Week 1 Assignment 1
Marie Slater
BUS201: Principles of Management
Instructor Morris
07-19-2013

Week 1 Assignment 1
How a company treats its employees, reflects upon its ethical principles and beliefs. Unfair treatment of employees can cause low morale amongst employees, resentment, chase away not only potential talent but also consumers. Requiring employees to dedicate long hours or extensive traveling can be considered unethical treatment of workers. Does working long hours affect families? Are businesses holding up their end of employer and employee contractual agreements specifying work obligations? There has to be a fine line that managers must consider, other than overworking an employee and possibly even affecting their personal lives.
In today’s economic climate, many 40 hour-a-week jobs are just not enough to maintain a household, especially with children and/or possibly elder relatives. Moreover, even if it’s a dual earning household, the combined 80 hours a week may not be sufficient. Employees needing to make ends meet, shouldn’t be grounds for an employer to take advantage or monopolize their time. According to the website Families and Work.org, “between 1977 and 2002, the combined weekly work hours of dual earner couples with children increased by an average of 10 hours per week, from 81 to 91 hours” (Bond, Thompson, Galinsky, & Protlas, 2002, P.2). This has to affect the time parents have with their children and each other.
Working long hours or extensive traveling to support one’s family can cause stress, both at work and at home. These issues have been blamed on many societal ills; i.e., divorce, latchkey children, problem children, drug and alcohol abuse, etc. Besides being blamed for these ills, being overworked can affect employee productivity. According to Higgins, Duxbury, & Irving (1992), “conflict between work and family roles was found to lower the perceived quality of both work and family life which, in turn, influences organizational outcomes such as productivity absenteeism, and turnover” (Pg. 51). Fortunately for managers and employees, there are forward thinking companies that are leading the way in creating benefits for employees in order to balance their personal and professional lives.
Imagine having promised your family you would be home in time enough to have dinner, but something came up at work and you have to work late. If you are an employee for the social media site Facebook, you can take dinner home or even have your family come to the workplace and have dinner. There are many companies adopting these type of perks for employees. According to the website Forbes.com, “ employers in Silicon Valley are providing housekeeping, cooking, babysitting, and a host of other services as perks for their employees” (Goodman, 2012, Para. 1). What a way to show appreciation for employee’s dedication to their job.
Yes, there are