TPO 01 Integrated Writing Task In the United States employees typically work five days a week for eight hours each day However many employees want to work a four day week and are willing to accept less pay inorder to do so A mandatory policy requiri

Both the passage and the lecture are about offering employees the choice to work 4 days a week instead of 5. The passage states that this could benefit the economy, companies and individuals, whereas the lecturer casts doubt on the main pointsmade in the passage by the following reasons.

First of all, in the passage, the authors begins by stating that since a four-day employee would only be paid 80 percent of the normal rate, the company can hire more staff. Therefore, the shortened workweek would leave the company with more rested and alert employees, without causing extra costs. However, the lecturer disputes this point by saying that the company will eventually be forced to spend more money, because new workers require costly training, medical benefits, office space and perhaps computers.

Secondly, according to the passage, offering this option to employees would decrease unemployment rates by shifting the workload to new workers. Nevertheless, the lecturer refutes this by arguing that companies have many options other than hiring new people, such as asking current workers to work over time or raising their expectation to receive a 5-day job in 4 days.

Finally, the passage claims that this option would improve individuals' quality of life by providing them with more time to spend with their families or persue private interests. On the other hand, the lecturer believes that the risk accomponing this option would actually contribute to reducing quality of life by decreasing job stability. Moreover, this could harm the chances of ever advancing in their job or getting a promotion based on the fact that employers rather have workers who supervise the job during the whole week.