IELTS

Writing:
It seems that many companies today are becoming much more concerned with profit than with the happiness of their workers.
How could companies take better care of their workers in the future?

The fact that an organization’s practices have profound effects on the happiness of its employees and the job satisfactions that employees enjoy have a great impact on organization sustainability seems to be ignored by most companies in this time of economic recession; instead, lack of personalized focus on employees and more on business and profitability is likely more common. Since fewer and fewer workers are content with their jobs, it’s time for us to shed some lights on the issues associated with sustaining organization and find effective remedy to make workplace more attractive.
It’s irrefutable that profits are necessary to keep companies alive and prosperous, but many companies tend to put so much weight on the bottom line that they often well in excess of what is needed for all to be more comfortable; unwittingly, they have lost sight of the satisfaction of their workers. Massive layoffs occur yet productivity remains steady, organizations are trying to extract more work from the employees by decreasing the number of workers. Typically, this number must fall in rhythm with productivity number, however, in this recession, along with the reduction in labor force; there is no corollary drop in productivity number. Eventually, employees are the first to realize that no one really cares about them and thus disengage and decide to perform at a level to keep employed. This is the case of counter- productiveness; the company is employing far more people to accomplish the same work that could have been accomplished by fewer happy and engaged employees.
In exercising cost-cutting efforts, organizations implementing health and wellness programs for their employees realize significant cost savings through reduced disability expenses; they are engaged in so doing disregard of the fact that health insurance affects health status positively and this is a decisive factor for the ongoing of the company; to worsen the matter, other human instinct needs such as entertainment, relaxation, the need of recognition as well as being cared of are beyond any attention. In the standpoint that animals can’t do much to affect their own well-being, human, on the other hand can take steps to improve theirs, we adopt “laissez faire” attitude towards issues of human sustainability, many companies treat workers as machine parts. Those satisfied engaged employees have been found productive, therefore are treated as means to an end, others are not their concern. The odd is that the best and brightest workers with no personal benefits are driven off and a feeling of simmering anger is to hang around those remaining.
Several antidotes to job dissatisfactions, the seeds of workers’ unhappiness are offered; that as long as employees make lots of money, they ignore the long hours and overlook the conditions they work in is all agreed upon, but when employers start cutting the money either through salary freezes or by shifting the burden of benefits to the employees, they impact the happiness of their employees. The simple solution is to make sure that salary and benefits remain at the market levels. In this time of knowledge- based economy, employees are no longer blind to what they are worth, thus, employers should treat them as they are if they want to maintain their happiness.
In respect to employees’ health; the truth is that work schedules and length of hours are also to affect workers’ physical well- being as well as family relationships, both of which can do harm for their joyfulness, thus, have negative effects on productivity. As a result, jobs designed in such a way that allows employees to control over their work is conducive to lower stress level and better health outcomes. In contrast, policies that promote inequality in income and relaxation can, by extension, lead to poor health outcomes.
As Studs Terkel said it best many years ago in his oral history, entitled Working “work is about a daily search for meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for accomplishment rather than torpor, in short for a sort of life, rather than a Monday- to- Friday sort of dying”; the fruit of happiness can be easily seeded by sometimes providing workers “pertinent training or cross training” in terms of recognition. In addition, by creating the flexibility needed to make the best use of individuals’ competencies and help them reach their personal ambitions and the organization’s goal, the effective way to instill meaning to their life, organization is to utilize the powerful linkage between true engagement and potential productivity. So as to gain the sense of accomplishment, workers are inclined to seek for something novel, something new to have trial; it is advisable to offer them chances to make initiatives, this is surely beneficial for both employees and the company.
In a nutshell, as noted above the final nail in the coffin of work happiness is the inability to seem to go ahead, and every generation has wrestled with the same issue “job satisfaction”, now; unless some resilience and opportunity in our economy are to be found to change the circumstances, it is no wonder workers’ happiness is to suffer.(847 words)