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?

Every employee of SaleCo who has been there for at least a year is entitled to three weeks of vacation each year and must be paid his or her regular salary for that time off.

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.

Some of SaleCo's employees have indicated to company officials that they would quit if not allowed to work the same hours as the company's most productive employees.

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 top performers work 4 days (10 hours each) instead of 5 days (8 hours each) like everyone else What it does: Sets up the key observation about work schedules and productivity What it is: Company observation/finding Visualization: Standard workers: \(5 \text{ days} \times 8 \text{ hours} = 40 \text{ hours}\) total Top performers: \(4 \text{ days} \times 10 \text{ hours} = 40 \text{ hours}\) total (same hours, different schedule)
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 to make everyone work the 4-day schedule to boost company-wide productivity What it does: Presents the president's plan based on the previous observation What it is: President's proposed solution Visualization: Current: Mix of schedules (some 4-day, some 5-day) Proposed: Everyone on 4-day schedule = higher productivity for all

Argument Flow:

The argument starts with an observation about high performers, then jumps to a company-wide plan based on that observation.

Main Conclusion:

The president's plan to make all employees work four 10-hour days will increase overall productivity.

Logical Structure:

The president sees that top performers use a 4-day schedule, so he assumes that putting everyone on this schedule will make everyone more productive. It's a classic case of assuming correlation equals causation - just because productive people happen to work 4 days doesn't mean the 4-day schedule is what makes them productive.

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 key claim is that switching ALL employees to the 4-day schedule will increase OVERALL productivity, based on the observation that the MOST PRODUCTIVE employees currently use this schedule

Strategy

Look for reasons why forcing everyone onto the 4-day schedule might not work. The president is assuming that the schedule itself causes high productivity, but there could be other explanations. We need scenarios that show this plan might backfire or not achieve the intended productivity boost

Answer Choices Explained

Every employee of SaleCo who has been there for at least a year is entitled to three weeks of vacation each year and must be paid his or her regular salary for that time off.

This choice discusses vacation policies and salary payments, which are completely unrelated to the core issue of whether changing work schedules will increase productivity. Whether employees get three weeks of paid vacation has no bearing on whether a 4-day work week will make people more productive during their working 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.

This tells us that the high performers didn't volunteer for the 4-day schedule but were assigned to it. While this is interesting background information, it doesn't provide any reason to doubt that putting everyone on this schedule will increase productivity. If anything, it might suggest the schedule works regardless of employee preference.

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 reveals the real reason behind the high performers' productivity - they get two hours of quiet, uninterrupted work time each day while other employees aren't around. This directly weakens the president's plan because if everyone works the same 10-hour schedule, no one will have that peaceful, undisturbed environment anymore. The productivity boost came from working alone during extended hours, not from the 4-day schedule itself.

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.

This explains the compensation structure but doesn't address whether the schedule change will actually increase productivity. Knowing that people are paid based on productivity rather than hours worked doesn't tell us whether the 4-day schedule will make them more productive in the first place.

Some of SaleCo's employees have indicated to company officials that they would quit if not allowed to work the same hours as the company's most productive employees.

This suggests some employees want to work the same hours as top performers, which actually supports rather than weakens the president's plan. If employees are eager for this schedule change, it gives us even less reason to doubt the plan will succeed.

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