The consequences of not requiring a person in the job to perform a function. Sometimes a function is performed infrequently and is still considered essential if there are serious consequences if it is not performed. An Airport Firefighter rarely has to carry a heavy person from a burning airplane, but being able to perform this function would be essential to the job. A pilot spends only a few minutes of a flight landing the plane, but landing is an essential function because of the serious consequences if the pilot cannot perform the function. Remember that an essential function does not include all the duties of a position.
All positions perform duties that are marginally related to the position's primary purpose.
The ADA is not concerned with the marginal functions. An employee with a disability may need reasonable accommodations to perform the essential functions. Please review Section 4.65, Interviewing and Section 4.66, Reasonable Accommodations, of this Manual for more detailed information. A master PDQ may be developed for those situations where common duties, responsibilities, and identical essential functions are assigned to a number of positions within a job class including positions which may rotate through a variety of assignments. Care must be taken, however, to insure that master PDQs do not cover positions which have some subtle differences that set them apart from the rest of the positions in the job class.