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Given that most countries have millions of unemployed people and at the same time millions of people working for 1.5 or 2 employees each in terms of workload, I wonder what the social and economic effects of that are.
I do understand young entrepreneurs who start new companies and don't want to hire too many additional people at the beginning, also in order to give the new company the desired direction. And with small start-ups it is not always easy to find trustworthy partners that share the same vision for the new company.
But with established companies with thousands of employees I really wonder if working overtime makes much sense. Wouldn't it be better in the long run to distribute the available amount of work more evenly on the shoulders of all the people wanting to work, thus also reducing the expenses for things like unemployment benefits? Not to mention that people would have more quality time to spend with their families, helping kids with their homework, playing, having fun, etc., which I suppose is very difficult when you work 12 to 16 hours a day.
In some companies you have a difficult time when you only work 40 hours a week, which seems really odd to me. You are almost considered lazy, thus people are conditioned to work much more and maybe don't even realize that that is not what they really want.
Given that most countries have millions of unemployed people and at the same time millions of people working for 1.5 or 2 employees each in terms of workload, I wonder what the social and economic effects of that are.
I do understand young entrepreneurs who start new companies and don't want to hire too many additional people at the beginning, also in order to give the new company the desired direction. And with small start-ups it is not always easy to find trustworthy partners that share the same vision for the new company.
But with established companies with thousands of employees I really wonder if working overtime makes much sense. Wouldn't it be better in the long run to distribute the available amount of work more evenly on the shoulders of all the people wanting to work, thus also reducing the expenses for things like unemployment benefits? Not to mention that people would have more quality time to spend with their families, helping kids with their homework, playing, having fun, etc., which I suppose is very difficult when you work 12 to 16 hours a day.
In some companies you have a difficult time when you only work 40 hours a week, which seems really odd to me. You are almost considered lazy, thus people are conditioned to work much more and maybe don't even realize that that is not what they really want.
Nope, it costs a lot of money to hire, train and provide benefits for additional employees. No to mention you will have to layoff workers if business has a downturn, thus increasing unemployment payments. Increased productivity is required until the economy turns around.
Given that most countries have millions of unemployed people and at the same time millions of people working for 1.5 or 2 employees each in terms of workload, I wonder what the social and economic effects of that are.
I do understand young entrepreneurs who start new companies and don't want to hire too many additional people at the beginning, also in order to give the new company the desired direction. And with small start-ups it is not always easy to find trustworthy partners that share the same vision for the new company.
But with established companies with thousands of employees I really wonder if working overtime makes much sense. Wouldn't it be better in the long run to distribute the available amount of work more evenly on the shoulders of all the people wanting to work, thus also reducing the expenses for things like unemployment benefits? Not to mention that people would have more quality time to spend with their families, helping kids with their homework, playing, having fun, etc., which I suppose is very difficult when you work 12 to 16 hours a day.
In some companies you have a difficult time when you only work 40 hours a week, which seems really odd to me. You are almost considered lazy, thus people are conditioned to work much more and maybe don't even realize that that is not what they really want.
Most employers factor in overtime pay when taking on large projects or when the work load increases. It's usually a lot cheaper to pay temp. overtime pay to current employees than to hire additional labor that they might not be able to keep busy in the future. When doing project management we typically plan for 20% - 25% overtime pay when doing timelines, that's automatically budgeted into the quoting process to cover any overages or delays. Most employees appreciate overtime, it's extra income and it's not permanent.
as has been said, it generally costs far less to pay overtime than to hire on more employees.
second, unless you have a situation where everyone is doing the same job, basically, hiring an extra person or two doesnt make sense either as then you have employees jumping from job to job too often, and work quality suffers.
For a couple of weeks, fine, but with many people working overtime has long become a regular thing. I used to know some like that. I used to work in an office where people were almost like trying to leave the office last, as if it were wrong to actually have a real life, i.e. outside work, and thus leave at 5 or 5:30pm.
I just feel that overtime has become the rule rather than the exception, and I don't think that is a good development.
The costs associated with hiring new people may be a problem for companies in financial trouble. But as long as there is too much work for the existing workforce, obviously the problems are somewhere else.
Maybe it would be a good idea to adapt corporate tax rates based on the employment tendency of a given company during the previous year. For instance reducing the tax rate by as many percentage points as the number of employees rose. Some mechanism like that, which rewards companies hiring people
Actually, such a discount system could also be used for calculating a company's social security / health insurance contributions per capita. The more employees a company has, the cheaper it gets per employee.
For a couple of weeks, fine, but with many people working overtime has long become a regular thing. I used to know some like that. I used to work in an office where people were almost like trying to leave the office last, as if it were wrong to actually have a real life, i.e. outside work, and thus leave at 5 or 5:30pm.
I just feel that overtime has become the rule rather than the exception, and I don't think that is a good development.
The costs associated with hiring new people may be a problem for companies in financial trouble. But as long as there is too much work for the existing workforce, obviously the problems are somewhere else.
Maybe it would be a good idea to adapt corporate tax rates based on the employment tendency of a given company during the previous year. For instance reducing the tax rate by as many percentage points as the number of employees rose. Some mechanism like that, which rewards companies hiring people
When you open your business, keep those points in mind.
Nope, it costs a lot of money to hire, train and provide benefits for additional employees. No to mention you will have to layoff workers if business has a downturn, thus increasing unemployment payments. Increased productivity is required until the economy turns around.
I totally agree. Good answer.
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