A company is considering changing its policy concerning daily working

Question

A company is considering changing its policy concerning daily working hours. Currently, this company requires all employees to arrive at work at 8 a.m. The proposed policy would permit each employee to decide when to arrive from as early as 6 a.m. to as late as 11 a.m.

The adoption of this policy would be most likely to decrease employees productivity if the employees job functions required them to

(A) work without interruption from other employees
(B) consult at least once a day with employees from other companies
(C) submit their work for a supervisors eventual approval
(D) interact frequently with each other throughout the entire workday
(E) undertake projects that take several days to complete

TommyWallach · Accepted Answer

Hey Everyone,

Great work on this. I just wanted to address the way that some people were leaning towards C, so I thought I'd take on all the answer choices in one swoop.

a) work without interruption from other employees.
PROBLEM: The time people come in should not have any effect on whether people get interrupted.

b) consult at least once a day with employees from other companies.
PROBLEM: Consulting with other companies once a day should be easy, as everyone will still be there for at least 6 hours of a typical work day.

c) submit their work for a supervisor's eventual approval.
PROBLEM: Notice the word "eventual". If this implied that the supervisor need to sign off on everybody's work THAT DAY, this might be the correct answer. But the implication here is that the supervisor could "eventually" approve it, which doesn't link it to any specific time.

d) interact with each other throughout the entire workday
ANSWER: Contrast with C. In this case, they use the word "entire". Well, obviously this is going to get in the way of interaction through the "entire" work day. This question really does revolve around the use of the qualifiers "eventual" and "Entire".

e) undertake projects that take several days to complete.
PROBLEM: They'll still be at work 5 days a week, so this shouldn't be a problem.

Hope that helps!

-t

desiguy · Answer

Definetly D.

If A arrives at 8 and works very closely with B, who arrives at 11...A is going to unproductive from 8-11.

kimmyg · Answer

Clear D for me

A is out because employees are not as likely to be interrupted if they work staggered work hours
B is also out because there would be some point in the day which they could reach employees from other companies at least once
C is out because they could submit work anytime 
E is out because the project would still take days to complete whether they started at 6 or 9 in the morning.

fiendex · Answer

I have a minor issue why answer A is not possibly correct although I agree that D provides the strongest reasoning.

In case somebody is sitting at his desk at around 8a.m. and then is permanently interrupted by other employees coming in, depositing their stuff, saying hello etc., this would lead to a decrease in productivity or am I wrong?

After all, the answer would still be D because it is more likely that the permanent interaction needed causes a higher decrease. However, the answer explanation makes it sound as if A would not be acceptable at all - even if D were not included in the answer choices. Can anybody relate?

AbeinOhio · Answer

(A) coming early or late doesnt affect your ability to NOT interrupt others
(D) if you have to interact frequently with others and they are not there because they come in at all different hours, then your productivity will be affected.
Think about the case where you come in at 6am and need to meet with a coworker right away to get something done but they dont show up till 11am..

misan · Answer

I can't understand why the choice C can not be the correct answer? would you plz explain it? 
Tnx

Archit143 · Answer

C) submit their work for a supervisor’s eventual approval

Meaning of EVENTUAL is: " adv. At an unspecified future time"

Hence i think considering option c, will make no effect on company's health.

ravikrishna1979 · Answer

B) consult at least once a day with employees from other companies.

I feel B is correct answers

The person coming in 10pm if requires to consult other company employees then not possible.
The person coming in 6am if requires , then until 9/8am it is not possible, so the productive could be impacted.

But answer D says interaction with other employees is needed

Person coming in 6am/10pm can interact with others who come in the same shift

There are flaws in both B and D, as both options do not say about timings and effectiveness of consultation.

Please help here how to interpret it.

Abhishek009 · Answer

I will say (B) is way out of scope , for the highlighted part   ( In RED )  ...

sayantanc2k · Answer

Abhishek has already pointed out why B is out of scope.

As for your second query about option D: Because the employees need to interact   throughout the entire workday  , it is mandatory that they have the same timing - a person coming in at 6 pm would not be able to interact with a person coming in at 10 pm for 4 hours.

Skywalker18 · Answer

New proposal - each employee to decide when to arrive—from as early as 6 a.m. to as late as 11 a.m instead of the fixed time of arrival at 8 a.m
Claim - The adoption of this policy would be most likely to decrease employees’ productivity

Pre- thinking - What if the job required that the employees frequently interact with each other throughout the day .

Answer D interact frequently with each other throughout the entire workday

abhishekdadarwal2009 · Answer

A company is considering changing its policy concerning daily working hours. Currently, this company requires all employees to arrive at work at 8am. The proposed policy would permit each employee to decide when to arrive - from as early as 6am to as late as 10am.

The adoption of this policy would be most likely to decrease employees' productivity if the employees' job functions required them to

a) work without interruption from other employees.
b) consult at least once a day with employees from other companies.
c) submit their work for a supervisor's eventual approval.
 d) interact with each other throughout the entire workday 
e) undertake projects that take several days to complete.
 
If the workers are supposed to interact with each other then the productivity of employees overall will be decreased becuase the employees will spend time waiting for the rest of the employees to arrive and start working.

santro789 · Answer

I got the right answer D but I was confused between B and D. For what reason we should eliminated B?

I eliminated option B because the passage is not concerned about the employees of other companies? Is this thinking right?

shoum27 · Answer

Hi
Let me try

Think You and I work in that company.
our company has this flexible timing.

You and I need to consult  at least once a day  with employees from other companies. 
So whenever you/I come , ATLEAST ONCE A DAY you can interact and this issue of flexi timings wont hamper your productivity.

But in D
 interact frequently  with each other throughout the entire workday
if You and I interact often with each other and with other colleagues, then there will be delays in interaction if we are allowed to come as per our convenience...and so it will hamper company's performance.

So D is ans

Hope this helps
Regards
S

ADisHere · Answer

Why are such easy questions not asked anymore!!!???

A company is considering changing its policy concerning daily working

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A company is considering changing its policy concerning daily working

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