Aptitudes and Work Situations (Temperaments) -- SSA Says Do Not Consider Them

The Commissioner re-issued EM-21065 REV 2 effective January 6, 2025. EM-21065 follows the effective date of SSR 24-3p, removed references to SSR 00-4p, and made editorial changes. EM-21065 describes the SkillTRAN products (OccuBrowse, Job Browser Pro, and OASYS) as useful but does not replace policy, judgment, or decision-making. EM-21065 emphasizes that the SkillTRAN reports of aptitudes and work situations (temperaments) are not consistent with agency policy:

These ratings do not represent functional requirements for work because they reflect the personal interests, natural abilities, and personality characteristics of job incumbents rather than occupational requirements that adjudicators must consider when assessing the vocational impact of limitations or restrictions resulting from a medically determinable impairment(s), as is required for SSA’s disability programs.

SSA misapprehends the origin of aptitudes and temperaments. These data categories are not part of SkillTRAN products but are instead part of the DOT dataset. Every major reporter of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) dataset report aptitudes and temperaments. The Selected Characteristics of Occupations (SCO) is just that, a statement of selected characteristics. The selected characteristics implies that the dataset contains other characteristics that the Department of Labor did not select. The "unselected" characteristics include not only aptitudes and temperaments but also work fields and materials, products, subject matter, and services codes (necessary for transferable skills analysis). 

The Revised Handbook for Analyzing Jobs (DOL 1991) (RHAJ) explains all data fields used in the DOT, SCO, and the unselected characteristics. The RHAJ defines aptitudes in chapter 9. The RHAJ explains:

Every aptitude factor must be considered independently in the rating process for each job. The analyst estimates the level of each aptitude required of the worker for average, satisfactory performance based on a careful evaluation of the work activities of the job and the specific worker abilities which can be identified in terms of the aptitudes.

The RHAJ defines the 11 aptitudes:

General Learning Ability -- the ability to "catch on" or understand instructions and underlying principles. 

Verbal Aptitude -- the ability to understand the meaning of words and to use them effectively. 

Numerical Aptitude -- the ability to perform arithmetic operations quickly and accurately. 

Spatial Aptitude -- the ability to think visually of geometric forms and to comprehend two-dimensional representation of three-dimensional objects. 

Form Perception -- the ability to perceive pertinent detail in objects or in pictorial or graphic material. 

Clerical Perception -- the ability to perceive pertinent detail in verbal or tabular material.

Motor Coordination -- the ability to coordinate eyes and hands or fingers rapidly and accurately in making precise movements with speed. 

Finger Dexterity -- the ability to move the fingers and manipulate small objects with the fingers rapidly and accurately. 

Manual Dexterity -- the ability to move the hands easily and skillfully. 

Eye-Hand-Foot Coordination -- the ability to move the hand and foot coordinately with each other in accordance with visual stimuli. 

Color Discrimination -- The ability to match or discriminate between colors in terms of hue, saturation, and brilliance.

Each of these abilities pertain to specific work functions required of the ability to perform work activity. General learning ability relates to the ability to meet the bona fide occupational qualifications (BFOQ) of work, to become proficient within prescribed training periods. Coordination and dexterity relate to the ability to perform work tasks according to employer expectations. The 11 categories of aptitudes represent functional abilities whether naturally occurring or diminished by medically determinable impairments. 

Semi-skilled can require coordination and dexterity. 20 CFR § 404.1568(b). The ability to perform light work includes sedentary work unless the person has a loss of dexterity or inability to sit for long periods. 20 CFR § 404.1567(b). The aptitudes address the reasonable expectations of employers related to the BFOQ. 

The RHAJ explains temperaments in chapter 10:

Temperaments, a component of Worker Characteristics, are the adaptability requirements made on the worker by specific types of jobs. 

The category Temperaments is one of the components of job analysis because different job situations call for different personality traits on the part of the worker. Experience in placing individuals in jobs indicates that the degree to which the worker can adapt to work situations is often a determining factor for success. A person's dissatisfaction or failure to perform adequately can sometimes be attributed to an inability to adapt to a work situation rather than to an inability to learn and carry out job duties.

