AGRUMENT 186...其实还是会感觉ARGUMENT力不从心的！

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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: 544          TIME: 00:43:43          DATE: 2/11/2011 12:13:22 PM

From this argument, the author claims that because of a telephone survey of other factories worker which shows that the elder worker are less being influenced by supervisors the printing company should hires mainly older employees so that the productivity would be increase and the pay would be less. That seems reasonable, but when we think it again we would find the thoughtless flaws and the incoherent reasoning.

Firstly, the argument laid a telephone survey results that people in different age bracket reported different influence about the supervisor. However, there's is no evidence shows that what the workers said to the researcher is what they real thought. It is entirely possible that they were afraid of the real name survey would affect their employment so that they told the researcher a lie.  The researcher should have a survey ballot so that the facility of the survey could be proofed.

Secondly, even if the survey of the automobile factory workers is creditable, the situations of the printing company and automobile factory are not the same. For that he employees in automobile factory might be completely have no interest in the automobile so that they don't have the productivity. Or, the attitudes of the two groups of people are different. The employees in the printing company might be well tested and responsible so that no matter how old they are, they would work hard. The author should prove the similarity and differences of the two companies or the claim that the situation of printing company is same to the automobile factory is arbitrary.

Moreover, even if the survey is well-proved and the situations of two companies are the same, there is still no evidence shows that the productivity would increase. The physical qualifications of the young and the elder might be different. Even though the older employees want to work harder and make more profits to the company, their body don't permit that. They might be tired after only an hour while the young employees might not feel the tire whole day. Thus, the productivity depends on both the attitudes and ability of the employees.

Besides, the argument also claims that if they hire the older employees the less supervisors they would need so that they money would be saved. Obviously, how much money the company would gain relies on either the profit or the spent? As we have said that there is no evidence shows the productivity would be increased if they hire the older employees. And it is possible that the productivity would be decreased, rather than increased, and the more employees need to be hired, and the much time would be needed. The money saved on reducing the supervisors are much less than the profit decrease on making products. The money, at the end, was still not saved. Therefore, if the printing company wants to both same money and increase productivity, they should re-consider the ability and qualities of their employees.

The author wants to have a solution to save the printing company's money, and at the same time increase productivity. It is feasible but not by the way the author advised. The printing company needs to find out what exactly cause the low productivity then take some efforts to change the situation.