Critical Reasoning

apple100 wrote:An overwhelming proportion of the most productive employees at SaleCo’s regional offices work not eight hours a day, five days a week, as do other SaleCo employees, but rather ten hours a day, four days a week, with Friday off. Noting this phenomenon, SaleCo’s president plans to increase overall productivity by keeping the offices closed on Fridays and having all employees work the same schedule—ten hours a day, four days a week.

Which of the following, if true, provides the most reason to doubt that the president’s plan, if implemented, will achieve its stated purpose?

A. Typically, a SaleCo employee’s least productive hours in the workplace are the early afternoon hours.
B. None of the employees who work four days a week had volunteered to work that schedule, but all were assigned to it by their supervisors.
C. Working ten hours a day has allowed the most productive employees to work two hours alone each day in their respective offices relatively undisturbed by fellow employees.
D. Employees at SaleCo are compensated not on the basis of how many hours a week they work but on the basis of how productive they are during the hours they are at work.
E. Those SaleCo employees who have a four-day workweek do not take any of their office work to do at home on Fridays.

[spoiler]OA: C[/spoiler]

How does the answer weaken the statement?

apple100 wrote:An overwhelming proportion of the most productive employees at SaleCo�s regional offices work not eight hours a day, five days a week, as do other SaleCo employees, but rather ten hours a day, four days a week, with Friday off. Noting this phenomenon, SaleCo�s president plans to increase overall productivity by keeping the offices closed on Fridays and having all employees work the same schedule�ten hours a day, four days a week.

Which of the following, if true, provides the most reason to doubt that the president�s plan, if implemented, will achieve its stated purpose?


What is the purpose of president's plan? To increase productivity. We can weaken this question by picking an answer choice which will NOT HELP to increase productivity. Lets see which answer choice does that for us.


A. Typically, a SaleCo employee�s least productive hours in the workplace are the early afternoon hours.
Incorrect : This helps us to know what are the least productive hours but certainly does not help to weaken the president's plan.

B. None of the employees who work four days a week had volunteered to work that schedule, but all were assigned to it by their supervisors.
Incorrect : This answer choice gives us the reason why employees had to work a particular schedule in the past but does not help us to undermine the president's plan to increase productivity in future.

C. Working ten hours a day has allowed the most productive employees to work two hours alone each day in their respective offices relatively undisturbed by fellow employees.
Correct : If productivity increased because the most productive employees were not disturbed by fellow employees for 2 hrs every day, it only serves to weaken the president's plan by implying that overall productivity might not increase if all the employees worked at the same time.

D. Employees at SaleCo are compensated not on the basis of how many hours a week they work but on the basis of how productive they are during the hours they are at work.
Incorrect : This provides us information about the type of compensation package offered to employees of SaleCo. but does not help to weaken the president's plan.

E. Those SaleCo employees who have a four-day workweek do not take any of their office work to do at home on Fridays.
Incorrect : Issue is about productivity not if the employees take or not take office work at home.


[spoiler]OA: C[/spoiler]