The following appeared in a memo from a vice president of Alta Manufacturing During the past year Alta Manufacturing had 30 percent more on the job accidents than nearby Panoply Industries where the work shifts are one hour shorter than ours Experts belie

The memo of the vice president surmises that the employees of Alta Manufacturing must be allowed extra amount of sleeping hours by decreasing the working shift by one hour. The assertion is based on the assumption that most of the accidents is caused by lack of sleep among workers and Panoply Inductries had 30 percent less accidents due to shorter work shifts which allowed their workers plenty sleep. However, the assumptions are rife with holes and baseless, thus making the recommendation to shorten the work shifts by one hour, a wrong decision. Answering ensuing questions would allow proper evaluation of the recommendation and analyse the efficacy of the argument presented by the vice president of Alta Manufacturing.

The first question that is essential to answer is, how similar are Panoply Industries and Alta Manufacturing in terms of a number of factors such as number of workers, workplace environement, relationship of employees to their bosses and amongst themselves, facilities provided during work, instruments used during work and many more? Identifying the similarities and differences between these two companies would expose the actual causes of accidents in Alta Manufacturing as compared to the other industry; be it the instruments used during work or the working environment itself. It is highly likely that Alta Manufacturing has low standard of instruments and tools, and minimal use of personal protective equipments which would ultimately make their workers more prone to accidents during job. Unless and until these factors are analyzed by comparing them with Panoply Industries, recommendation of shortening of work shifts merely would not be able to reduce the accidents in Alta Manufacturing.

Another imperative question they need to address is whether lack of sleep is the real cause of the accidents in Alta Manufacturing or is there something else which is contributing to the increased number of accidents. The workers themselves might have been far more careless or uneducated about safety protocols during their job consequenlty increasing the rate of on-the-job accidents in Alta Manufacturing compared to its nearby company. There are different aspects of safety during job which needs to be followed properly and being careless in any of those factors might cost a lot to the workers themselves. The nature of the works themselves could be contributing to the higher rate of accidents among the workers; we cannot judge that a painter who paints normal houses is at the same level of safety as the painter who paints a taller building. Furthermore, it could be a mistake from the management in not providing the essential safety equipments to the workers while they are being compelled to work at a high risk. By considering lack of sleep as the only factor, the vice president in limiting the scope of possibilities which might not lead to the result they wish to obtain.

Likewise, the major question of whether decreasing the hours of work shifts would allow the workers to obtain adequate sleep and prevent the accidents is still out there which is extremely critical in justifying the decision made by the vice president. It is not certain that short work shifts would allow the workers to get enough sleep; the employees could potentially utilize those extra time left from their work to have some fun and indulge in recreation or spend their time doing some part time job to earn more income. Additionally, it is also possible that the workers were already having enough sleep and they did not need a short work shift to get a good amount of sleep for themselves. Basically, it is not well recognized whether the workers really wanted a shorter shift for more sleep or not. There is the need to conduct a well rounded study to assess the requirement of workers, or any shortcomings from the part of Alta Manufacturing company to avoid further increment in accidents during job.

In conclusion, the vice president of Alta Manufacturing company needs to assess the facilities, status of workers, and infrastructures available in their own company and observe what factors are affecting the safety of the workers. If it is any shortcomings in terms of infrastructures, education, and trainings, they should be provided to the workers promptly. Finally, a rigorous study to identify whether sleep is a contributing factor in accidents would surely help justidy the recommendation made in the argument.