EM-21065 focuses on personality traits ignoring the concept of the ability to adapt. The inability to adapt to work or vocational adaptability is grounded in the medical-vocational guidelines (the grids). Appendix 2 § 201.00(c) holds:

Vocational adjustment to sedentary work may be expected where the individual has special skills or experience relevant to sedentary work or where age and basic educational competences provide sufficient occupational mobility to adapt to the major segment of unskilled sedentary work. Inability to engage in substantial gainful activity would be indicated where an individual who is restricted to sedentary work because of a severe medically determinable impairment lacks special skills or experience relevant to sedentary work, lacks educational qualifications relevant to most sedentary work (e.g., has a limited education or less) and the individual's age, though not necessarily advanced, is a factor which significantly limits vocational adaptability.

Subsection (g) states that people closely approaching advanced age have limited vocational adaptability. See also §  202.00(c), (d). Vocational adjustment represents the correct inquiry in §§  201.00(c), (f), (g), (h), 202.00(b), (c), (f), 203(c). Vocational adjustment and adaptability is an important part of the step five analysis of the ability to successfully perform other work on a sustained basis. SSR 96-8p, 83-10 (the issue of work adjustment), 85-15, 83-11. The RHAJ definition of temperaments as related to the ability to adapt as including the concept of adjustment puts this category of the nature of work as compliant with the policy articulated by the regulations. 

Aptitudes and temperaments represent functional requirements and relate to the question of vocational adjustment and adaptability. These data points within the DOT dataset correlate with questions that arise in the sequential evaluation process and warrant pointed inquiry in appropriate cases. EM-21065 does not identify an ambiguity in the regulations and is inconsistent with the requirement that adjudicators take administrative notice of the requirements of unskilled work in the national economy. 

This is what happens when an agency chooses to legislate outside of formal or informal rulemaking processes. 

___________________________

Suggested Citation:

Lawrence Rohlfing, Aptitudes and Work Situations (Temperaments) -- SSA Says Do Not Consider Them, California Social Security Attorney (January 9, 2025) https://californiasocialsecurityattorney.blogspot.com

The author has been AV-rated since 2000 and listed in Super Lawyers since 2008.

 

EM-21065 -- SSA Does Not Consider DPT or Temperaments -- Oh Really, Part 1

SSA published an emergency message in October 2021 covering OccuBrowse and occupational information in electronic tools. It is my understanding that OccuBrowse is a transferable skills analysis tool that does not estimate job numbers by DOT code. We are concerned primarily with unskilled work and the job numbers associated with those DOT codes.

EM-21065 covers OccuBrowse, Job Browser Pro (JBP), and OASYS in the background information (paragraph B). The EM addresses JBP:2. Job Browser Pro: Users can access this program in the SSA Digital Library. Once you make the selection for Job Browser Pro, the Citrix StoreFront brings up a page of Apps from which you can select Job Browser Pro. Users can search by job title, DOT code or keyword(s) within the title, and task description. After selecting an occupation and clicking “Details”, users can find all DOT/SCO information on the “Quick View – Codes” button. The advanced search, which is found on the opening page with the Job Title and Description Keyword, also allows searches by a variety of other lists, such as GOE or occupational group. All these searches can be useful when performing a TSA.

2. Job Browser Pro: Users can access this program in the SSA Digital Library. Once you make the selection for Job Browser Pro, the Citrix StoreFront brings up a page of Apps from which you can select Job Browser Pro. Users can search by job title, DOT code or keyword(s) within the title, and task description. After selecting an occupation and clicking “Details”, users can find all DOT/SCO information on the “Quick View – Codes” button. The advanced search, which is found on the opening page with the Job Title and Description Keyword, also allows searches by a variety of other lists, such as GOE or occupational group. All these searches can be useful when performing a TSA.

 SSA does not endorse JBP.  SSA permits ALJs to use JBP and to follow along with the vocational witnesses.  

In describing the changes to OccuBrowse, the EM discusses four broad categories: (1) physical and environmental; (2) mental-cognitive; (3) skills and abilities; and (4) transferable skills.  Para. C.2.  The EM tells users to "use" the physical and environmental codes.  These come from the physical and environmental parts of the Selected Characteristics of Occupations (SCO).  

Mental-cognitive covers the data for work situations (temperaments) and work functions (data-people-things).  The EM says:

Do not use any of the functions under Mental-Cognitive. We do not use Temperaments (what the software tool manufacturer calls work situations or situations) or DPT (what the software manufacturer calls work functions) to determine the demands of work.

