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.

==> working hours were decreased from 12-hour days, six days a week to eight hours,
five days a week. People worried about that what they would do when they have free
time.

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 since that year. Bookstores now abound with manuals describing how to
manage time and cope with stress.

==> 1945: the output per hour of work has doubled, but people could not spend time on
leisure. 1970, the amount of working hours increased but real salary was not changed.
Besides, there were a lot of manuals that introduce how to manage time and deal with
stress.

There are several reasons for lost leisure. Since 1979, companies have responded to
improvements in the business climate by having employees work overtime rather than
by hiring extra personnel, says economist Juliet B. Schor 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 downsizing as their profits climb. “All things being equal, we’d be
better off spreading around the work,” observes labour economist Ronald G. Ehrenberg
of Cornell University.

==> Lost leisure. This is because since 1979, companies wanted their employees work
overtime instead of hiring more worker - Juliet B. Schor said. The economic recovery
received a lot of complains about jobless. Many companies was making smaller because
of increasing profits.

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 labour an
extra hour each than to hire one more worker to do the same 40-hour job.
==> Companies requested their workers do more time because of strange structure
compensation : It is more profitable if 40 workers do more 1 hour, instead of hiring one
employee do 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 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.

==> Profits decreased with the reason : workers do overworked led to lose efficiently.
There are many advantages when hiring hourly employees : receiving benefits, don’t
depend on the number of hours.

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,”
Schor maintains. “It’s taken as a negative signal’ about their commitment to the firm.’
[Lotte] 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 behaviour accordingly.

==> Managers in companies are hard to measure the contribution of their staffs, so they
choose the method that count the number of hours worked. Therefore, their staffs
understand and adjust their actions.

“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,
Schor reports.

==> the research of Bailyn show the benefits of hiring part-time workers: they use time
better, they don’t feel tired with stressful jobs, companies receive more profits, cover the
emergency situations. This lead to better culture in companies.

Larger firms, in particular, appear to be more willing to experiment with flexible

working arrangements…
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, Schor 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 postwar generation of home buyers. Not even the humblest household object is
made without a microprocessor. As Schor notes, the situation is a curious inversion of
the “appropriate technology” vision that designers have had for developing countries:
U.S. goods are appropriate only for high incomes and long hours. — Paul Walluh.

==> Schor said : changing financial and cultural structures is necessary to help workers
successfully and have more time to spend on leisure. And things in US is suitable for
high incomes and long hours

Questions 27-32
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer in reading passage 4? In
boxes 27-32 on your answer sheet write:

YES              if the statement agrees with the writer

NO                if the statement contradicts the writer
NOT GIVEN  if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

  Example                                                                                          
                  Answer
During the industrial revolution, people worked harder                          
NOT GIVEN

27    Today, employees are facing a reduction in working hours. TRUE

28    Social planners have been consulted about US employment figures. NOT GIVEN

29    Salaries have not risen significantly since the 1970s. TRUE
30    The economic recovery created more jobs. FALSE
31    Bailyn’s research shows that part-time employees work more efficiently. TRUE
32    Increased leisure time would benefit two-career households. NOT GIVEN
Questions 33-34
Choose the appropriate letters A-D and write them in boxes 33 and 34 on your answer
sheet.

33 Bailyn argues that it is better for a company to employ more workers because
A.    it is easy to make excess staff redundant.
B.    crises occur if you are under-staffed.
C.    people are available to substitute for absent staff.
D.    they can project a positive image at work.

34 Schor thinks it will be difficult for workers in the US to reduce their working hours
because
A.    they would not be able to afford cars or homes.
B.    employers are offering high incomes for long hours.
C.    the future is dependent on technological advances.
D.    they do not wish to return to the humble post-war era.

Questions 35-38
The writer mentions a number of factors that have resulted, in employees working
longer hours. Which FOUR of the following factors are mentioned? Write your answers
(A-H) in boxes 35-38 on your answer sheet.

List of Factors
A   Books are available to help employees cope with stress.
B   Extra work is offered to existing employees.
C   Increased production has led to joblessness.
D   Benefits and hours spent on the job are not linked.
E   Overworked employees require longer to do their work.
F    Longer hours indicate a greater commitment to the firm.
G   Managers estimate staff productivity in terms of hours worked.
H   Employees value a career more than a family.