TPO 1

Passage

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 in order to do so. A mandatory policy requiring companies to offer their employees the option of working a four-day workweek for four-fifths (80 percent) of their normal pay would benefit the economy as a whole as well as the individual companies and the employees who decided to take the option.

The shortened workweek would increase company profits because employees would feel more rested and alert, and as a result, they would make fewer costly errors in their work. Hiring more staff to ensure that the same amount of work would be accomplished would not result in additional payroll costs because four-day employees would only be paid 80 percent of the normal rate. In the end, companies would have fewer overworked and error-prone employees for the same money, which would increase company profits.

For the country as a whole, one of the primary benefits of offering this option to employees is that it would reduce unemployment rates. If many full-time employees started working fewer hours, some of their workload would have to be shifted to others. Thus, for every four employees who went on an 80 percent week, a new employee could be hired at the 80 percent rate.

Finally, the option of a four-day workweek would be better for individual employees. Employees who could afford a lower salary in exchange for more free time could improve the quality of their lives by spending the extra time with their families, pursuing private interests, or enjoying leisure activities.

Lecture

Offering employees the option of a four-day workweek won't affect the company profits, economic conditions or the lives of employees in the ways the reading suggests.

First, offering a four-day workweek will probably force companies to spend more, possibly a lot more. Adding new workers means putting much more money into providing training and medical benefits. Remember the costs of things like health benefits can be the same whether an employee works four days or five. And having more employees also requires more office space and more computers. These additional costs would quickly cut into company profits.

Second, with respect to overall employment, it doesn't follow that once some employees choose a four-day workweek, many more jobs will become available. Hiring new workers is costly, as I argued a moment ago. And companies have other options. They might just choose to ask their employees to work overtime to make up the difference. Worse, companies might raise expectations. They might start to expect that their four-day employees can do the same amount of work they used to do in five days. If this happens, then no additional jobs will be created and current jobs will become more unpleasant.

Finally, while a four-day workweek offers employees more free time to invest in their personal lives, it also presents some risks that could end up reducing their quality of life. Working a shorter week can decrease employees' job stability and harm their chances for advancing their careers. Four-day employees are likely to be the first to lose their jobs during an economic downturn. They may also be passed over for promotions because companies might prefer to have five-day employees in management positions to ensure continuous coverage and consistent supervision for the entire workweek.

文章：

在美国，员工通常每周工作五天，每天工作八小时。然而，许多员工希望每周工作四天，并愿意为此接受较低的薪酬。强制政策要求公司为其员工提供每周工作四天，以正常工资的四分之四（80%）支付的选择，将有利于整个经济以及选择此选项的个别公司和员工。

缩短工作周将增加公司利润，因为员工会感到更加休息和警觉，因此，他们在工作中犯的错误会更少，成本也更低。为了确保完成相同数量的工作而雇佣更多员工不会导致额外的工资成本，因为四天工作的员工只会按正常工资的80%支付。最终，公司将以相同的资金拥有更少的过度工作和容易出错的员工，这将增加公司利润。

对于整个国家来说，向员工提供这一选择的主要好处之一是它可以降低失业率。如果许多全职员工开始减少工作时间，他们的部分工作量将不得不转移到其他人身上。因此，对于每四个选择80%周薪的员工，可以以80%的工资率雇佣一名新员工。

最后，四天工作周的选择对个别员工也更好。能够承受较低薪水以换取更多空闲时间的员工可以通过与家人共度额外时间、追求个人兴趣或享受休闲活动来提高他们的生活质量。

讲座：

提供四天工作周的选择不会像阅读材料所建议的那样影响公司利润、经济状况或员工的生活。

首先，提供四天工作周可能会迫使公司花费更多，可能多得多。增加新员工意味着在提供培训和医疗福利方面投入更多的资金。请记住，像健康福利这样的成本，无论员工工作四天还是五天，可能都是一样的。而且，拥有更多员工还需要更多的办公空间和更多的计算机。这些额外的成本很快就会侵蚀公司利润。

第二，就整体就业而言，一旦一些员工选择四天工作周，并不意味着会有更多的工作机会。正如我刚才所争论的，雇佣新员工是昂贵的。公司还有其他选择。他们可能只是选择要求员工加班来弥补差异。更糟糕的是，公司可能会提高期望。他们可能开始期望他们的四天员工在四天内完成他们过去五天所做的工作量。如果发生这种情况，那么不会创造更多的工作，而现有的工作将变得更加不愉快。

最后，虽然四天工作周为员工提供了更多的自由时间来投入到他们的个人生活中，但它也带来了一些风险，这些风险最终可能会降低他们的生活质量。工作较短的一周可能会降低员工的工作稳定性，并损害他们晋升的机会。在经济衰退期间，四天员工可能是第一个失去工作的人。他们也可能因为公司可能更倾向于让五天工作的员工担任管理职位，以确保整个工作周的连续覆盖和一致监督而被忽略晋升。