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505-555 (Easy)|   Resolve Paradox|                              
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GMATNinja

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Hi GMATNinjaTwo GMATNinja VeritasPrepKarishma

Would (A) be the OA if it said:
After the policy was implemented, MORE employees made visits to doctor when they fell sick.
Not necessarily. In the past, employees would stay home sick without having to see a doctor. This would result in productivity loss.

After the policy was implemented, perhaps more employees started to see the doctor on their sick days. This would increase the number of employees who visit the doctor without necessarily increasing the total number of sick days or the amount of productivity loss.

This is the same reason why choice (A) is wrong as written.
­Hi GMATNinja,

I am confused between Options A and C, please explain the error in my logic.

The passage explicitly says (1st sentence) that the company was only concerned with productivity losses resulting from employees calling in sick and not from anything else.

So option C, just says that sick employees, by being present in the office, are just infecting the others. We do not know how many visited a doctor and called in sick. So as long as they are in the office, productivity is not affected.

Option A talks about employees utilizing the one loophole about "being absent only if you are sick enough to consult a doctor". The doctor visits increase but again, here we do not know how many took leave and how many decided to come back to the office.

What is the flaw in my explanation?
Thanks in advance.
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Vishnu0007
­Hi GMATNinja,

I am confused between Options A and C, please explain the error in my logic.

The passage explicitly says (1st sentence) that the company was only concerned with productivity losses resulting from employees calling in sick and not from anything else.

So option C, just says that sick employees, by being present in the office, are just infecting the others. We do not know how many visited a doctor and called in sick. So as long as they are in the office, productivity is not affected.

Option A talks about employees utilizing the one loophole about "being absent only if you are sick enough to consult a doctor". The doctor visits increase but again, here we do not know how many took leave and how many decided to come back to the office.

What is the flaw in my explanation?

Thanks in advance.
­We've written a couple posts explaining why (A) doesn't work. See if one of these helps (particularly the first one), and let us know if you still have questions:

­
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wait but why? since the passage mentions that you had to be so sick that you would have to go to a doctor and more people were going to the doctor ....then wouldnt that lead to the following reasoning--> (more) people going to the doctors to get the 'officially sick' badge thereby decreasing productivity than it would have been had this rule not been in place...?
GMATNinja

Not necessarily. In the past, employees would stay home sick without having to see a doctor. This would result in productivity loss.

After the policy was implemented, perhaps more employees started to see the doctor on their sick days. This would increase the number of employees who visit the doctor without necessarily increasing the total number of sick days or the amount of productivity loss.

This is the same reason why choice (A) is wrong as written.
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Hey,

I can see where the confusion is coming from. Let me clarify what Choice A actually tells us.

Choice A states: "After the policy was implemented, employees more frequently went to the doctor when they felt sick"
The key phrase here is "when they felt sick" - this choice is only talking about employees who were already sick.
Let me illustrate with numbers to make this clearer:
Before the policy:
  • 20 employees felt sick
  • 10 went to the doctor, 10 stayed home without seeing a doctor
  • Result: 20 employees absent
After the policy:
  • 20 employees felt sick
  • 20 went to the doctor (to get official documentation)
  • Result: Still 20 employees absent
Notice that Choice A does not explain why productivity losses increased. It just tells us that among the employees who were sick, more of them sought medical documentation. The total number of sick employees has not changed, so this does not explain the paradox.


Hope that resolves your doubt.
Sa800
wait but why? since the passage mentions that you had to be so sick that you would have to go to a doctor and more people were going to the doctor ....then wouldnt that lead to the following reasoning--> (more) people going to the doctors to get the 'officially sick' badge thereby decreasing productivity than it would have been had this rule not been in place...?

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