Lately, various banks on Wall Street have urged their young employees and interns to take more weekend days off each month as part of a new policy designed to relieve some of the stresses of the hectic Wall Street business world. This policy encourages the younger workers to endure their busy work lives when they first enter the job market rather than become overwhelmed to the point of stress-induced insanity. This sudden concern for the well-being (rather than just the production) of employees reflects an increasing appreciation for the morale of the employees, something that has not always been appreciated in the workplace. In turn, happier and less stressed employees are expected to be more efficient when they do work; a reduction of stress is simply another form of payment that is much cheaper for the business than a cash bonus.
"Sonia Marciano, a professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University, said her students expected more than big bonuses these days.
'My students, men and women, talk much more openly about an expectation of work-life balance,' said Ms. Marciano, who has been teaching for 20 years. 'It’s a shift that seems pretty real and substantial.'”
I think it will be interesting to see how this idea plays out compared to the status quo. My guess is that these firms could actually see many benefits from implementing this new plan. With workers less stressed and more rested, their productivity per hour will likely increase. In addition, this could reduce health costs due to the many stress related sicknesses and other negative side effects of being over-worked.
ReplyDeleteIt makes sense for businesses to do this, over worked people are not productive and so the companies would just be losing money paying people to be unproductive when they could just give them time off for which they wouldn't have to pay them and then have them back and more productive, thus saving money.
ReplyDeleteI just interviewed at a company who gives their employees free lunch, and free dry cleaning for the same reason as above. If people are less stressed, and not worried about home life, they will be a more productive employee. Trust me, this company was not doing it to be nice, they make more money in the long run.
ReplyDeleteThis is really interesting because most of the time it seems like we hear about employees wanting to work more hours in order to become more successful and "move up" in their jobs and this seems to be a shift in this thinking. I think that this could be a really positive change for American and would make businesses more successful overall because their employees would be more productive, especially because they want to keep their jobs.
ReplyDelete