Hard Work Pays Off

New technologies are developed everyday. As the internet and use of computers has become a more common use in big business, the market for paper has changed. Although some companies still need paper for advertising such as politicians and newspaper ads or coupons, many banks and credit card companies have started paperless statements that you can recieve via e-mail instead of "snail mail." This decrease in the amount of junk mail sent to homes and increase in the amount of spam e-mails has greatly affected my family. My dad works for a company that basically prints junk mail. The market has changed so drastically that a once thriving company is now unable to find work sometimes. The people working at the machines have become so efficient at what they do that many workers have been laid off. Some days my dad will come home early from work because his boss underestimated the amount of time a job would take, and there was no more work to be done. Over the past year may dad made 12 percent less than he did the previous year due to the fact that work was being done more efficiently and less people were in need to paper products. Along with have less work and efficient workers, the company has shutdown smaller plants around the US as the market conditions have dropped. At my dad's plant many workers have been laid off. My dad was fortunate enough to keep his job, but I found out later that he is being switched back and forth between different departments of his plant. He was on the list of possible lay-offs and the company decided to keep him. Aparently, as an efficient and hard worker, the people higher up in the company recognized the cost of keeping my dad on the pay roll. The opportunity cost of losing the drive and focus that my dad has when assigned any task was much higher than the actual cost of paying my dad to work.
I work for the Department of Natural Resources. As an intern there I heard a lot of talk about people losing their jobs and I asked my boss why she was still able to have 2 interns when the state was cutting back on spending. She told me that her interns were the most important thing to her. She is in charge of the new web page for the department and her time is filled withe meetings and constant work on the new design, getting it approved, changing little parts, finding pictures. As an intern I open surveys and record the data from the surverys. Over the summer thousands of surveys come in. If my boss had to read the surveys on top of all of her other work, she would have no time left in the day to even sleep. Although the actual cost of keeping at least 2 interns throughout the entire year is pretty costly, her opportunity cost of losing the extra help with tasks that are simple but take a lot of time was very high. I also fill requests and send out brochures to people all around the country with information on Ohio state parks. By sending out these brochures I am helping companies like my dad's to remain in business. Printing companies are dependent on the demand of printed materials. My job is dependent on the demand of brochures by consumers and the ability of materials to be printed. My dad's job is dependent on mine, and mine on his. As long as the interdependent relationships among all different types of jobs exists, along with constant supply and demand of different goods, the economy will have to make a turn for the better.