Marginal Job Function

Q. One of my customer service employees just told me that they have a disability that makes it hard to use their hands for repetitive work. They asked to be released from assisting with stuffing envelopes for the mailing task we sometimes have this department help with. What should I do?

A. Because the mailing task sounds as if it is a marginal job function for your customer service team, you can remove this task as a reasonable accommodation. Marginal job functions, or those that are not the primary reason a position exists, can be eliminated from a job or reassigned to another employee. Consider assigning this employee part of this task that does not require repetitive work (i.e., organizing the mailing or printing labels) in order to balance the workload in this department.