An overwhelming proportion of the most productive employees at SaleCo's regional offices work not eight hours a day, five days...

GMAT Critical Reasoning : (CR) Questions

Source: Official Guide

Critical Reasoning

Weaken

MEDIUM

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Notes

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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?

Typically, a SaleCo employee's least productive hours in the workplace are the early afternoon hours.

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.

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.

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.

Those SaleCo employees who have a four-day workweek do not take any of their office work to do at home on Fridays.

Solution

Passage Analysis:

Text from Passage	Analysis
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.	What it says: Most of SaleCo's top performers work 4 long days instead of the standard 5-day schedule What it does: Sets up a pattern showing high performers use a different work schedule What it is: Observational evidence from the company Visualization: Standard employees: M-T-W-T-F (8 hrs each) vs Top performers: M-T-W-T (10 hrs each), 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.	What it says: The president wants everyone to switch to the 4-day, 10-hour schedule to boost productivity What it does: Connects the observed pattern to a proposed company-wide solution What it is: President's plan/conclusion based on the evidence Visualization: President's logic: Top performers use 4-day schedule → Make EVERYONE use 4-day schedule → Everyone becomes more productive

Argument Flow:

The argument starts with an observation about high-performing employees using a 4-day work week, then jumps to a conclusion that making everyone use this schedule will increase overall productivity.

Main Conclusion:

Switching all employees to a 4-day, 10-hour work schedule will increase overall productivity.

Logical Structure:

This is a causal argument that assumes correlation equals causation. The president sees that productive employees work 4-day weeks and concludes that the schedule itself causes the productivity, so applying it company-wide will create the same result.

Prethinking:

Question type:

Weaken - We need to find information that would make us doubt the president's plan will actually increase overall productivity

Precision of Claims

The president's plan specifically aims to 'increase overall productivity' by making 'all employees' work the same 4-day schedule that the 'most productive employees' currently use

Strategy

Since this is a weaken question, we need to find scenarios that would reduce our belief that switching everyone to the 4-day schedule will boost overall productivity. We should look for reasons why what works for top performers might not work for everyone, or why the correlation between high productivity and 4-day schedules might not indicate causation

Answer Choices Explained

Typically, a SaleCo employee's least productive hours in the workplace are the early afternoon hours.

This tells us when employees are least productive (early afternoon) but doesn't connect to whether the 4-day schedule will work for everyone. Knowing about unproductive afternoon hours doesn't give us reason to doubt that switching to 4-day weeks will increase overall productivity. This is irrelevant to the president's plan.

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.

The fact that productive employees were assigned rather than volunteered for the 4-day schedule actually supports the idea that the schedule itself (not employee preference) drives productivity. If anything, this suggests the schedule change could work when imposed company-wide, which strengthens rather than weakens the plan.

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.

This is the correct answer because it reveals WHY the 4-day employees are productive - they get 2 hours of undisturbed work time when 8-hour employees aren't around. If everyone switches to 10-hour days, this advantage disappears since everyone will be there for all 10 hours. This directly undermines the assumption that the schedule change alone will boost productivity for all employees.

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.

The compensation structure (productivity-based rather than hours-based) doesn't affect whether changing everyone's schedule will increase productivity. How people are paid doesn't tell us whether the 4-day schedule will work for all employees, so this doesn't weaken the president's plan.

Those SaleCo employees who have a four-day workweek do not take any of their office work to do at home on Fridays.

Learning that 4-day employees don't work from home on Fridays is irrelevant to whether making everyone work 4-day weeks will increase productivity. This information neither supports nor undermines the effectiveness of the proposed schedule change.

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