Let's address the easy one first, data-people-things.  It does not matter what SkillTRAN says about DPT in OccuBrowse or JBP.  What matters is what the Department of Labor says about DPT.  We look to the DOT, Appendix B:

Much of the information in this publication is based on the premise that every job requires a worker to function, to some degree, in relation to Data, People, and Things. These relationships are identified and explained below. They appear in the form of three listings arranged in each instance from the relatively simple to the complex in such a manner that each successive relationship includes those that are simpler and excludes the more complex. (As each of the relationships to People represents a wide range of complexity, resulting in considerable overlap among occupations, their arrangement is somewhat arbitrary and can be considered a hierarchy only in the most general sense.) The identifications attached to these relationships are referred to as Worker Functions, and provide standard terminology for use in summarizing how a worker functions on the job.

The fourth, fifth, and sixth digits of the occupational code 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 ...

 After listing the seven data functions, eight people functions, and six things functions, Appendix B provides "Definitions of Worker Functions."  When OccuBrowse or JBP label the DPT codes as worker functions, they do so by parroting what the DOT says in Appendix B.  The Commissioner takes administrative notice of the DOT in regulation and calls it the primary source of occupational information in SSR 00-4p.  The EM is incompetent to erode the unambiguous language of the regulation and the mandatory language of the binding ruling.  

Now we address the harder subject, the temperaments.  The DOT does not list the temperaments.  The SCO does not list the temperaments; that aspect of work was not "selected" for inclusion in the SCO.  But the temperaments are part of the broad dataset that resulted in the DOT and SCO.  We know that because the glossary for the DOT and SCO says so, the Revised Handbook for Analyzing Jobs.  The  RHAJ describes temperaments first in chapter 2, concepts and principles of job analysis:

Adaptability requirements made on the worker by the job-worker situation.

 The second word in the description is critical -- requirements.  In chapter 10, the RHAJ makes the same point:

Temperaments, a component of Worker Characteristics, are the adaptability requirements made on the worker by specific types of jobs.

There it is again -- requirements.   After listing the 11 different temperaments, the RHAJ explains:

The category Temperaments is one of the components of job analysis because different job situations call for different personality traits on the part of the worker. Experience in placing individuals in jobs indicates that the degree to which the worker can adapt to work situations is often a determining factor for success. A person's dissatisfaction or failure to perform adequately can sometimes be attributed to an inability to adapt to a work situation rather than to an inability to learn and carry out job duties.

The EM focuses on personality traits.  We know that personality traits give rise to maladaptive behaviors.  SSA calls those personality disorders.  Personality traits are by definition non-severe.  But that does not relieve the Commissioner of considering non-severe impairments in assessing the ability to perform other work under the statute and regulations.  

The description of temperaments addresses adaptability and the characteristic that the presence or absence of adaptability will often determine success -- will this person sustain work.  Getting along with other people, a limitation to repetitive work, being precise, tolerating stress, or limiting to rote duties without change are regular parts of a residual functional capacity assessment for the mental requirements of work caused by a severe impairment.  The only question is whether we ignore the data accumulated by the DOL.  The Commissioner is not the expert on the requirements of work, the Secretary of Labor is that expert.  What the DOL says about work is worthy of administrative notice and reliable under the regulations.  

The EM says that SSA adjudicators should not consider OccuBrowse and JBP data about DPT and temperaments because of what SkillTRAN says about those data fields.  Ignore SkillTRAN.  But pay attention to what the Department of Labor says about the data and what the data means.  

 ___________________________

Suggested Citation:

Lawrence Rohlfing, EM-21065 -- SSA Does Not Consider DPT or Temperaments -- Oh Really, Part 1, California Social Security Attorney (June 24, 2022)  https://californiasocialsecurityattorney.blogspot.com 

Padilla v. Saul -- Office Helper and Occasional Changes in Essential Job Functions

 I tell lawyers to refrain from telling me what they think about the world of work and stick to the data.  Commonsense can understand the data, but do not impose your myopic view of the world on something that you really know little about.  Enter the court in Padilla v. Saul.  The decision projects an understanding of work that is ... wrong.  

