One of the problems that have arisen in the work place is the benefits for employees have been declining. One of the big reasons for having a stable job is for the benefits. According to Times, the cost for healthcare has increased by 29% in the last five years. On top of this costs like co-pay and healthcare premiums have increased for the employees. Along with this the retirement plans for employees have taken hits in many companies. 45% of survey employers lowered or removed health care coverage for their employees. Some have even put a cap for how much is being spent per employee. A lot of current employees will end up having trouble while retired because their employers decreased their benefits. If this trend were to continue, all the benefits that employees have will be removed and this could cause problems for those unable to work and those who end up in the hospital.
Another big problem with the future of working is the manager meetings. As we saw in the TED talk, manager meetings can be very counter-productive. It was one of the reasons that the speaker claimed that the office as work place should be removed. The constant meetings disrupt with the actual work that is being done in the office. This can be seen as a tremendous problem because the employees will have trouble meeting deadlines while the employer is not receiving the quality of work that they would like to be receiving from their employees. The blame may end up on the workers, but it is not their fault. The meetings that take place in the offices are really what are to blame. According to fastcompany.com, an experiment by Waber showed that there was a 20% increase in electronic communication between engineers when they shared a workspace. The work given to them was also completed 32% faster. Getting rid of offices may decrease this interaction between employees and would decrease productivity. The offices are not the problem, however, the meets that the offices are a big issue.
Recently, it has been evident that colleges are not giving their students enough skills to be released in the work force. A lot of jobs require you to have both skills and education. This is one of the big reasons that college is very appealing. It is supposed to prepare you for various jobs. The majority of colleges, however, focus solely on teaching the information. The students never gain any practical skills in field they wish to pursue. The only way these skills can be acquired is by finding various internships that could lead to a job. This could lead to many college graduates having trouble paying their bills right out of college. They would not have the practical experience to gain a full job, and many internships are unpaid or underpaid for the job. If colleges were to help their students acquire the skills they need for their jobs, it would be much easier to get a job.
Sources:
http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1898024_1898023_1898082,00.html
Hey Shawn, I agreed with your post about the problems facing the workplace, especially those relating to the skills college graduates received from school to be successful in their work. While undergraduate programs at colleges inform us about the theory behind different occupations I feel we are not properly trained from the undergraduate level to enter the workforce and participate in these positions. I feel that in the present day, college graduates are forced to enter into graduate programs in order to specialize their skills and attain an appropriate education for their occupations. While this may not necessarily be a bad thing, I do think that between the cost of undergraduate and graduate school, many people will be unable to afford a proper graduate degree and will be at a great disadvantage in the workforce.
With regards to your second problem, I do agree that the traditional workplace can be problematic in terms of distractions. While manager meetings play a large role in distracting workers, I have to wonder if they are the sole cause or even the largest cause of distractions. While workers spend maybe one full hour at a meeting with their manager, they spend more time on break, or on their computers or cell phones. So while the TED talk made great points about workplace issues, I think exploring the way technology can cause distraction is very useful to solving the problem.
I agree with your idea that there is a lack of benefits for employees in the work force. I found it surprising and upsetting that there is lack of employees with healthcare benefits due to the cost. It seems to me that because they are the people working to create a better company or business, they should be guaranteed safety and health benefits. Also, you mentioned that there would be difficulties for people who are retired because of the decreased benefits. However, there will be a problem with people retiring because the retirement benefits are costly as well. With the lack of people with retirement plans, they will continue to work in the same area, disregarding their retirement period.
Also, I found Claudia’s comment on technology interesting as well. She mentioned that there should be a focus on how technology disturbs the working area and I also agree. With the continuous development of technology, employers should focus on employees meddling with their phones or other devices. As much as manager meeting might disturb the workers, phones and computers will be a distraction as well. Technology can be helpful if it involves the effectiveness of the work, but if it is used for personal purposes during work, it will be more of a problem than a benefit.
I agree that the current trends toward lower benefits and retirement packages and higher healthcare co-pays and premiums are detrimental for the future of work. In order to have a stable workforce, who also make up the bulk of consumers, they middle class employees must have job and benefit security. A stable middle class is key to the health of an economy and a lack there of has contributed negatively to the economies of nations such as China. While the United States has had the most affluent middle class for decades, this is no longer the case. Canada has now passed the United States even though Canada’s middle class lagged significantly behind that of the United States just 15 years ago, in 2000.
I also agree that general group work is more productive. Communication is key to a project and working in the same room or laboratory would increase this. If group members only meet at certain times, the efficiency and the speed at which a project is finished will be severely hindered. However, meetings are sometimes a necessary evil to provide updates to other groups on a large group that has many people working on it. It is not possible for all of these groups to work together in the same room. It would no longer be efficient as groups would be getting in each others way.
Sean, I agree with your argument that colleges do not provide the right skills for students to acquire jobs out of school. However, the more I learn about this issue, the more I realize it is a very difficult problem to fix. Many of the jobs that exist today did not exist twenty-five years ago. So how are we supposed to predict the skills needed for those jobs before they are even created? It’s a terrible cycle. The bottom line is that the workforce grows at a much quicker rate than the education system can keep up with. New skills are always needed, and unfortunately the best (and sometimes only way) to acquire those skills is in the field. To compensate for the rapidly changing nature of the workforce, I think schools should teach students how to adapt. We obviously can’t predict all the skills that will be needed for the future, so perhaps the best way to tackle this would be to teach students how to survive in different environments where they need to learn on the fly.
I agree with all of your statements. Employee benefits are definitely taking hits from budget cuts and economic issues. This extends to the issues with freelance workers as well since employers do not often consider them to be full time employees. If the future of work leans towards freelance work, benefits will likely be eliminated unless reform and regulation are put in place. Benefits are very important as the current costs of medical care and other insurances are expensive and unaffordable to a good amount of people in the country. Colleges are definitely not preparing students well enough for the real world as most companies require work experience for their entry level positions. Colleges only prepare the knowledge but not the practical experience and internships are very competitive in today’s society. However, some colleges have a co-op program that allows students to gain experience while at school so if these programs were widely spread and accessible, it could potentially solve this problem.