Common use of Mental Effort Clause in Contracts

Mental Effort. This sub-factor measures the duration and intensity of mental and sensory demands causing fatigue that are required to perform the job (i.e., the expenditure of mental energy). • Mental demands are those activities that use concentration and cause fatigue (e.g., thinking, active and passive listening, interpreting, observing). • Sensory demands are those activities that use one or more of the five senses (sight, taste, smell, touch and hearing) in the course of the job requirements. Intensity of mental effort is measured as routine, moderate or high. Half-levels are not used in this subfactor. Typical examples of tasks are found below. Routine: Collecting routine information, filing, basic word processing of routine documents (correspondence, forms, standard formats), inputting data to a spreadsheet (no formatting or creation of formulae), cleaning (normal protocol), shelving books, monitoring machines, attending to phone conversations and/or demands for routine information. Tasks require very little attention to the content or meaning of the output. Moderate visual demands involving reading. Moderate: Complex word processing or graphical layout, creation of spreadsheets including new formulae, charting, advising students, providing detailed information, attending to single or simultaneous tasks where accuracy of details is important (e.g., minute taking at meetings), cleaning (special protocol), careful listening /observation to discern relevant information, using tools, performing standardized experiments, repairs, and/or routine calibration to provided standards. Tasks require significant understanding of and manipulation of the content for output. Visual demands involving regular eyestrain. High: Graphic design, scrutinizing for small changes, identifying situations that require crisis intervention, therapeutic counselling, transcribing from Dictaphone or recording, facilitating meetings/groups, instructing, performing scientific/ technical observation or intervention, calibrating complex instruments, using precision tools, fabrication of tools or equipment, developing solutions to complex problems where interruptions cause disruption of the thinking process. The need for detailed or precise work is high. Tasks generally require generating or creating the content of what is produced. Visual demands involving constant eyestrain. Level Physical Effort Descriptors 1 Mostly low level of mental effort with occasional moderate intensity lasting up to less than 2 hours per day. 2 Moderate level of mental effort for 2 to 3.5 hours per day with the rest of the day characterized as low intensity. 3 Moderate level of mental effort for more than 3.5 hours per day and/or a high level of mental effort for 2 hours or less per day. 4 High level of mental effort required for more than 2 and less than 3.5 hours per day and the balance of the day is a moderate level of intensity. 5 More than 3.5 hours per day is characterized as operating at a high level of intensity.