Padilla is limited to “only occasional changes to the essential job functions.” It is unlikely, however, that two of the identified occupations, office helper (DOT 239.567-010) and counter clerk (DOT 249.366- 010)—which each require a reasoning level of 2—involve more than occasional changes to essential job functions. Level 2 reasoning requires the ability to “[d]eal with problems involving a few concrete variables in or from standardized situations.” U.S. Dep’t of Labor, Dictionary of Occupational Titles app. C (4th ed. 1991). But it does not speak to whether an “essential, integral, or expected” part of being an office helper or counter clerk entails changing essential job functions more than occasionally such that there is an apparent conflict here. See Gutierrez, 844 F.3d at 808. Nor do the DOT’s descriptions of office helper or counter clerk indicate that it is likely that either occupation requires more than occasional changes in essential job functions. Indeed, the DOT’s description of office helper has a discrete list of several specific duties, suggesting that the essential duties of an office helper remain rather invariable.

The decision focuses on reasoning level 2, involving a few concrete variables in or form standardized situations.  The question is not how many variables, but how often the person changes work functions between the variables present.  Reasoning level 2 is a useful guide for assessing complexity but the DOT has multiple layers of data that don't lend themselves to a singular focus on a complex question.  For instance, work that requires sitting all day long and frequent lifting of two pounds -- that requires light exertion because two pounds is more than a negligible weight (one pound).  

Back to the office helper.   We start with and dissect the lead statement and the task statement:

Performs any combination of following duties in business office of commercial or industrial establishment: 

1. Furnishes workers with clerical supplies. 

2. Opens, sorts, and distributes incoming mail, and collects, seals, and stamps outgoing mail. 

3. Delivers oral or written messages. 

4. Collects and distributes paperwork, such as records or timecards, from one department to another.

5. Marks, tabulates, and files articles and records.

DICOT 239.567-010.  The lead statement describes a combination of duties.  The purpose of the lead statement is to set forth:

• worker actions
• objective or purpose of the worker actions
• machines, tools, equipment, or work aids used by the worker
• materials used, products made, subject matter dealt with, or services rendered
• instructions followed or judgments made

DICOT, Parts of the Occupational Definition, para. 5.a.  

Reasoning level 2 may describe a generic classification of a few variables but the narrative lead statement demands a different conclusion.  The task statement cements that conclusion:  office helper has five "indicate the specific tasks the worker performs to accomplish the overall job purpose described in the lead statement."  DICOT, Parts of the Occupational Definition, para. 5.b.  These are not "may" items that only a subset of workers perform but are instead task statements of functions typically found in the occupation.  DICOT, Appendix D.  

 Office helper requires the temperament V, performing a variety of tasks.  The Revised Handbook for Analyzing Jobs defines V:

Perform a VARIETY of Duties: Involves frequent changes of tasks involving different aptitudes, technologies, procedures, working conditions, physical demands, or degrees of attentiveness without loss of efficiency or composure. The involvement of the worker in two or more work fields may be a clue that this temperament is required.

There it is, frequent changes of tasks.  That is how Labor defines office helper.  That is not a lay understanding of the lead statement or the multi-part reading of the task statement.  Office helper requires performing a variety of tasks involving frequent changes not only in tasks but also in process and exertion.  

The definition of V states that this kind of work may have two or more work fields.  Office helper has three.  

231 - Verbal Recording-Record Keeping - Preparing. keeping, sorting, and distributing records and communications, primarily verbal in character but including symbol devices, to communicate and systematize information and data by methods not specifically defined elsewhere. as in Developing-Printing (202), Imprinting (192), Photographing (201), Printing (191), and Stock Checking (221). Distinguish from Numerical Recording-Record Keeping (232), where records are also involved but the primary activity is computation.

011 - Material Moving - Conveying materials manually and by use of machines and equipment, such as cranes, hoists, conveyors, industrial trucks, elevators, winches, and handtrucks. Distinguish from Transporting (013), which involves conveyance of passengers and materials by common carrier.

221  - Stock Checking - Receiving, storing. issuing. requisitioning, and accounting for stores of materials and materials in use; involves the physical handling of the materials. Representative job activities covered by this work field include processing records and keeping materials on hand in balance with operational needs; assigning locations and space to items according to size, quantity, and type; verifying quantity, identification, condition, and value of items and the physical handling of items, such as binning, picking, stacking, and counting; receiving. checking. and delivering items; verifying completeness of incoming and outgoing shipments; preparing and otherwise committing stocks for shipment; keeping and conducting inventory of merchandise, materials, stocks, and supplies; filling orders and requisitions; and issuing tools, equipment, and materials.

RHAJ, chapter 4.  

