Company X has just switched to a 4-day workweek, mandating that employees work 10 hours per day from Monday to Thursday instead of 8 hours per day from Monday to Friday. Although the policy is new, Company X claims that the policy will help to increase profits by shutting down offices on Fridays and to boost employee morale by reducing commuting time to and from work each week.
Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
The perfect working hours regulation balancing the leisure and professional life has always been a debatable issue. Pioneered by the Ford Company, it has been decided in the beginning of the 20th centry that, working 8 hours per day from Monday to Friday is best for all. However, many companies adjust the working schedule according to the needs and benefits of the particular market or industry. Similarly in the argument topic, Company X has switched the working schedule to a 4-day workweek. In this case, the employees will be working for 10 hours per day, not 8 hours.
Even though Company X claims that this program is more profitable, there are many questions to ask. First, one must know what does Company X do. Is it a factory? Is it a company mainly focused on importing or exporting? For example, if it is a factory running textile engines, then it must be profitable for them to work 4 days only. Because each textile engine runs errands for the first couple of hours after it is switched on. If the product they provide is not met with high level of demands, then working for 4 days but for 10 hours will definitely be better for them. However, if this company is importing goods from abroad, then it definitely is not a good idea to shorten 5-day workweek schedule, since dealing with customers or providers every day and answering their questions as soon as possible is an important part of the job. The new policy of the company might even result in losing the precious customers or providers in the end.
Furthermore, another issue to question is the transportation service. Does the company provide transportation service for its employees? If so, reducing the workweek from 5 to 4 would be more benefitable for the company, since they would be cutting the expenses for the additional day. Also, whether the company pays for the meals of the workers is to be questioned, just like the transportation service. If the company provides these two, then reducing the days might be increasing profit.
Another point that has to be made is the fact that working for extra 2 hours per day, even though they would be working for 4 days only, would be counted as extra hours at work. Which means that the company has to pay more for each hour the workers spend at the workplace. According to the laws in many countries, employers has to pay more for additional hours at work, after 8 hours. If the company is going to obey the rules, then the salaries are going to be extremely high, compared to the previous payments. In this case, the new policy is definitely not going to be profitable for them.
Moreover, even though it is preassumed in the argument that 4-day workweek would be boosting employee morale, there is no additional support for this assumption. Did the company made a survey and found out what the employees want? Is it really the case that the employees prefer working for 10 hours incessantly? Or rather, would they prefer coming to work for another day per week. The argument does not state any research, though. Another point that is not clear in the argument is the salaries of the employees.
One more question to ask is where this company is located. Is it located in a small town or in a big, developed city. Do employees spend hours in the traffic jam of the city? Or, since it is established in a small town, do they just walk a couple of minutes and reach their work place? These factory are important in assuming employees’ preferance, however, these are not provided in the argument too.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 3.5 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 35 15
No. of Words: 622 350
No. of Characters: 2828 1500
No. of Different Words: 252 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.994 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.547 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.504 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 185 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 156 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 91 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 56 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 17.771 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.159 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.429 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.265 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.469 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.098 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 6 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 399, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Similarly,
...s of the particular market or industry. Similarly in the argument topic, Company X has sw...
^^^^^^^^^
Line 10, column 179, Rule ID: DID_PAST[1]
Message: Did you mean 'make'?
Suggestion: make
...rt for this assumption. Did the company made a survey and found out what the employe...
^^^^
Line 12, column 287, Rule ID: THIS_NNS[2]
Message: Did you mean 'this factory' or 'These factories'?
Suggestion: This factory; These factories
... of minutes and reach their work place? These factory are important in assuming employees&apo...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, furthermore, however, if, moreover, really, similarly, so, then, as to, for example
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 43.0 19.6327345309 219% => Less to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 12.9520958084 93% => OK
Conjunction : 12.0 11.1786427146 107% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 13.6137724551 73% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 39.0 28.8173652695 135% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 62.0 55.5748502994 112% => OK
Nominalization: 12.0 16.3942115768 73% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2929.0 2260.96107784 130% => OK
No of words: 622.0 441.139720559 141% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 4.70900321543 5.12650576532 92% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.99398916966 4.56307096286 109% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.60392842329 2.78398813304 94% => OK
Unique words: 265.0 204.123752495 130% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.426045016077 0.468620217663 91% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 883.8 705.55239521 125% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.4 1.59920159681 88% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 4.96107784431 60% => OK
Article: 5.0 8.76447105788 57% => OK
Subordination: 14.0 2.70958083832 517% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.67365269461 60% => OK
Preposition: 7.0 4.22255489022 166% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 35.0 19.7664670659 177% => OK
Sentence length: 17.0 22.8473053892 74% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 45.6446433811 57.8364921388 79% => OK
Chars per sentence: 83.6857142857 119.503703932 70% => OK
Words per sentence: 17.7714285714 23.324526521 76% => OK
Discourse Markers: 2.88571428571 5.70786347227 51% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 6.0 5.15768463074 116% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 15.0 8.20758483034 183% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 6.88822355289 102% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 13.0 4.67664670659 278% => Less facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.344743144291 0.218282227539 158% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0910818315922 0.0743258471296 123% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0730585360497 0.0701772020484 104% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.202861519921 0.128457276422 158% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0938344952532 0.0628817314937 149% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 9.6 14.3799401198 67% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 71.14 48.3550499002 147% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 7.6 12.197005988 62% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 9.74 12.5979740519 77% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.35 8.32208582834 88% => OK
difficult_words: 113.0 98.500998004 115% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.8 11.1389221557 79% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.9071856287 84% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 30 minutes.
Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.