Critical Reasoning

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.

OA:[spoiler] C [Why not A][/spoiler]

We are asked to weaken the argument, so we need to find an alternate reason that account for the productivity of employees. C clearly states that since each employee gets to work two hours alone each day the overall productivity is higher for them as compared to other employees.Now, if all employees start working 10hrs then none of them would get two hours alone each day to work. So, it will not have the intended result.

A - Early afternoon hours if at all affect the productivity then it will affect productivity even if all empoyees work for 10 hrs day. This would only compensate for loss in productivity if working days are kept at 5 days a week.