
2017	Annual	24.7

https://beta.bls.gov/dataViewer/view/timeseries/ORUC1000075800001077

Less than a quarter have their work checked less than daily; less than a third have their work checked daily; and a third get checked more than daily.  We have three competing assumptions to make about the world of work:

1. Unskilled workers have less contact with coworkers and supervisors compared to skilled or semi-skilled workers.
2. Unskilled workers have more contact with coworkers and supervisors compared to skilled or semi-skilled workers.
3. Unskilled workers have about the same contact with coworkers and supervisors compared to skilled or semi-skilled workers.

Absent a statistical basis for an assumption, the default has to be #3.  We go back to the OOH for the raw job numbers:

43-9061 Office clerks, general

Typical Education Needed	High school diploma or equivalent
Work Experience in a Related Occupation	None
Typical On-The-Job Training Needed to Attain Competency	Short-term on-the-job training
2016 Employment	3,117,700

We broke down the skill level based on ORS data to get to 1,100,548 unskilled jobs as a general office clerk.  We broke those numbers down to light and sedentary jobs and those with less than or equal to six hours of sitting.  Putting those conclusions together with today's data and we get:

43-9061.00 (office clerks, general)

# of Jobs	% Unskilled	# Unskilled
3,117,700	35.3%	1,100,548
# Unskilled	% Fact Info Ex.	# Fact Info Ex.
1,100,548	30.7%	337,868
# Fact Info Ex.	% > Daily	# > Daily
337,868	21.5%	72,642
# Unskilled	% Light	# Light
72,642	41.0%	29,783
# Light	% ≤ 6 hour sitting	# ≤ 6 hour sitting
29,783	25.0%	7,446
# Unskilled	% Sedentary	# Sedentary
72,642	32.8%	23,826
# Sedentary	% ≤ 6 hour sitting	# ≤ 6 hour sitting
23,826	25.0%	5,957

If we have an occasional superficial contact with others with either a sedentary or light residual functional capacity, the number of jobs drops below 30,000  in both exertion levels.  Imposing a limitation to six hours of sitting and the number of jobs becomes insignificant in most circuits.  

Simple Unskilled Work with the Work Function of Persuading

As we persist through the agonal days of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, time still exists to disassemble vocational expert testimony based on apparent conflict with the DOT.  The typical basis for establishing conflict with the testimony and the DOT focus on the trailer information described in Appendix C.  I have suggested at NOSSCR conferences that we use the Data-People-Things codes found in Appendix B.  This post looks at the 11 unskilled occupations and one semi-skilled occupation occasionally identified as transitioned to unskilled with the fifth digit, of 5. 

The middle three digits "reflect relationships to Data, People, and Things, respectively. These digits express a job's relationship to Data, People, and Things by identifying the highest appropriate function in each listing." The 5th digit of the DOT code reflects the people function. When that 5th digit is a 5, the DOT informs that the occupation requires persuasion.

                               DOT             Name                                                St  SVP   GED

291.457-010	Cigarette Vendor	L	2	222
291.454-010	Lei Seller	L	2	222
292.457-010	Newspaper Carrier	L	2	222
295.357-018	Furniture-Rental Consultant	L	2	322
342.657-010	Barker	L	2	323
293.357-014	Fund Raiser II	L	2	323
293.357-018	Goodwill Ambassador	L	2	323
291.357-010	Sales Representative, Door-to-Door	L	2	323
342.357-010	Weight Guesser	L	2	323
291.457-014	Lounge-Car Attendant	M	2	222
291.457-022	Vendor	M	2	222
299.357-014	Telephone Solicitor	S	3	333

Some of the usual suspects are on the list. Furniture-rental consultant, fund raiser II, and telephone solicitor. The two medium occupations have reasoning level 2 as do three of the light occupations. The common factor in these 12 DOT codes is that 5th digit -- a 5. Appendix B defines that worker function as persuading. Appendix B refines that definition:

5 Persuading: Influencing others in favor of a product, service, or point of view.

The Revised Handbook for Analyzing Jobs gives examples of persuading as a worker function.

5 Persuading: Influencing others in favor of a product, service, or point of view.
5: 1 Sells services of industrial psychology firms to management officials.
5:2 Calls on farmers to solicit repair business and to sell new milking equipment. Demonstrates milking machines.
5:3 Offers articles at auction, asking for bids, attempting to stimulate buying desire of bidders and closing sales to highest bidder.
5:4 Sells all types of life insurance by pointing out company programs that meet clients' insurance needs.
5:5 Solicits membership for club or trade association. Visits or contacts prospective members to explain benefits and cost of membership and to describe organization and objective of club or association.
5:6 Contacts individuals and firms by telephone and in person to solicit funds for charitable organization.
5:7 Sells home appliances to customer after pointing out salable features of merchandise.
5:8 Calls on retail outlets to suggest merchandising advantages of company's trading stamp plan.
5:9 Promotes use of and sells ethical drugs and other pharmaceutical products to doctors, dentists, hospitals, and retail and wholesale drug establishments.
5:10 Purchases merchandise or commodities for resale.

Worker functions that require persuading are not simple. They might be a skills that a worker has to learn over time to gain proficiency. It is well beyond the suggestive-sell of a fast food worker, "you want fries with that?"

The ALJ must adduce a reasonable basis for accepting vocational expert testimony that conflicts with the DOT.  Social Security Ruling 00-4p.  Cross-examination becomes key.

"Do you consider the art of persuasion something that workers learn over time?"  
"If reading from a script is all that is necessary for telemarketers, do they need to learn how to read it persuasively?
"Is communicating in a persuasive manner a skill?"
"Is there anything in the medical-vocational profile framed in the ALJ's hypothetical question that suggests to you the ability to perform work functions that require the person to be persuasive?"

Demonstrate fluid application of the DOT in its native format and that might put an end to the VE punking you -- or do for you what it has done for me, provide convincing anecdotal evidence that the VE corps do not put much if any thought into their testimony.

Be aggressive on these "5" jobs, they require persuasion.