Essay Topic:

The major issues of the functioning of the US temporary worker system.

Essay Questions:

Who are temporary workers within the USA? How do temporary workers influence the business system of the United States? Why does discrimination exist in terms of temporary workers?

Thesis Statement:

Temporary workers are people who perform work at a lower cost than the permanent workers of the company would have done. For example let us imagine that you are the manager of a company that has a project deadline and understands that the working resources he observes may not be enough to cope with it in time.

The U.S. Temporary Worker Essay

 

Introduction: Who are temporary workers? They are people who are used to satisfy labor needs of different companies for a limited period of time. If we are somehow connected with business we keep hearing this expression all the time. Some people seem satisfied when talking about temporary workers or being ones and some are very concerned about this issue and will never accept the possibility to become temporary workers themselves. Why so? Why does this word-combination arouse such diametrically opposite points of view in different people? The reason this question is so significant fro many working people is because it concerns every single worker of any company. Temporary workers are people who perform work at a lower cost than the permanent workers of the company would have done. For example let us imagine that you are the manager of a company that has a project deadline and understands that the working resources he observes may not be enough to cope with it in time. What is the primary your solution in this case? You need workers to help you to meet the deadline and you need to do it at minimum cost and minimum possible obligations.

Contacting temporary workers is the best solution in situation like that. For some permanent workers the usage of temporary workers is a good position of doing only what they are supposed to do and nothing extra, in other words they can go home at the end of the working day while temporary workers will stay and finish their job for them. Other permanent workers consider the usage of temporary workers to be problematic, for they would have done this work themselves but at a higher cost. Objectively, the companies, by using temporary workers reach the main goal that every company has –the same level job done at lower wages. If somebody is willing to be this job at a lower price wouldn’t it go against the economical principles of the company do it at a higher price? Another problem is that the trust of the consumers drops due to the temporary workers. It is obvious that a consumer will choose a company with a stable and gradually changing staffing than a constantly changing one. Plus the permanent workers cannot be responsible for the work that the temporary workers produced. The same concerns the employers: once they finished the co-operation with temporary workers it will be very hard for them to blame the low-grade work on anyone. What this means is that the quality of the economy’s goods and services are becoming less guaranteed. Therefore they are loosing entrust of the consumers. Typical companies cannot meet the demand on the amount of work in comparison to the amount of work performed by the companies using temporary workers. Resulting is the shrinking of their profit. Therefore such factors as the promptness of the work performance, its amount, its quality and the expenses used on it make the usage of temporary workers very appealing for these typical companies. The question of temporary workers has a lot of sides to discuss.

Let us first analyze this issue from the side of temporary workers. These people are sometimes even called “disposable workers”. This name, by itself describes the peculiarity of the work process the temporary workers face. They come, do some work, get a paycheck and after that nobody cares about them. In the United States of America there are over 16 million people who work according to these rules. They are people who do not have the benefits of permanent workers such as training, health care and others. These workers have a higher probably of becoming a victim of discrimination or sexual harassment. One of the reason they are so popular among the employers is the cost of their job. Temporary workers do actually get low wages and have no job security, for very often they are used for very short periods of time and after they fulfill the obligations are “thrown away”. This kind of job cannot be called “ cooperation”. Cooperation is both-sided benefits. In the case of temporary workers it goes only about the benefit of the employers. From the economical point of view being a temporary worker means to refer to the “sloppy level” and this sure brings instability to the economical sphere. This means that the number of people that do not have constant place of work is growing. Even getting bank credits will be a reason for anxiety for temporary workers because being financially unstable is not a good factor in getting a credit.

Due to the flexibility of temporary workers the companies appreciate their work, but it does not reflect on the creation of any benefits for them. At the same time the temporary workers are able to work exactly the hours or days of the week the can and want to without having to work every single day as permanent workers do. Temporary workers enjoy not being dependent on their employers and having to devote their free time to their job in order to interest the employers in him. They get paid for what they do without having any obligations. Nowadays, being a temporary worker has also become a way to become a permanent one. If the company if always satisfied with the work of some temporary worker and turns to him over and over it usually means that shortly he will become the member of the official staff. So, in spite of all the disadvantages, being a temporary worker may lead to getting a stable working place. If we turn to young people, university students and so on it is possible for them to show the company they are interested in working in how good they are in their profession through doing some temporary jobs for them. It should not be considered the only option but an additional and a spare one. Another thing to worry about is the responsibility for the work that the temporary workers take on themselves. It is a lot the issue of psychology but it may significantly reflect on the quality of services provided or goods produced. Knowing that they work temporarily may cause them not to show all their potential and knowledge and being less responsible.But nevertheless, if we take all the factors listed above generally we will see that it is in the first place business and let us not forget its ultimate goal-profit. For an enormous period of time it has been the occupation of millions of people. The main reason of such popularity of this field was that possibility to earn a bigger amount of money in comparison to the amount that was embedded in the begging. In our temporary business language as we already know it is called – profit. So it was all about profit and this is actually what business is all about. So if look at the problem we face from this point of view we will see that the companies are simply following their fundamental law – to earn a decent profit, get excellent return on their investments and create a good cash flow. The usage of temporary workers draws the companies near this goal.

The main reasons they use temporary workers in their business practice are very obvious. Well in the first place, as we already mentioned it is all about raising their profit. They get exactly the workers they need, at the time they need, at the price they want and without providing any benefits. It is definitely a “good deal” from the economical point of view. The companies assure that this raise of profit influences positively their permanent workers and at the same time temporary workers “spot” permanent workers of the company. They do all the work that could have been fussy for the temporary workers, so therefore, the companies assure, through using temporary workers the companies take care of the permanent workers and their obligations. Another aspect to be pointed out is that temporary workers “save” permanent workers from being fired. If the permanent worker cannot perform some intermediate and temporary kind of job they can simply get a temporary worker. Nevertheless, the companies should revise their business politics towards the temporary employees, because they need the same security as the permanent workers do. And it is most certainly that the presence of such support from the side of the companies will make the temporary workers perform their job at a higher level and will be more similar to “cooperation” than it is now.The growth of the number of companies using temporary workers has a significant impact on the U.S. national economy. As the profit of the companies using these workers raises the general profit of the country rises, too. It reveals the flexibility of our economy and its ability to adjust to the changing conditions and demands of the economical and business situation in the country. The main principle of our economy is to the take the best possible profit of the present situation. And due to this peculiarities temporary workers are very comfortable to the U.S. economy today. Nevertheless, from our point of view, the United States needs to improve its policy toward the temporary workers and the U.S. Department of Labour still has a lot of problems to solve and to deal with the ethical aspect of this problem. In spite of being temporary workers people need to be treated as employees in the first place and therefore get certain benefits and not being discriminated or ignored.

Conclusion: Concluding all of the mentioned above it is important to say, that companies are highly interested in using temporary workers due to the possibility to increase their profit. They manage it through getting a large amount of work performed at a minimum cost. At the same moment there are still a lot of issues to discuss concerning temporary workers and especially the attitude they get from the companies that use them. There are certain disadvantages that temporary working brings to the U.S. economy: the growth of unemployment and job insecurity but on the other hand the usage of temporary workers may bring the growth of the profit margin and cash flow of the companies in particular and the increase of the income of the country in general. As everything it has it positive and negative sides, but here it is a collision the ethical aspect of the problem and the economical advantages. The best way out of this situation is to find a compromise, which lies in granting temporary workers more benefits and requiring a higher-level work from them.