Work Context Factors and Job Demands: Ten Occupations

Introduction

The following sections address the relationship between certain work context factors and particular jobs or occupations. Drawing on Bureau of Labor Statistics data and industrial-organizational psychology frameworks, each work context factor is paired with one occupation that is meaningfully shaped by that factor.

Adversarial Roles and Safety Responsibility

Job requires you to assume an adversarial role: The job of a prosecuting attorney requires the individual to continually assume an adversarial role. In order to conduct a thorough investigation of the facts and determine the part people have played in situations that could entail breaking the law, a prosecuting attorney must strive to evoke responses from defendants. In a court of law, a prosecuting attorney will take an adversarial position when questioning a defendant. Generating a certain level of stress for defendants is one way of exposing certain habits of mind or uncovering important information or evidence.

Job includes great responsibility for the safety of others: The job of a firefighter requires the individual employee to assume great responsibility for the safety of others. A firefighter is responsible for putting out fires, rescuing people from dangerous emergency situations, and otherwise contributing to the public welfare, in keeping with his or her training, expertise, and public duties. In addition, the firefighter has a duty of care for the safety of all people who may be in proximity to the emergency situation — a standard that greatly expands their sphere of responsibility.

Job involves encounters with angry or discourteous people: The job of a customer service representative in a call center requires the individual employee to engage with people who are angry or discourteous. Whether the customer service representative works at a call center or a service desk in a brick-and-mortar store, the representative will come into contact with disgruntled people who may take their frustration out on the employees they encounter.

Interpersonal Stress and Environmental Conditions

Job is performed under extreme temperatures (hot or cold): The job of a warehouseman can require the employee to carry out their duties under conditions of extreme temperatures in both the hot and cold ranges.

The consequences of an error on this job are catastrophic: The job of an air traffic controller can entail catastrophic consequences when errors are made during the performance of duties. Certainly, there are safeguards employed by air traffic controllers, but human decision-making, awareness, and intuition play an important part in the execution of the job. Air traffic controllers communicate directly with pilots and co-pilots, which gives them the opportunity to assess crew state of mind and gather information that can influence decision-making. Reading circumstances incorrectly or misinterpreting information can put large numbers of people in immediate jeopardy — the end result of which can be catastrophic.

Catastrophic Consequences and Worker Control

Worker has little or no control over the work: The job of a factory line worker provides either very little control over the work or no opportunity for the worker to control the work at all. Factory line workers are generally not granted any discretion in their work, unless they happen to work in a facility where a pure form of kaizen is utilized. In such a context, a factory worker may be able to shut down production in order to ensure that some important or critical correction or rework is undertaken. However, most manufacturing operations will only permit a floor supervisor to impact production in this way — if the supervisor says the work continues, the factory line worker has no alternative but to comply.

Job requires high levels of vigilance: The job of a medical researcher requires the individual employee to maintain very high levels of vigilance over their work. The requirements of conducting medical research are by their very nature rigid and structured. Absolute vigilance is required of medical researchers to ensure that procedures are followed precisely and that nothing occurs that would create an aberrant outcome. Because medical researchers typically conduct their work independently, the full responsibility for vigilance falls on their own shoulders.

The work is monotonous: The job of a grocery checker is monotonous. Although the items being scanned vary purchase by purchase and the customers change continually, the actual job tasks of a grocery checker are repetitive to the point of being monotonous. In addition, grocery checkers in some countries — such as the United States — are required to stand all day, which can reduce attention to the task due to physical discomfort, compared with, say, a grocery checker in Germany who is permitted to sit while working. The only real break from the monotony of the job occurs when the till must be counted at the end of a shift.