That is the DOT dataset and what Labor had to say about office helper.  

Counter clerk presents as a different kettle of fish.  First, the Foto-Mart booth in the shopping center is gone and has been gone for so long that many will not know what I mean.  For the current generation, Costco has eliminated their photo-processing service.  Why?  Because your camera is in your pocket and your photo album is on your thumb drive.  Counter clerk in the photofinishing industry does not exist.  Yes, I reported my commonsense understanding of the world.  But allow me to back it up:  the OEWS (successor to the OES) reports that counter and rental clerks have 870 jobs in the other personal services industry group (812900) that includes all photofinishing (812920).  Counter clerk does not exist in significant numbers.  

___________________________

Suggested Citation:

Lawrence Rohlfing, Padilla v. Saul -- Office Helper and Occasional Changes in Essential Job Functions, California Social Security Attorney (April 29, 2021)  https://californiasocialsecurityattorney.blogspot.com/2021/04/padilla-v-saul-office-helper-and.html

Vocational Expert Claims that Simple is a Subjective Matter of Definition

At a recent hearing, the vocational expert testified that "simple" is a matter of disagreement depending on the definition of the word.  The cases don't prevent a vocational expert from identifying a reasoning level 3 occupation as simple -- just that an apparent conflict exists that requires an explanation.  

There are 87 unskilled DOT codes that carry a reasoning level of 3.  Of those 87 DOT codes, 22 of them require medium or heavy exertion.  We focus on the 65 unskilled DOT codes with a reasoning level of 3 and that require either sedentary or light exertion.  We first review the DOT definition of reasoning level 3:

Apply commonsense understanding to carry out instructions furnished in written, oral, or diagrammatic form. Deal with problems involving several concrete variables in or from standardized situations.

Reasoning level 3 requires that ability to understand, remember, and carry out instructions furnished not just orally or in writing, but also diagrammatically.  Reasoning level 3 requires the ability to handle problems that involve several different concrete variables.  The definition of reasoning level 3 does not sound "simple."  Reasoning level 4 is even more complex.

The DOT lists 68 unskilled sedentary and light DOT codes with a reasoning level of 3 or 4.  The DOT lists 46 occupations with a significant data worker function (the fourth digit of the DOT code); 40 occupations with a significant people worker function (the fifth digit in the DOT code); and 29 with a significant thing worker function (the sixth digit of the DOT code).  The DOT list 6 occupations that have significant worker functions in all three categories; 23 with significant data and people; 11 with significant data and things; and 2 with significant people and things.  The DOT explains data-people-things coding:

Much of the information in this publication is based on the premise that every job requires a worker to function, to some degree, in relation to Data, People, and Things. These relationships are identified and explained below. They appear in the form of three listings arranged in each instance from the relatively simple to the complex in such a manner that each successive relationship includes those that are simpler and excludes the more complex. (As each of the relationships to People represents a wide range of complexity, resulting in considerable overlap among occupations, their arrangement is somewhat arbitrary and can be considered a hierarchy only in the most general sense.) The identifications attached to these relationships are referred to as Worker Functions, and provide standard terminology for use in summarizing how a worker functions on the job. 

The fourth, fifth, and sixth digits of the occupational code 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

The DOT lists 20 DOT codes with two Work Fields and three DOT codes with three work fields. The Revised Handbook for Analyzing Jobs defines the concept of work fields:

Work Fields. a component of Work Performed. are categories of technologies that reflect how work gets done and what gets done as a result of the work activities of a job: the purpose of the job. There are 96 Work Fields identified for use by the USES for classification of all jobs in the economy in terms of what gets done on the job.

The DOT lists eight DOT codes with two Materials, Products, Subject Matter, and Services ("MPSMS") codes.  The RHAJ defines the concept of MPSMS codes in the context of the overall structure of the DOT data set:

MPSMS is the final link in a chain describing (I) what the worker does (Worker Functions); (2) what gets done (Work Fields); (3) to what (MPSMS).

