ARGUMENT186 拍死我吧

peterboyUID: 2638100

TOPIC: ARGUMENT186 - The following is a recommendation from the director of personnel to the president of Professional Printing Company.

"In a recent telephone survey of automobile factory workers, older employees were less likely to report that having a supervisor present increases their productivity. Among workers aged 18 to 29, 27 percent said that they are more productive in the presence of their immediate supervisor, compared to 12 percent for those aged 30 or over, and only 8 percent for those aged 50 or over. Clearly, if our printing company hires mainly older employees, we will increase productivity and save money because of the reduced need for supervisors."
WORDS: 454
TIME: 00:30:00
DATE: 2009/8/27 21:27:33 Peter

Merely based on the telephone survey, the arguer comes to the assumption that older employees are less likely to increase their productivity when having a supervisor and hence draws the conclusion that company should hire mainly older employees to increase productivity and save money. This argument suffers from several logical flaws as follows.


To begin with, the arguer fails to provide information that how many people joined in the telephone survey and what is the portion of all workers. Maybe only a small portion of all workers are surveyed which lacks representativeness. If this is the case, the assumption is not well founded.


Besides, the survey is filled with some logical fallacies which make the assumption that older workers are likely to increase productivity when having a supervisor unconvincing. First, we are not told the number of old workers survey and what is the portion of all old workers in the company, as does workers aged 18 to 29. It is highly possible that young workers are much more than old ones hence the comparison is meaningless and ungrounded. Besides, what workers said does not the real fact. There is high chance old workers are more sophisticated hence, they always respond in a way pandering company's idea. The young, on the contrary, are more simple-minded that they tell the truth. Without ruling out such scenarios, the assumption that old workers are less-influenced than young workers by supervisor is not verified.


Even assuming that the survey is representative, the suggestion of hiring mare older employees and productivity will increase as well as money saved is unreliable. The conclusion is based on the assumption that old workers always keep their efficiency at a high level while young worker, quite the opposite, will be less concentrated on their works without a supervisor. But this is just a guess which might not be the case. Maybe old workers are always in a low working efficiency regardless of having a supervisor. Without eliminating this possible factor, the assumption is not well-founded. Giving this assumption is verified, the conclusion is also open to doubt. It is common sense that old workers more rely on old-fashion ways to finish their jobs, having no innovations at all. However, the young workers tend to attempt new ways to get work done which may give to the technological breakthrough for the company. Only grounding on the efficiency of workers, the conclusion is not well considered.


In sum, this argument is wholly unpersuasive as it stands. More specific evidences should be provided to prove the survey is representative and convincing. To make the argument more logically acceptable, the reason why we should hire mainly older employees and why productivity will increase should be illustrated clearly.