Robert Giffen Econ 490 Fall 2019 Blog

When employees do very similar work, it is easier to see who is more productive and who is not as productive. Tensions can arise among people when they feel that they are working harder than the rest of the team. When I worked at a textbook warehouse after my freshman year, nearly all the employees did the same work. There were a few supervisors, but most of the employees were warehouse associates. As warehouse associates, we had to take tubs of books and put the books in different areas throughout the warehouse. There was a computer system that tracked how productive an employee was, so in theory everyone should be doing approximately the same amount of work. Even though everyone had the same productivity requirements and this seemed like very simple work, there were people who did not do the best work. My coworkers, let’s call them Larry and Johnson, were two people who exemplified this variety in the quality of work.  Larry would always use his phone during his shift and cu...

            My sophomore year of college I joined the boxing club here on campus. I had no experience with boxing but joined it with a few friends because it seemed like fun. I first learned about the club on quad day and everyone I spoke with described how it doesn’t have to be competitive. It was set up in a way, that there was essentially a club inside of the club. People who had boxing experience or wanted to compete could try out for the team. Being part of the team ultimately meant that in the spring you would compete in a tournament against amateur boxers from other schools; however, being part of the team also meant stricter rules. Each week we had three practices Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. Most non-team members only typically went to two out of three practices; however, if you were on the team you were expected to go to three practices a week. If someone not on the team missed a significant number of practices, no...

Many classes I have taken have required attendance and require you to sign in or answer an I-clicker question in order to receive credit; however, all of them offered at least a few free absences. In my experience, most days this greatly increased the overall class attendance, but for a few days out of the year attendance would drop off significantly. Classes on Fridays before breaks or long weekends had a significantly lower attendance, even lower than those with no attendance policy. Much like the article that talked about how more parents were late to pick up their kids after a fine was imposed, students were more likely to skip classes that required attendance but offered a few days of allowed skips. When these students use their free skips, they are essentially purchasing an absence. They don’t feel bad about skipping class because they are giving up one of their free absences. Attendance in all classes before break is generally lower but having a certain number of absences se...