Argument186，为什么没有讨论阿狗呢？留链必返~

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A186. 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."

In this recommendation, the author asserts that to save expenses for hiring supervisors and increase productivity, the printing company should employ older workers. To bolster his recommendation, the author cites a telephone survey of an automobile factory. According to this survey, older employees were less likely to claim that the existing of supervisors seems would not increase their productivity. The author's statement appears to be somewhat appealing in some aspects, and however, I find this argument dubious on several grounds.

In the first place, the arguer's conclusion depends on one major assumption that the survey indeed indicates the fact that by hiring older workers, the telephone factory could increase their productivity and save money due to the reduced need of supervisors. Yet, there seems no sufficient evidence to substantiate this assumption. Without concrete details about the creativity about the people of all ages, the statistical numbers are meaningless. Perhaps, compare to the younger people, the older workers' productivity is extremely low, even save the money to hire supervisors, the factory with mainly old workers cannot provide comparatively high productivity. On the other hand, the sample pool is under doubt as well, perhaps, there is few people aged 50 or over in that automobile factory and most of them are hardworking by coincidence. In other words, these samples are not representative enough and the survey does not mean hiring more other old workers would have a same result. Or perhaps, the old workers prefer working with less pressure, for this concern, they fail to tell the truth on purpose, in this case, the effect of this action might be worse. Hence, to cite a more convincing survey, the author should give more details.

Even if the automobile actually could increase their productivity by hiring older people, it is still hastily for the author asserts that the printing company will benefit from this policy too. Perhaps, the printing company requires more physical workers, and obviously, old workers could not be more effective in these works. Conversely, the telephone factory provides more professional jobs that need one's expertise and skills, and consequently, the old people with more experience in this area are more appropriate for the automobile factory. Without ruling our other possible scenarios, the author simply cannot convince me that the printing company could increase their productivity by employs more old workers.

Even if the productivity could indeed increases as the result of hiring mainly older employees in the printing company, it still does not necessarily mean that the printing company can save money. The arguer fails to provide any relevant date about the salary of people from different ages and assumes that the wages of various kinds of worker are equal to each others. In my view, it is presumptuous. Perhaps, the old workers usually require higher salary, and the young require lower, in this occasion, would the printing company save its money by employing the old is under doubt. Altogether, the author should provide more statistic numbers about the ratio of cost and benefits.

In sum, the author's conclusion is based on a series of unsubstantiated assumptions which renders the conclusion unconvincing as it stands. In order to have a more persuasive suggestion, firstly, the author should investigate the survey's reliability, and secondly compare the differences between the two companies. Last but not the least, as far as the ratio of cost and benefits is concerned, the issue of workers' different wages is also significant. a