Of the 68 unskilled sedentary and light DOT codes with a reasoning level of 3 or 4, the DOT lists 30 that have a temperament for repetitive work.  Of that list of 30 DOT codes, 21 have a temperament for attaining precise set limits, tolerances, and standards; two have a temperament for working under specific instruction; and eight have a temperament for working with people beyond receiving instructions.  The 38 DOT codes that do no have a temperament for repetitive work, seven have a temperament for influencing people; eight have a temperament for performing a variety of tasks; 16 have a temperament for attaining precise set limits, tolerances, and standards; one has a temperament for working under specific instruction; 27 have a temperament for working with people beyond receiving instructions; and 14 have a temperament for making judgments and decisions.  Two of the occupations have a temperament for repetitive work and no other required temperament.  Temperaments means:

The category Temperaments is one of the components of job analysis because different job situations call for different personality traits on the part of the worker. Experience in placing individuals in jobs indicates that the degree to which the worker can adapt to work situations is often a determining factor for success. A person's dissatisfaction or failure to perform adequately can sometimes be attributed to an inability to adapt to a work situation rather than to an inability to learn and carry out job duties.

Adapt and adjust have the same contextual meaning.  Adjust is the legal term use to define the ability to perform other work at step 5 of the sequential evaluation process.

 Of the approximately 1,708 light and sedentary unskilled DOT codes.  We have already counted 68 with reasoning level 3 and 4.  The vast majority, 1,607 occupations, have a significant things code (the sixth digit).  The DOT lists 1,398 occupations with one work field; 1,588 occupations with one MPSMS code.  The DOT lists 1,587 occupations with the temperament for repetitive work.  Most of the 1,708 light and unskilled DOT codes meet the requirements for simple and repetitive work.  Reasoning knocks out 68 DOT codes.  Data-people-things; work fields; MPSMS codes; and temperaments warrant further consideration in an occupation-by-occupation basis alongside the narrative of the DOT code in question.  And it is not a subjective determination; it is a matter of looking at statistical data and drawing conclusions from that data with a subjective pre-determined outcome. 

Office Helper -- Simple and Repetitive -- No on Both Counts

We spent this week, with a brief detour to look at the deference doctrine, addressing the issue of simple, repetitive tasks where the occupation has a reasoning level of 2.  The circuits are split on the question of whether reasoning level 3 has an apparent conflict with a limitation to simple, repetitive tasks.  This series of posts have the intent to establish the point that reasoning level 2 does not end the inquiry but instead establishes a data point requiring further analysis.  Some skilled occupations have a reasoning level of 2 with and without the temperament for repetitive work.  Some unskilled occupations have a reasoning level of 2 and require dealing with people as an important worker function and as a temperament for dealing with people beyond receiving instructions.  We are now ready to tackle the occupation of office helper and its identification as simple, repetitive work.  We start with the DOT:

DOT Narrative: 239.567-010 OFFICE HELPER (clerical) Performs any combination of following duties in business office of commercial or industrial establishment: Furnishes workers with clerical supplies. Opens, sorts, and distributes incoming mail, and collects, seals, and stamps outgoing mail. Delivers oral or written messages. Collects and distributes paperwork, such as records or timecards, from one department to another. Marks, tabulates, and files articles and records. May use office equipment, such as envelope-sealing machine, letter opener, record shaver, stamping machine, and transcribing machine. May deliver items to other business establishments [DELIVERER, OUTSIDE (clerical) 230.663-010]. May specialize in delivering mail, messages, documents, and packages between departments of establishment and be designated Messenger, Office (clerical). May deliver stock certificates and bonds within and between stock brokerage offices and be designated Runner (financial). GOE: 07.07.03 STRENGTH: L GED: R2 M2 L2 SVP: 2 DLU: 81

The first part of the description that belies the simple, repetitive tasks (SRT) mantra is combination.  Office helpers do not perform one task all day long; office helpers perform a combination of job duties all day long.  They furnish; handle incoming mail; they handle the outgoing mail; they act as the conduit for intra-office communication, both oral and written; and they have file clerk responsibilities.  The task elements represent the typical way in which work gets performed in the national economy per the DOT.   The parts of the narrative description following by the word may are not typical work duties.  The DOT describes may functions:

Many definitions contain one or more sentences beginning with the word "May". They describe duties required of workers in this occupation in some establishments but not in others. The word "May" does not indicate that a worker will sometimes perform this task but rather that some workers in different establishments generally perform one of the varied tasks listed. In the example, the three sentences beginning "May notify. . .", "May mount. . .", "May position. . .", are "May" items. Do not confuse "May" items with the "May be designated. . ." sentence which introduces undefined related titles.

