Vocabulary

to shed light on – пролить свет на

to rarefy – создавать вакуум ; rarefied – зд. оторванный от реального мира, находящийся в вакууме

to balk at smth – быть разочарованным чем-либо

a dime = 10 cents

twist – зд. неожиданный, необычный (элемент игры)

revealing – говорящий сам за себя

the implications = the consequences

malleable – уступчивый

bargaining – выторговывание условий

Assignment

Retell the article using the vocabulary.

Flexibility Is No Key to Stability

Workers are just as likely to be fired

Conventional wisdom says that giving nonsupervisory employees greater independence and responsibility is good for both them and their employers. Companies that place workers in self-managed teams, rotate jobs, and encourage employee feedback, it’s believed, achieve greater workplace flexibility, higher productivity, and better business performance. The benefit for employees is greater job stability, because these practices should make their companies more successful, so they don’t need to lay off workers or use temps.

But a study just released by the National Bureau of Economic Research finds that such practices usually yield quite a different result. According to its authors, Peter Capelli of the University of Pennsylvania and David Neumark of Michigan State University, flexible work practices reduce layoffs and employee turnover only in the shrinking manufacturing sector, not in the rest of the economy. What’s more, employees do not show any additional loyalty to nonmanufacturing employers that use these practices: Workers usually quit or retire at a higher rate in those companies.

Capelli and Neumark concluded that flexible work practices were most successful in manufacturing because of the nature of the work. Jobs are more narrowly defined in manufacturing, so flexible practices, especially job rotation, produce greater improvements in a factory than in a retail store, Capelli says.

Overall, the authors find that flexible work practices are being used in combination with layoffs and temporary employment, not as a way to avoid them. Even manufacturers increase the use of temporary help while using practices that make work more flexible.

Offering greater job stability might make workers more loyal, but that doesn’t seem to be a big consideration for most companies that are using these work practices. Instead, the goal seems to be to employ workers so that “just the right amount of labor is fit to the exact amount of demand”, says Capelli. And this goal isn’t likely to change any time soon. As the U.S. economy slows, companies are likely to face increasing pressure to transform their payroll expenses from a fixed to a variable cost.

Notes

1. nonsupervisory employee – неруководящий работник

2. to rotate jobs – чередовать, менять производственные задания

3. employee feedback – обратная связь между сотрудниками

4. workplace flexibility – гибкость, разнообразие приемов, используемых в работе

5. temp = temporary worker

6. Census Bureau (Bureau of the Census) – Бюро переписи населения (США) -(информация сохраняется в тайне и используется только в статистических целях)

7. fixed costs – фиксированные затраты (издержки): проценты, аренда, страхование, зарплата старших менеджеров

8. variable costs – переменные расходы: прямые затраты на рабочую силу, материалы, которые изменяются в зависимости от объема производства