Company X has just switched to a four day workweek, mandating that employees work ten hours per day from Monday to Thursday instead of eight 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 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.
Company X’s shift to a four day workweek rests on two key claims; that the reduction in running costs from shutting down the premises will increase profits and that the reduced commute will improve employee morale. The first claim is dubious at best, as it rests on a number of assumptions concerning employee productivity and sources of profit that need fruther investigation. The following claim, that the daily commute of its workers will see improved morale suffers from related issues. It appears unsubstantiated, and there are much more practical measures that could be implemented. Lastly, there are a number of implications for Company X should these assumptions prove mistaken.
The first claim made by Company X, that a ten hour work day is better overall for the company employees rests solely on two assumptions. Firstly, it is buttressed by the belief that the productivity of employees working five, eight hour shifts, will translate comfortably to four, ten hours shifts is difficult to sustain. Further, Company X has not outlined any measures to expand breaks accordingly. When taken in conjuction with Company X’s identification of the commute as an issue, the transit to and from work is likely to become all the more arduous following consecutive ten hours shifts, than it is it following an eight hour working day. Another key belief of Company X is that their ceasing of operations on a Friday will not impact profitability. Given the rarity of a four day working week among contemporary companies, it is specious to think that there will not be significant monetary loss from not being open for business, when the vast majority of competitors and customers will be. Lastly, the company outlined how shutting down for Friday will save money, and increase profits. Surely, if the costs of the Company X’s location and buildings are so great, a more reasonable move would be to investigate cheaper locations. Company X does not provide any evidence of having done so.
The second position taken by the Company is that employee morale will be improved by reducing the number of commutes the Company X workforce have to make. This appears to be yet another instance of Company X adopting measures that are extreme, when more feasible options exist. Again, it must be stated that we are blind to Company X’s prior efforts to improve morale. The sheer volume of other ways in which employees can increase morale merit closer inspection. Firstly, no significant investigation into the cause of declining employee morale is alluded to. This appears to be an unsubstantiated assumption on the part of Company X. Secondly, if the length of the commute is such a burden on employees, the prospect of remote working seems like the ideal salve for this irritation. If this is not possible, surely adjusting working hours to allow for employees to start and finish later could be implemented.
There are a number of ominous implications should these assumptions behind Company X’s new measures prove unfounded. Firstly, business profits may sharply decline, owing to the opportunities lost from not operating on a Friday. For reasons already discussed above, there are a number of reasons for Company X to be slow to warm to such a prospect. Secondly, should these measures rest on an improper diagnosis of the cause of low morale, these issues may get worse. Lastly, should productivity decline, it may compound pre-existing issues both stated, in terms of morale, and implied, with regards to Company X’s profitability.
This response has dissected the measures being outlined by Company X, and has outlined how their measures rest on a number of faulty and unfounded assumptions about their work force. Further, the negative consequences of these measures, and the implications of them should they prove false, were discussed.
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: 28 15
No. of Words: 629 350
No. of Characters: 3138 1500
No. of Different Words: 272 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 5.008 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.989 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.757 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 241 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 184 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 113 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 65 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 22.464 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.6 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.536 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.304 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.47 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.072 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 468, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
...with Company X's identification of the commute as an issue, the transit to and from wo...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 5, column 669, Rule ID: A_INFINITVE[1]
Message: Probably a wrong construction: a/the + infinitive
...f Company X. Secondly, if the length of the commute is such a burden on employees, the pros...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
accordingly, but, first, firstly, if, lastly, may, second, secondly, so
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 32.0 19.6327345309 163% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 23.0 12.9520958084 178% => OK
Conjunction : 13.0 11.1786427146 116% => OK
Relative clauses : 16.0 13.6137724551 118% => OK
Pronoun: 37.0 28.8173652695 128% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 83.0 55.5748502994 149% => OK
Nominalization: 12.0 16.3942115768 73% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3253.0 2260.96107784 144% => OK
No of words: 629.0 441.139720559 143% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.17170111288 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.00798087137 4.56307096286 110% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.85001950082 2.78398813304 102% => OK
Unique words: 286.0 204.123752495 140% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.454689984102 0.468620217663 97% => OK
syllable_count: 1003.5 705.55239521 142% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 12.0 4.96107784431 242% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 10.0 8.76447105788 114% => OK
Subordination: 8.0 2.70958083832 295% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 5.0 1.67365269461 299% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 3.0 4.22255489022 71% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 29.0 19.7664670659 147% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 22.8473053892 92% => OK
Sentence length SD: 46.7676982339 57.8364921388 81% => OK
Chars per sentence: 112.172413793 119.503703932 94% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.6896551724 23.324526521 93% => OK
Discourse Markers: 2.44827586207 5.70786347227 43% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 14.0 8.20758483034 171% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 9.0 6.88822355289 131% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 6.0 4.67664670659 128% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.262080624765 0.218282227539 120% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0729383474797 0.0743258471296 98% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.066894905393 0.0701772020484 95% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.144145447764 0.128457276422 112% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.10347871546 0.0628817314937 165% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.8 14.3799401198 96% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 50.16 48.3550499002 104% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 12.197005988 94% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.71 12.5979740519 101% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.19 8.32208582834 98% => OK
difficult_words: 140.0 98.500998004 142% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 12.3882235529 89% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.1389221557 93% => OK
text_standard: 11.0 11.9071856287 92% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 30 minutes.
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 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.