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Joined: Mar 2000
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enthusiast
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OP
enthusiast
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 218 |
On NPR this morning, I again heard this phrase: Fewer employees are working fewer hours...
This almost always makes my mind do a doubletake. Do they mean the average hours for all employees are dropping (could indicate less productivity), or that a decreasing number of employees are working part time (could indicate more productivity)?
Any ideas (not on this sentence per se, but on the use of fewer...fewer)?
Brandon
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
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I take it to mean that they have reduced two things, the number of employees, and the number of hours per employee, thus drastically reducing the number of man(!)-hours. That sort of thing.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
It seems to me that the phrase means that the number of employees working less that 40 hours per week has decreased.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
I saw it in a more negative light - previously they had more full-time employees - now they are expecting fewer employees to do all the same work, with the additional challenge of the remaining employees only working fewer hours each. (Cynicism brought on by first-hand experience.) Without the rest of the sentence, it's hard to tell.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
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To say it is an inelegant construction...   But if we turn it on its head and say "More people are working more hours", I suspect we would all understand the same thing - a greater number are working overtime. As soon as such a construction makes you stop and think, it becomes self defeating as a tool of communication, doesn't it?
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Joined: Mar 2000
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enthusiast
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OP
enthusiast
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 218 |
The meaning of the commentary was clear. They are reducing the workforce and cutting the work force's hours. But I'm troubled by the usage. There seems to be a high level of potential ambiguity.
Maybe written by an aspiring political speech-writer??
Brandon
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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…such a construction makes you stop and think…
And we wouldn't want that, would we.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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About the form, in news reports - no! the substance: yes!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Sorry, mav. Couldn't resist (I'm weak; I deserve to be punished).
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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