The following is from a recent email from the Diord Corp. Human Resources Manager: “Tobor Technologies found that mental health problems and mental illness were responsible for about 15 percent of employee sick days. Tobor amended its employee insurance plan so that workers receive the same coverage for mental illness as they do for physical illness. In addition, the company hired an on-site psychologist and created a system that allows workers to schedule confidential counseling appointments. After one year, the number of sick days used by employees declined by 10 percent. Diord Corp. has had an increase in employee sick days over the past two years, so we should introduce a similar insurance plan and counseling program. These measures will surely reduce employee absenteeism and cause an increase in productivity.”
Write a response in which you examine the argument’s unstated assumptions, making sure to explain how the argument depends on the assumptions and what the implications are if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
The given argument states that by giving workers insurance coverage for mental illnesses and allowing confidential counseling with a psychologist, employee absenteeism will decrease and productivity will increase at Diord Corp. The argument bases its claims on the previous example of Tobor Technologies, which employed a similar strategy. However, the given argument relies on several key unstated assumptions that, if proven incorrect, will drastically hamper the argument’s effectiveness. In particular, the argument assumes that the Diord employees are suffering from the same mental health conditions as the Tobor employees, that the Diord employees will respond exactly the same as those of Tobor Technologies, and that a decrease in employee absenteeism will necessarily increase productivity.
First, the argument assumes that the Diord employees are necessarily experiencing the same mental health dilemmas as the Tobor employees, and this is the reason for the increase in employee absenteeism. In fact, the increase in employee sick days at Diord Corp. may have nothing to do with mental health, and mental health may in fact present only a small portion of the reasons for employee absenteeism. The real reason for employee absenteeism may in fact be due to physical health consequences of job-related circumstances. For instance, if the employees have been handling more hazardous chemicals recently, or working with more dangerous equipment or even in a suboptimal environment that is too chilly or too dark for its employees, all of these factors can have deleterious effects on human physical health. Hence, mental health may not necessarily form the main reason for the large number of employee sick days at Diord Corp. Additional research must be done to determine the chief causes of employee leave, and whether mental health is a significant reason.
Furthermore, the argument assumes that the Diord Corp. employees will respond similarly to the insurance coverage and psychological counseling as the Tobor, when the employees may be from a different background that drastically changed how they respond to the mental health strategies. Studies have shown that different socioeconomic classes and racial groups respond differently to offerings of healthcare, meaning the employees at Diord Corp. may not take advantage of the insurance coverage or counseling opportunities like those at Tobor technologies. Perhaps the Diord Corp. employees tend to be from a poorer socioeconomic background that tend to be apprehensive about healthcare, and hence unlikely to use the benefits given them. In such a case, the optional use of the mental health amenities provided by Diord Corp. will not be useful to the Diord employees as they were for the Tobor Technologies employees, who may have been from a different socioeconomic status more likely to use the benefits. Hence, additional studies must be performed to determine whether the coverage of mental health-related issues in the company insurance plan and the confidential access to a psychologist will in fact be used by the employees, before these costly amenities are precipitously included.
Finally, the argument claims that reduced employee absenteeism will increase company productivity. However, this is a potentially unfounded assumption that requires additional supporting data. Employees who work longer hours may not necessarily be more productive, as sometimes the taking of a break every now and then is advantageous towards helping workers concentrate on their tasks more. Thus, if employees are taking fewer sick days, they may feel overworked and thus contribute less to company productivity. While it is true that Diord Corp. has had an increase in sick days over the last two years, no information has been presented on how that has affected the productivity of the Diord Corp. If company productivity has not decreased at all over the past two years, it may be an ineffective use of company funds to try to achieve a decrease in employee sick days used. It may simply be that the employees need some additional time off. Consequently, more research needs to be performed to determine whether company productivity is in fact correlated with sick days used.
Altogether, the given argument makes a few key assumptions that may drastically weaken the claim, if they are found to be unwarranted. It is not clear, that the Diord Corp. employees are experiencing the same compromises to their mental health that the Tobor employees did, and even if so, the Diord. Corp. employees may not respond to the additionally provided mental health amenities in the same way. The assumption that reduced absenteeism will increase productivity is also unfounded Hence, all of these unstated assumptions require additional evidence to substantiate the claim.
Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
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2019-12-16 | claudia.lira12 | 63 | view |
2019-08-16 | sfried1212 | 69 | view |
2019-05-15 | drashti19 | 37 | view |
2018-01-08 | AbigailT | 50 | view |
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Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 24 15
No. of Words: 751 350
No. of Characters: 4010 1500
No. of Different Words: 276 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 5.235 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.34 4.6
Word Length SD: 3.014 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 291 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 238 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 193 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 137 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 31.292 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 14.144 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.958 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.357 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.535 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.137 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 7, column 301, Rule ID: EVERY_NOW_AND_THEN[1]
Message: Use simply 'now and then'.
Suggestion: now and then
...ive, as sometimes the taking of a break every now and then is advantageous towards helping workers...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, consequently, finally, first, furthermore, hence, however, if, may, similarly, so, then, thus, while, for instance, in fact, in particular, it is true, in the same way
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 32.0 19.6327345309 163% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 27.0 12.9520958084 208% => Less auxiliary verb wanted.
Conjunction : 17.0 11.1786427146 152% => OK
Relative clauses : 24.0 13.6137724551 176% => OK
Pronoun: 40.0 28.8173652695 139% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 81.0 55.5748502994 146% => OK
Nominalization: 21.0 16.3942115768 128% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 4094.0 2260.96107784 181% => OK
No of words: 751.0 441.139720559 170% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.45139813582 5.12650576532 106% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.23491921734 4.56307096286 115% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.0997787588 2.78398813304 111% => OK
Unique words: 285.0 204.123752495 140% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.379494007989 0.468620217663 81% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 1248.3 705.55239521 177% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59920159681 106% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 4.96107784431 141% => OK
Article: 13.0 8.76447105788 148% => OK
Subordination: 9.0 2.70958083832 332% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 7.0 1.67365269461 418% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 34.0 19.7664670659 172% => OK
Sentence length: 22.0 22.8473053892 96% => OK
Sentence length SD: 69.8322074492 57.8364921388 121% => OK
Chars per sentence: 120.411764706 119.503703932 101% => OK
Words per sentence: 22.0882352941 23.324526521 95% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.23529411765 5.70786347227 92% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.20758483034 97% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 17.0 6.88822355289 247% => Less negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 9.0 4.67664670659 192% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.343140700884 0.218282227539 157% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.106791015865 0.0743258471296 144% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0725581022743 0.0701772020484 103% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.216396613096 0.128457276422 168% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0628481548647 0.0628817314937 100% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.3 14.3799401198 106% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 40.69 48.3550499002 84% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.1 12.197005988 107% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.33 12.5979740519 114% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.8 8.32208582834 94% => OK
difficult_words: 146.0 98.500998004 148% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.5 12.3882235529 117% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.8 11.1389221557 97% => OK
text_standard: 15.0 11.9071856287 126% => 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.