 Contrast the may statements with the task statements that precede the may statements:

Task element statements indicate the specific tasks the worker performs to accomplish the overall job purpose described in the lead statement. The sentences in the example beginning with "Turns handwheel . . . ", "Turns screws . . . ", "Sharpens doctor . . . ", "Aligns doctor . . . ", "Dips color . . . ", etc. are all task element statements. They indicate how the worker actually carries out the job duties.

 The SCO provides a better understanding of the occupation:

PHYSICAL DEMANDS:

CL

BA

ST

KN

CO

CW

RE

HA

FI

FE

TA

HE

TS

NA

FA

DP

AC

CV

FV

N

N

O

N

N

N

F

F

F

N

O

O

N

F

N

N

N

N

N

ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS:

WE

CO

HO

WT

NO

VI

AT

MV

EL

HI

RA

EX

TX

OT

N

N

N

N

3

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

Frequent use of the hands; occasional speaking; occasional hearing; frequent near acuity; office noise.   Nothing surprising, just data.  The electronic files, the data described in the Revised Handbook for Analyzing Jobs (Dept. of Labor 1991) provides more data points and moves the analysis toward that non-SRT conclusion.

APTITUDES:

G	V	N	S	P	Q	K	F	M	E	C
3	4	4	4	4	3	4	3	3	5	5

TEMPERAMENTS: V

The aptitudes for average general learning ability, clerical perception, finger dexterity, and manual dexterity suggest that a third of population never had the innate ability to perform work and a person with impaired cognitive, perception, or dexterity cannot.  The presence of significant dexterity requirements also suggests that this occupation rests at the high end of that unskilled rating.  The temperament rating of V does require further exploration.  The RHAJ defines V as:

Preform a VARIETY of Duties: Involves frequent changes of tasks involving different aptitudes, technologies, procedures, working conditions, physical demands, or degrees of attentiveness without loss of efficiency or composure. The involvement of the worker in two or more work fields may be a clue that this temperament is required.

Office helpers shift seamlessly from task to task without loss of efficiency or composure.  A limitation to occasional changes in a work setting would eliminate this occupation from consideration. 

The last sentence of the V-definition brings out the issue that I tend to ignore in examining unskilled work -- work field and MPSMS codes.  The OccuCollect DOT-SCO summary report lists the codes for the data:

MPSMS: 890 899 0
WF: 231 011 221

We have to go back to the RHAJ to define the three work fields.

231 VERBAL RECORDING-RECORD KEEPINGPreparing. keeping, sorting, and distributing records and communications, primarily verbal in character but including symbol devices, to communicate and systematize information and data by methods not specifically defined elsewhere. as in Developing-Printing (202), Imprinting (192), Photographing (201), Printing (191), and Stock Checking (22 I). Distinguish from Numerical Recording-Record Keeping (232), where records are also involved but the primary activity is computation.

011 MATERIAL MOVING
Conveying materials manually and by use of machines and equipment, such as cranes, hoists, conveyors, industrial trucks, elevators, winches, and handtrucks. Distinguish from Transporting (013), which involves conveyance of passengers and materials by common carrier.

221 STOCK CHECKINGReceiving, storing. issuing. requisitioning, and accounting for stores of materials and materials in use; involves the physical handling of the materials. Representative job activities covered by this work field include processing records and keeping materials on hand in balance with operational needs; assigning locations and space to items according to size, quantity, and type; verifying quantity, identification, condition, and value of items and the physical handling of items, such as binning, picking, stacking, and counting; receiving. checking. and delivering items; verifying completeness of incoming and outgoing shipments; preparing and otherwise committing stocks for shipment; keeping and conducting inventory of merchandise, materials, stocks, and supplies; filling orders and requisitions; and issuing tools, equipment, and materials.

Following the rabbit down the trail, we need to understand the definition of work fields

Work Fields. a component of Work Performed. are categories of technologies that reflect how work gets done and what gets done as a result of the work activities of a job: the purpose of the job. There are 96 Work Fields identified for use by the USES for classification of all jobs in the economy in terms of what gets done on the job.

Work Fields range from the specific to the general and are organized into homogeneous groups. based on related technologies or objectives. such as the movement of materials. the fabrication of products, the use of data. and the provision of services. Each Work Field is identified by a three-digit code, a brief descriptive title, and a definition. In many cases. a comment is included which enlarges upon the definition and limits or extends the application of the Work Field. Also, cross-references are frequently included which distinguish one Work Field from other related Work Fields

Why aren't Office Helpers simple, repetitive tasks:  (1) they perform a combination of duties; (2) they occasionally interact verbally with other people; (3) they perform a variety of duties; (4) they must have the ability to change duties without loss of efficiency or productivity; (5) they work in three different work fields; and (6) they work with three different categories of unrelated technologies or objectives.  Office Helper is not simple and it is not repetitive (substitute routine here for your case).

