¶ … Parking on West Ave. Dear Mayor,

I am writing to you today as the owner of Joe's Diner on West Avenue. As you know, Joe's has been in business for 67 years at this location. Your father came here every Wednesday for twenty-six years, and I remember when my dad used to give you an extra scoop in your ice cream sundae. So I know you are aware of how much Joe's means to the City of Smalltown. But a recent change made by the Department of Traffic is causing issues for our customers, and we may need to close Joe's if things do not change.

Six months ago, city council and the Traffic Department authorized an increase in the parking meter rates along West Avenue and adjacent side streets. I can assure you, the fact that there was an increase is not a big deal to Joe's, as we have lived through ten such increases previous, and we were even there when the city first installed meters in the downtown core. The problem is that the parking rate tripled overnight, from $1,00 per hour to $3.00 per hour. I am sure the Traffic Department has its reasons. Times are tight and our city isn't growing, so I don't doubt that all branches of civic government have had to find new revenues wherever they can.

The problem is that the dramatic increase in parking rates is killing our business, and not just ours but others along West Ave. We have noted that our business has decline 22.1% year over year since the new rates came into effect. An informal poll of other merchants in the area found similar stories. The rates are different but everybody is doing worse. In talking to our customers, we have gained some insights as to why the dramatic drop-off in business has occurred. Most of our customers are older. These are the people who grew up with Joe's, and many of them have been with us for as long as anybody can remember. But they are also living on fixed incomes, and they count every penny they have just to make ends meet. We still see most of them, but instead of three or four times a week, they might come in once. Our Tuesday afternoon business, which relied on people seeing the Senior's Matinee at the Rialto Theater and then having an early dinner with us has now been cut by 60% - our customers were willing to pay $3 for the afternoon on the town but they are not paying $9.

I want you to know that the people who part downtown are price sensitive, and basic economics tells us that when the price elasticity of demand is high, a rate increase actually hurts the business. I am sure your parking department will tell you their projections are less than expected.

I would like to put West Avenue parking on the agenda for the next council meeting. I have diligently gathered sales figures from businesses in the area, and there is clear evidence that many businesses are suffering since the new rates went into effect. Several of us have seen our profits turn into losses. This threatens the viability not just of our businesses, but of the entire West Ave corridor, which if things keep going the way they are will become row after row...

The merchants of West Ave, led by myself, would like to present evidence to council of this situation, and work with council on sensible alternatives that would allow our businesses to continue profitably while still meeting the city's objectives.
Sincerely,

Joe Josephson III.

Proprietor and Master of the Chicken-Fried Steak at Joe's Diner

Unit 2 Assignment

For Maria, the work itself creates job satisfaction. She is performing tasks that she genuinely enjoys, and this would probably override many other things. She is also fulfilling her dream at the moment, which is a source of great satisfaction. For Darell, the job was satisfying because of the travel, and the work itself. His views on the job have changed more than the job itself. For Mike, he loves the challenge, working with people, and the energy that he gets from the retail environment.

However, each of these positions has the potential to create dissatisfaction. Maria's job requires a lot of hours, and the work is fairly tedious. This is a job that she could grow dissatisfied with, regardless of her current level of happiness. Darell is suffering from the travel at this point in his career. While for some people a lot of travel is seen as attractive, for Darell this has become a negative because all the travel takes him away from his family. Darell also finds the office politics distasteful. For Mike, he does not like the pressure from head office with respect to sales. He does not seem to like the challenge of boosting sales, and feels pressure about his career trajectory.

The different levels of job satisfaction that these three exhibit are likely to affect their performances. Employees who are satisfied are more likely to be engaged with their work and to make a positive contribution. Employees who are dissatisfied are likely to give the bare minimum effort, but more importantly are likely to display negative attitudes in the workplace. For example, Mike is likely to be a generally good performer but the stress may cause breaks in this veneer, and show through more often. Job performance may not suffer, but their respective citizenship behaviors certainly will.

Just because objective job performance usually does not suffer on account of satisfaction does not mean that there are no negative outcomes. First, turnover is likely to be higher when employees are dissatisfied. Darell is a strong candidate to leave, because not only is his job unsatisfactory but the company environment is as well. Mike is likely to stick it out, hoping that sales turn around and he can get back to focusing on the parts of the job he loves. But higher turnover will occur with dissatisfaction, and higher turnover has costs associated with it. As such, dissatisfaction is associated with lower profits. This is not just because there are costs associated with turnover, but when corporate citizenship declines, that is something noticed by customers - the company simply becomes less attractive.…