首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
A Workaholic Economy For the first century or so of the industrial revolution, increased productivity led to decreases in wo
A Workaholic Economy For the first century or so of the industrial revolution, increased productivity led to decreases in wo
admin
2012-12-13
97
问题
A Workaholic Economy
For the first century or so of the industrial revolution, increased productivity led to decreases in working hours. Employees who had been putting in 12-hour days, six days a week, found their time on the job shrinking to 10 hours daily, then, finally to eight hours, five days a week. only a generation ago social planners worried about what people would do with all this new-found free time. In the US, at least, it seems they need not have bothered. Although the output per hour of work has more than doubled since 1945, leisure seems reserved largely for the unemployed and underemployed. Those who work full-time spend as much time on the job as they did at the end of World War Ⅱ. In fact, working hours have increased noticeably since 1970--perhaps because real wages have stagnated that year. Bookstores now abound with manuals describing how to manage time and cope with stress.
There are several reasons for lost leisure. Since 1970, companies have responded to improvements in the business climate by having employees work overtime rather than by hiring extra personnel, says. economist Juliet B. , Scholar of Harvard University. Indeed, the current economic recovery has gained a certain amount of notoriety for its "jobless" nature: increased production has been almost entirely decoupled from employment. Some firms are even down sizing as their profits climb. "All things being equal, we’d be better off spreading around the work," observes labor economist Ronald G. Ehrenberg of Cornell University.
Yet a host of factors pushes employers to hire fewer workers for more hours and, at the same time, compels workers to spend more time on the job. Most of those incentives involve what Ehrenberg calls the structure of compensation: quirks in the way salaries and benefits are organized that make it more profitable to ask 40 employees to labor an extra hour each than to hire one more worker to do the same 40-hour job.
Professional and managerial employees supply the most obvious lesson along these lines. once people are on salary, their cost to a firm is the same whether they spend 35 hours a week in the office or 70. Diminishing returns may eventually set in as overworked employees lose efficiency or leave for more arable pastures. But in the short run, the employer’s incentive is Clear.
Even hourly employees receive benefits--such as pension and contributions and medical insurance--that are not tied to the number of hours they work. Therefore, it is more profitable for employers to work their existing employees harder.
For all that employees complain about long hours, they, too, have reasons not to trade money for leisure. "People who work reduced hours pay a huge penalty in career terms," Scholar maintains. “It’s taken as a negative signal about their commitment to the firm.” Bailyn of Massachusetts Institute of Technology adds that many corporate managers find it difficult to measure the contribution of their underlings to a firm’s well-being, so they use the number of hours worked as a proxy for output. "Employees know this,’ she says, and they adjust their behavior accordingly.
"Although the image of the good worker is the one whose life belongs to the company," Bailyn says, "it doesn’t fit the facts.’ She cites both quantitative and qualitative studies that show increased productivity for part-time workers: they make better use of the time they have, and they are less likely to succumb to fatigue in stressful jobs. Companies that employ more workers for less time also gain from the resulting redundancy, she asserts. "The extra people can cover the contingencies that you know are going to happen, such as when crises take people away from the workplace. "Positive experiences with reduced hours have begun to change the more-is-better culture at some companies, Scholar reports.
Larger firms, in particular, appear to be more willing to experiment with flexible working arrangement.
It may take even more than changes in the financial and cultural structures of employment for workers successfully to trade increased productivity and money for leisure time, Scholar contends. She says the U.S. market for goods has become skewed by the assumption of full-time, two-career households. Automobile makers no longer manufacture cheap models, and developers do not build the tiny. bungalows that served the first post-war generation of home buyers. Not even the humblest household object is made without a microprocessor. U. S. goods are appropriate only for high incomes and long hours.
Among the following statements, which is true according to the passage?
选项
A、Today, employees are facing a reduction in working hours.
B、Economic recovery created more jobs.
C、Bailyn’s research shows that part-time employees work more efficiently.
D、Increased leisure time would benefit two-career households.
答案
C
解析
以下哪个说法符合原文。根据原文第七段第二句“She cites both quantitative and qualitative studies that show increased productivity for par-time workers:they make better use of the time they have,and they are less likely to succumb to fatigue in stressful jobs(她引用质量和数量研究的结果来显示,非全日制员工生产率在增加:他们更充分地利用时间,并能有效应对工作压力) ”可以确定选C) 。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/Uew7777K
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
WiththestartofBBCWorldServiceTelevision,millionsofviewersinAsiaandAmericacannowwatchtheCorporation’snews【B1】
Inthepastoysterswereraisedinmuchthesamewayasdirtfarmersraisedtomatoes—bytransplantingthem.First,farmersselec
Inthepastoysterswereraisedinmuchthesamewayasdirtfarmersraisedtomatoes—bytransplantingthem.First,farmersselec
TheWorldinaGlass:SixDrinksThatChangedHistoryTomStandageurgesdrinkerstosavorthehistoryoftheirfavoritebev
TheWorldinaGlass:SixDrinksThatChangedHistoryTomStandageurgesdrinkerstosavorthehistoryoftheirfavoritebev
Languageislearnedprimarilythroughcommunicationwithotherpeople.Researchshowsthatthemorecommunicationchildren【S1】__
WhenIfirstentereduniversity,myaunt,whoisanEnglishprofessor,gavemeanewEnglishdictionary.Iwas【C1】______toseet
It’s10pm.Youmaynotknowwhereyourchildis,butthechipdoes.Thechipwillalsoknowifyourchildhasfallenandne
It’s10pm.Youmaynotknowwhereyourchildis,butthechipdoes.Thechipwillalsoknowifyourchildhasfallenandne
随机试题
关于主动脉夹层破口错误的是
A.重新检测茶碱浓度,增加25%剂量B.症状控制无需加量,调整剂量后重新检测茶碱浓度C.症状控制且无副作用则不调整剂量D.症状控制且无副作用也停止1次用药,减少50%剂量E.症状控制且无副作用也停止2次用药,减少不少于50%剂量茶碱浓度10~1
对淹溺病人出现心脏呼吸骤停的现场急救应最先实施
电算化后,部分会计核算的管理方法需要修改,下列说法不正确的是()。
英达公司下设A、B两个投资中心。A投资中心的投资额为200万元,投资利润率为15%:B投资中心的投资利润率为17%,剩余收益为20万元;英达公司要求的平均最低投资利润率为12%。英达公司决定追加投资100万元,若投向A投资中心,每年可增加利润20万元;若投
一般资料:求助者,男性,35岁,已婚,硕士学历,公务员。案例介绍:求助者非常要强,10余年来工作认真负责,积极努力。半年前其科长退休,上级委派他为代理科长,他因为得到认可而高兴,认为这是自己努力工僬的结果。一个多月前上级来了正式任命,但任命的科长
A、 B、 C、 D、 A奇数项图形中带曲线小图形均为外凸图形,偶数项图形中带曲线小图形均为内凹图形。
某河鱼类资源丰富,但水流湍急。有个老人在河边钓鱼,一个小孩走过去观看。老人技艺纯熟,没多久就钓到满满一篓鱼。老人见小孩很可爱,要把整篓的鱼送给他,小孩摇摇头。老人惊异地问:“你为什么不要?”小孩回答:“我要您手中的钓竿。”
关于我国封建成文法典的表述,正确的是()。
深水区(改革开放)
最新回复
(
0
)