Argument131 【0706G－LOVEAW小组】第十四次作业

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"Workers should be allowed to reduce their workload from 40 to 25 or even 20 hours per week because it is clear that people who work part-time instead of full-time have better health and improved morale. One store in Workville, which began allowing its employees to work part-time last year, reports that fewer days of sick leave were taken last year than in previous years. In contrast, the factory in Workville, which does not allow any of its employees to work part-time, had a slight increase in the number of days of sick leave taken last year. In addition, a recent survey reports that most of the store employees stated that they are satisfied with their jobs, while many of the factory employees stated that they are dissatisfied with their jobs."
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In this editorial the author suggests that workers should be allowed to reduce their workload from 40 to 25 even 20 hours per week on the basis of his assumption of better health and improved morale. But several logical flaws render the conclusion unacceptable as it stands.

To begin with, when the topic comes to better health, the author fails to provide sufficient information to support his assumption of less days of sick leave. Obviously, the author draws an unreasonable analogy between one store in Workville and the factory in Workville. As we know, it is always the work in stores plusher than that in factories. Workers in stores only need to be hurried and busy when customers crowd. And it is entirely possible that the store mentioned in this editorial is always with a small quantity of customers which results in that workers there are resting in most of their work time. On the contrary, workers in factories have to concentrate on their work without any distraction which is essential to keep a high speed of production and to ensure the safety imperiled by dangerous machines. Therefore, though part-time work permission has contributed to shorter days in the number of sick leave in store, even with part-time work permission workers in factories still take long days of sick leave in that they are so vulnerable to tiredness and sickness. Then, how can the author predict better health while shorter work time can not contribute to fewer sick leaves among workers in factories.

这一段极失败！开始看成是store的比factory少了。Sigh。。论证错了….虽然最后挽救了。。。。但还是错了。。。

Further, the dissatisfaction accomplished nothing to bolster the recommendation to reduce workers’ workload. Firstly, there is no credible evidence that the dissatisfaction was due to strong workload. Lacking such evidence it is equally possible that factory workers who are selected in the survey suffer from small income, deplorable environment around the work place, inconvenient transportation, terrible accommodation and food, and so forth. But it may be not the case in the store selected. For instance, due to freer and easier work in nature, the number of the works needed in a store is so few that each employee can obtain more salary from the partition of revenues from the whole store. Moreover, it is the factory that, with higher possibility, threatens workers’ health such as poison materials in chemistry factory and nuclear power station. As a consequence, without resolving such problems, the recommendation should not eliminate the dissatisfaction among the factory employees.

Even assuming that the recommendation will contribute to better health and eliminate dissatisfaction in factory workers’ mind, the author also further unfairly predict improved morale. Ironically, maybe comfortable work surroundings will bring up the habit of sloth which is the deadly fire against morale. Quite the opposite, terrible and tense speed in work will arouse spirit as challenge and painstaking which is essential to keep the strength of the factory being competitive. Therefore, it is so cursory that the author draws the conclusion that part-time work will improve the workers’ moral.

To sum up, the recommendation relies on certain doubtful assumption that render it unconvincing as it stand. To bolster the author’s conclusion, if any, he should provide clear evidence that less sick leave in stores results from part-time work permission, and dissatisfaction is caused by full-time work. However, the recommendation still can not be taken based on its indefinite influence to moral.