Surveillance system monitor

Surveillance System Monitor is an occupation frequently cited by vocational experts as available to disabled workers in disability hearings conducted by the Social Security Administration. In the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, it carries a D.O.T. number of 379.367-010.

As last described in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles in 1986, the occupation is unskilled, performed at the sedentary level of exertion, and consists of monitoring closed circuit surveillance systems in governmental transportation facilities in order to detect crimes or disturbances.

Very few, if any, employers ask employees to simply sit and watch a bank of monitors all day long. Rather, in order to avoid excessive boredom, fatigue, and the resultant poor performance, employers ask surveillance system monitors to do a wider variety of security-related tasks throughout the work day, thus rendering the exertional level required to do the occupation greater than sedentary. Further, some disability attorneys feel that the occupation is no longer unskilled work, although there is no empiric evidence to support this claim. Particularly with regard to the security needed at government facilities in the post 9/11 world, experienced and trained workers are needed. A majority of workers doing surveillance type security work are employed by the gambling and gaming industry. Some say that effective monitoring in that industry requires training beyond what would be considered required for unskilled work, however it is universally accepted that it would take less than 30 days to train for this position. Numerous studies by vocational experts have found that, as described in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, the occupation of Surveillance System Monitor does not exist in significant numbers in the nation's economy.

External links

• U.S. Department of Labor O*net
• The Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR)
• Searchable Online DOT at the Department of Labor Law Library
• National Academy of Sciences Report on the DOT and its job analysis methodology
• NetworkWorld IBM video technology targets security problems

See also

• Selected Characteristics of Occupations Defined in the Revised Dictionary of Occupational Titles
• Vocational education
• Bureau of Labor Statistics

Further reading

• Selected Characteristics of Occupations Defined in the Revised Dictionary of Occupational Titles
• Social Security Disability Advocate's Handbook, by David Traver, James Publishing, 2008, ISBN 978-1-58012-033-3