Time Off for Overworked Americans - Essay Example

Employers try to squeeze out as much as possible from their workers and some of the tactics used include intimidation and extreme working hours. However, this is counterproductive since when they work in fear, employees will spend more time worrying about their job security and produce mediocre results.  Americans feel pressured by their employers and hardly have time to spend with their families and friends, long working hours as well as stressful conditions are hazardous to their health (Waldman).

Ironically, it has been scientifically proven that workers who take time off and whose bosses treat them in a friendly and respectful manner are likely to be highly motivated therefore more productive than insecure employees who expend too much time trying to keep avoiding trouble. A vacation is an ideal time for employees to develop innovative ideas by temporarily escaping the monotony of the office routine and in the long-term, an employer can reap substantial benefits from letting their staff relaxes every now and then. Waldman explains the situation further by examining the issue of drug testing; he claims that employers who tested their staff for drugs were often less productive than those who did not (Waldman).  While drug tests may sometimes be necessary, they are often seen as a violation of one’s privacy, and even when one has not used drugs being tested evidence that their employer does not trust them.

Consequently, the more poorly treated workers are, the less productive they become, primarily because they lose their intrinsic motivation and only work as a means of avoiding trouble or getting fired (Martins). Conversely, employees who are treated with respect are intrinsically motivated and they are driven by results since they do not feel threatened or insecure so they can give the job their full attention, in addition since they get enough time to relax they will be more innovative and productive.

Personally, I agree that the respect shown to employees by their employers is directly proportional to their productivity and vice versa. After high school, I worked for a while as a cashier in a fast-food restaurant in my town, it did not take me long to realize that the floor supervisor was a brutal inconsiderate individual to whom the employees were only as good as the last satisfied customer.   On my second day, I observed him yell at a busboy who had dropped a glass and he told him if he broke another one, he should not bother to clean it up because he would be fired, this was in full sight and view of the lunchtime crowd.  For the rest of the day, the young man was jumpy and irritable and he missed several orders and I heard him speak rudely to a customer, fortunately, the supervisor did not hear about it since he would have probably fired him on the spot.  I had assumed it was an isolated case but I later came to realize that harassing employees was the norm at the restaurant; the turnover rate was very high as someone quiet almost every week. As the cashier, I soon discovered that one of the reasons productivity was low was that we were training a new employee every other week and as such, we had an inexperienced waiter on the floor that would naturally be slow on their feet.

However, as soon as they had become skilled enough to take multiple orders and speed things up, someone would quit, and once again, we would have a deficiency and another slot to fill. If the workers had been treated with more respect, the business would definitely have made more money since it is easier to correct a few mistakes here and there than to bully an employee into quitting and have to train another one.  I worked there for only two months and I quit for the same reason my predecessor had left, I was often grilled and accused of stealing from the restaurant, and twice I had to spend extra hours in the office with the supervisor as he audited my books.  Clearly, he never learned from experience and until he did, the staff turnover would remain high until he was replaced or learned how to treat his employees with the respect and trust they deserve.

In conclusion, from the examination of the readings and as is evinced by my experience one thing is certain; driving employees too hard and denying them time to relax is counterproductive. American employers need to recognize that working long hours, constant micromanagement, and intimidation are counterproductive strategies that change the workers’ motivation from intrinsic to extrinsic. Conversely, many employees would enjoy and excel at their jobs if they felt trusted and respected rather than constantly harassed and overworked. At the end of the day, a happy employee working, 6 days a week is likely to be more productive and innovative than a disgruntled one putting in 7 days.