Argument186 by happyhappypig

happyhappypigUID: 2342810

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."

10:05-10:36 31min 20070724
Words: 581

In the above argument, the arguer suggests to hire old employees to increase productivity and save money in printing companies, which seems reasonable at a first glance. However, the author fails to reveal the true reasons for the increase productivity of young workers in automobile factories, nor does he or she provide the applicability of such result in printing companies.

First of all, whether it is true that old employees are superior to younger people in automobile factories under supervision is open to doubt. Whether the result of telephone survey is trustable or representative needs thorough analysis, since such study should at least contains related information about the number of factories and total number of workers examined. Even assuming the reliability of the survey, it is insufficient to reflect the better performance of the older employees. Actually, myriads of variables should be taken into consideration about the evaluation of employees jobs. Factors such as the quality of the job and the overall working efficiency should not be neglected. It is highly likely that due to the strong body, with presence of supervisor, the productivity of young employees are increased to the level which cannot be reached by the old employee, whose constant productivity is mainly due to their limited physical strength. Or perhaps the quality of the products of young employees are much better due to their carefulness whereas those from the old employees are not satisfactory due to their boring feeling about having the same job for years or bad eyes. Thus, without thorough analysis related to the above aspects, the suggestion to hire more old employees is too hasty.

Secondly, even assuming the effect or supervision, the argument rests on a gratuitous presumption that what happens in the automobile factories are equally applicable in printing companies. As a matter of fact, compared with assembling of automobiles in manufacturing companies, the jobs in printing companies have a higher requirement about familiarity of the printing machines. And those usually pay attention to the details are welcomed for editing positions. Perhaps all the jobs done in the printing factories are performed by machines, without needs for much supervision; instead, it is the employees’ duty to supervise the machines. Or perhaps large proportion of the job needs people have the ability to arrange articles and have experience in editing, which would have no relationship with the age but rather the experience and carefulness during work. Either of the above scenarios, if true, would greatly undermine the arguer's assertion to hire old employees in the printing companies.

Moreover, there is no guarantee that old employees without supervision could increase productivity and money saving for the printing companies. Actually, there are plenty of other determinants influencing whether old employees can manage the job properly. If old employees cannot operate the printing machines, extra training programs may be necessary for working safety and efficiency, which actually needs more financial input. It might also be the case that old employees cannot easily figure out the mistakes appears in the drafts before mass printing, which might results in useless printing products, causing both energy and paper waste as well as financial lost for the company. Without specific discussion about the related aspects, hardly can we may any prediction about the advantage of using old employees in the printing companies.

Taken together, the above argument is not well reasoned as it stands. Unless give reasonable performance evaluation of the young and old employees in the automobile companies as well as the applicability of the survey result to the printing companies, the arguer's advice cannot be adopted.

感觉最后一段的逻辑不是很清楚
不知道在讨论请old employee和save money的时候还要不要再提supervision
写到后面有点晕