Critical Reasoning

Source: Manhattan GMAT

According to a recent magazine article, of those office employees who typically work 8 hours at the office each day but sometimes say that they will work at home on a particular day, 25 percent actually work less than one hour. At the same time, over 90 percent of those same office employees believe they are more productive working at home than working in their office.

The statements above, if true, best support which of the following conclusions about the office employees discussed in the article?

A) On average, the office employees working at home for a day work fewer hours than office employees working at the office.
B) 10 percent of the office employees are less productive working from home than working in their office.
C) At least 15 percent of the office employees do not define productivity exclusively in terms of the number of hours worked.
D) At least 25 percent of the office employees can complete the same amount of work in one hour at home as in 8 hours at the office.
E) Some of the office employees make statements regarding their productivity that are not in fact true.

OA: C

A = 90 percent of the office employees believe that they are more productive at home than at work.
B = 25 percent of the office employees actually work fewer hours (<1 hr) when they work at home than when they work at the office (8 hrs).
A intersection B = 100 - (90+25) = 15

15 percent of the office employee believe they are more productive at home than at work and work fewer hours (<1 hr) at home than at office (8 hrs).
So such argument is not possible. Is this lead to answer? I could not understood.

What could be the definition of productivity?

Productivity = const * (work / time) OR const * (work * time)

Don't go into the definition of productivity.

Simply

25% work less than 1 hr

100 - 25 = 75

25% says that they are more productive at home

so 90 -75 =15% at least does not believe that 'more time -> more work'

paes wrote:Don't go into the definition of productivity.

Simply

25% work less than 1 hr

100 - 25 = 75

25% says that they are more productive at home

so 90 -75 =15% at least does not believe that 'more time -> more work'

Hey paes, you may misunderstand the question. the question says 25% of office employees ACTUALLY WORK less than 1 hour not they work less 1 hour. That's why I believe your answer couldn't be correct.

I see this is an extraordinarily hard question. Please some experts help us.

No doubt it is a very tough problem. I could get it only after knowing the answer
Whether it is 'absolute <1' or 'by <1 (ie <7)" answer will be same because in both cases the total time will be less than 8.

let me explain it more with the Akhilesh post only, he has done a right calculation :
--------
A intersection B = 100 - (90+25) = 15

15 percent of the office employee believe they are more productive at home than at work and work fewer hours (<1 hr) at home than at office (8 hrs).
------------
So what does it mean

that 15% employee work less than 1 hr at home, ( compared to 8 hours in office) but still believe that they are more productive at home.
So
They don't believe productivity is linked to no of hours. --- C

paes wrote: that 15% employee work less than 1 hr at home, ( compared to 8 hours in office) but still believe that they are more productive at home.
So
They don't believe productivity is linked to no of hours. --- C

It looks reasonable.

akhp77 wrote:Source: Manhattan GMAT

According to a recent magazine article, of those office employees who typically work 8 hours at the office each day but sometimes say that they will work at home on a particular day, 25 percent actually work less than one hour. At the same time, over 90 percent of those same office employees believe they are more productive working at home than working in their office.

The statements above, if true, best support which of the following conclusions about the office employees discussed in the article?

A) On average, the office employees working at home for a day work fewer hours than office employees working at the office.
B) 10 percent of the office employees are less productive working from home than working in their office.
C) At least 15 percent of the office employees do not define productivity exclusively in terms of the number of hours worked.
D) At least 25 percent of the office employees can complete the same amount of work in one hour at home as in 8 hours at the office.
E) Some of the office employees make statements regarding their productivity that are not in fact true.

OA: C

A = 90 percent of the office employees believe that they are more productive at home than at work.
B = 25 percent of the office employees actually work fewer hours (<1 hr) when they work at home than when they work at the office (8 hrs).
A intersection B = 100 - (90+25) = 15

15 percent of the office employee believe they are more productive at home than at work and work fewer hours (<1 hr) at home than at office (8 hrs).
So such argument is not possible. Is this lead to answer? I could not understood.

What could be the definition of productivity?

Productivity = const * (work / time) OR const * (work * time)

Hey Akhilesh Prasad,

Why you say A intersection B = 100 - (90+25) = 15

I do not understand this point, can you say more about it?

thanks

According to a recent magazine article, of those office employees who typically work 8 hours at the office each day but sometimes say that they will work at home on a particular day, 25 percent actually work less than one hour. At the same time, over 90 percent of those same office employees believe they are more productive working at home than working in their office.

The statements above, if true, best support which of the following conclusions about the office employees discussed in the article?

A) On average, the office employees working at home for a day work fewer hours than office employees working at the office. [there is no premise in the stem for this]
B) 10 percent of the office employees are less productive working from home than working in their office. [stem says over 10% of people]
C) At least 15 percent of the office employees do not define productivity exclusively in terms of the number of hours worked.
D) At least 25 percent of the office employees can complete the same amount of work in one hour at home as in 8 hours at the office. [stem never said that 8hour office effort = 1 hour effort at home]
E) Some of the office employees make statements regarding their productivity that are not in fact true. [ Question stems says the statements above are true]

Lets base everything on 100 people
25 people say they work less than 1 hour at home
GT90 people say they are more productive working at home
LT10 people say they are less productive at home.

A. Incorrect. All we know are 25 people work less than they normally do at the office. The other 75 may all work for 15 hours a day at home, meaning they work longer at home than at the office.

B. Incorrect. Nothing in the passage tells about the actual production. We are only given information as to what people believe. This deals with facts.

C. Correct. Lets go with the worst case scenario. 25 people work for less time than they do at the office. Less than 10 people say they accomplish less work at home. As the worst case scenario we assume those 10 come from this group. That means at least 15 people clearly do not define productivity in terms of time.

D. Incorrect. Much like B nothing in the passage talks about the actual production, just the belief of their production.

E. Incorrect. Again no judgement is made as to the actual quality of their work.

If you pay attention to the belief vs actual productivity argument you can easily eliminate B,D, and E from this one without getting too detailed in the math. That leaves A & C which should be far easier to sort through on a test.