Answer should be (B)
If (B) were true then it means that people who complain of Boredom also exhibit MORE stress related symptoms.
As the survey pointed out Most people cited boredom as number 1 problem , it implies job related stress could be the most serious problem.

B

B for me as well...

Workers may complain about many things at work, but stress is not high on the list. In fact, in a recent survey a majority placed boredom at the top of their list of complaints. The assumption that job-related stress is the most serious problem for workers in the corporate world is thus simply not warranted.

Which one of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

Conclusion is : assumption of JRS is MOST serious is WRONG in work place...its actually may be boredom....


(A) Those workers who are responsible for the planning and supervision of long-term projects are less likely to complain of either boredom or stress
sample size is too small

(B) Workers who complain of boredom exhibit more stress-related symptoms than do those who claim their work is interesting,
Hmm..this is a keeper..will come back to it...

This looks like the cream of the crap...its specifically kills the premise on which the conclusion is dependant..
Best Answer ( What is the OA )

(C) Workers responding to opinion surveys tend to emphasize those experiences that have happened most recently
And what is that happened recently...

(D) Workers who feel that their salaries are commensurate with the amount of work they do are less likely to complain of boredom.
sample size is small

(E) Workers are less likely to complain about work if they feel that their jobs are secure
out of context...

OA is B and everybody has found it correctly.
But somehow I selected C with following reasoning.

Conclusion : The assumption that job-related stress is the most serious problem for workers in the corporate world is thus simply not warranted
OR ------> job-related stress is NOT the most serious problem

The weakening choice will show :
Job-related stress is the most serious problem


C : "Workers responding to opinion surveys tend to emphasize those experiences that have happened most recently"

If we assume that 'boredom' is a recent factor while stress is a old factor then workers will complain about boredom not about stress.
So still we can assume that :
Job-related stress is the most serious problem : so it is weakening the conclusion :

B : Workers who complain of boredom exhibit more stress-related symptoms than do those who claim their work is interesting.

ok fine, people are showing more stress related symptoms
but it is not saying that :
Job-related stress is the most serious problem


Please explain what's wrong with my reasoning ?

I too went for C...
But den got to know where i went wrong...

I think the most important thing that made us thing that C is the answer is we assumed that boredom is the recent factor...
The options that require you to leap from the scope/logic of the option or assume something more dan required will not be correct...
IN this we assumed something..so this leap was not justified...

Instead B weakens the argument by saying that boredom is also because of stress and hence stress is still the most serious problem...

Hey paes,

Thanks for the invitation to chime in! I'd see choice C this way - even if everyone picks the most recent thing that bothered them and not the thing that has bothered them the most, the most frequently-occurring problem is likely to be the one that happened most recently to the most people.

That's a convoluted sentence I just wrote, so let me give examples. Say that 50% of people's complaints are related to boredom, 30% to stress, and 20% to "other". At any given time, the most recent complaint for each person is 50% likely to be boredom, 30% to be stress, and 20% to something else. So the most recent complaints should average out around the same as the top complaints, and C doesn't really attack the argument.

Does that help further explain C? B is correct in that it refutes that stress is not a problem - it says specifically that, if you answered "boredom", you have a problem with stress, too, so it helps to strengthen the idea that most people suffer from stress (which weakens the idea that stress is not a serious concern).

Thanks Brian.

paes wrote:Workers may complain about many things at work, but stress is not high on the list. In fact, in a recent survey a majority placed boredom at the top of their list of complaints. The assumption that job-related stress is the most serious problem for workers in the corporate world is thus simply not warranted.

Which one of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument? Which one of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

(A) Those workers who are responsible for the planning and supervision of long-term projects are less likely to complain of either boredom or stress

(B) Workers who complain of boredom exhibit more stress-related symptoms than do those who claim their work is interesting,

(C) Workers responding to opinion surveys tend to emphasize those experiences that have happened most recently

(D) Workers who feel that their salaries are commensurate with the amount of work they do are less likely to complain of boredom.

(E) Workers are less likely to complain about work if they feel that their jobs are secure

OA Later

It seems that B is the best among all the bad options.


I have 2 doubts in B

1. Are Stress and Stress related symptoms same?

2. The argument says "the most serious problem". But B does not seem to show that it is the most serious problem. At least B should prove that stress is more serious problem than boredom. We can't even infer that from B.

Experts, can we have your views on this.