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EDITOR’S COLUMN: DESCRIBING THE PHYSICAL DEMANDS OF A JOB

By May 1, 2011No Comments

I recently saw a job posted for an HRIS expert at an auto dealership. Curious, I scrolled through it, where it stated at the end in bright red print:

“Important Notes: Environment and Physical Activity

“The environment for this position is an open office that’s mostly clean and comfortable. The job involves driving a personally owned vehicle approximately 20% of the time, which includes exposure to outside weather elements and moving mechanical parts. It might include some minor annoyances such as noise, odors, drafts, etc. The incumbent is in a non-confined office-type setting, in which he or she is free to move about at will. The incumbent spends time writing, typing, speaking, listening, lifting (up to 25 pounds), carrying, seeing (such as close, color and peripheral vision, depth perception and adjusted focus), sitting, pulling, walking, standing, squatting, kneeling and reaching.

“The incumbent might operate any or all of these devices: Copy and fax machines, adding machine (calculator), typewriter, personal computer and related printers.

“The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job.

“The physical demands are representative of those that an employee must meet to perform the essential functions of the job.

“Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.”

Have we regressed to this, for a job that involves someone sitting at a computer all day? Really?