Response to Ashley Stoots

This idea of work-sharing sounds like it could do a lot of good. I agree that it would be more beneficial to people, both financially and emotionally, to be able to keep their jobs, even if their hours are lessened. Under this program, people still have money coming into the household and do not have to put their lives on hold while they look for another job. This way, if someone is not happy with working less hours, they still have a job and can look for one that suits them better without the fear of having no income and having to go without. I also think that this program could have the potential to less the blow of a recession. Like I mentioned before, people would still have money coming in so they might not necessarily cut back on their spending as much as they would if they lost their job completely. I would like to expand with my thoughts on one of the issues you mentioned this program having; that it is difficult to reduce everyone’s paycheck by the same amount. I can imagine people rushing to get their lawyers if they think that their hours and pay have been cut unfairly when compared to those of others and it could have the possibility to cause a lot of headaches and trouble for employers. I disagree with the idea that was expressed in Bewley’s interviews, that people would feel like they would not have a job. I think that many people might actually think themselves lucky to be in any kind of work, especially if the country is in a particularly bad recession. So, I do not think that low morale based on the work-sharing program would be as huge of an issue as the interviewed managers might believe, but that is only my opinion. The laying off of employees could also have a negative impact on morale for some people. They might think that they are the next to go and so will not do as good a job as they usually do. Of course, having people laid off could also provide people who are still employed with an incentive to work harder in order to keep their jobs. In short, it is truly difficult to find a way to deal with recessions that do not come with different problems. Some might even say that it is impossible.