Unskilled and Reasoning Level 2 -- Simple, Repetitive Work? Not Necessarily

Over the past two posts, we discussed reasoning level 2 occupations that are not simple, repetitive work because they are skilled SVP 5 and 6 occupations.  One group carried the temperament for repetitive work but had other characteristics that explained why there were not simple, repetitive work.  The second group did not carry the temperament for repetitive work and necessarily had other characteristics that betrayed the idea of R2 equals simple, repetitive work.  Academically interesting but not informative since the ALJ asks about the ability to perform other unskilled work in the majority of disability cases.  In this and the next few posts, we will use what we learned about R2 skilled work to declassify R2 unskilled work from that simple, repetitive work mantra. 

Consider this list of 24 light, unskilled, reasoning level 2 occupations that do not carry the temperament for repetitive work but do carry the temperament for people. 

DOTCode	DOTTitle
159.647-010	AMUSEMENT PARK ENTERTAINER
371.567-010	GUARD, SCHOOL-CROSSING
372.667-042	SCHOOL BUS MONITOR
311.472-010	FAST-FOODS WORKER
352.677-018	WAITER/WAITRESS, CLUB
311.477-010	CAR HOP
319.464-014	VENDING-MACHINE ATTENDANT
344.677-010	PRESS-BOX CUSTODIAN
349.677-018	CHILDREN'S ATTENDANT
342.667-014	ATTENDANT, ARCADE
324.577-010	ROOM-SERVICE CLERK
335.677-014	HOT-ROOM ATTENDANT
346.677-018	SECOND
358.677-014	LOCKER-ROOM ATTENDANT
353.667-010	ESCORT
349.667-010	HOST/HOSTESS, DANCE HALL
249.366-010	COUNTER CLERK
295.467-010	BICYCLE-RENTAL CLERK
295.467-018	HOSPITAL-TELEVISION-RENTAL CLERK
291.454-010	LEI SELLER
291.457-010	CIGARETTE VENDOR
292.457-010	NEWSPAPER CARRIER
205.367-058	TRAFFIC CHECKER
245.367-014	BLOOD-DONOR-UNIT ASSISTANT

Several occupations on the list jump out as identified by vocational experts.  Some, like cigarette vendor, do not exist or exist in dwindling numbers -- my hunch with no data exploration.  Each of the occupations listed carry a "S" for significant on that middle digit, the people code in the data-people-things coding.  This significant-not significant coding is found in a variety of sources that compile the electronic files of the DOT-SCO data set, such as Occu Collect.  The people codes range from 4 to 7 in this set.  The DOT defines those classifications:

4 Diverting: Amusing others, usually through the medium of stage, screen, television, or radio.

 5 Persuading: Influencing others in favor of a product, service, or point of view.
 6 Speaking-Signaling: Talking with and/or signaling people to convey or exchange information. Includes giving assignments and/or directions to helpers or assistants.
 7 Serving: Attending to the needs or requests of people or animals or the expressed or implicit wishes of people. Immediate response is involved.

The words "others" or "people" are in the categories used and are designated as significant.  The temperament for people from the Revised Handbook for Analyzing Jobs (Dept. of Labor 1991) refines the concepts:

Dealing with PEOPLE: Involves interpersonal relationships in job situations beyond receiving work instructions.

This definition of the people temperament includes more than the interaction of receiving instructions; this definition requires the ability to engage in interpersonal relationships.  People are not simple.  The fifth example has the most application to unskilled work activity.  The RHAJ describes dealing with people by exemplar:

 Receives callers at establishment, determines nature of business, and directs callers to destination.

Embedded in this definition are the functions of making determinations of the intent or need of another person and making a decision how or who the caller needs to go to meet that need.  The 24 light unskilled occupations do not qualify as simple, repetitive tasks despite the presence of reasoning level 2 because of the significance of dealing with people beyond receiving work instructions   Occupations without the temperament for repetitive or short cycle work and with a temperament are not simple nor are they repetitive.