A local medical software company suffers from understaffing; one cause

Question

A local medical software company suffers from understaffing; one cause is the high turnover rate among programmers, most of whom quit within their first two years of working for the company. The results of the last three annual employee satisfaction surveys have suggested that the programmers would stay longer with the company if they had more spacious offices and were better paid. Nevertheless, the company’s difficulty with understaffing would only be aggravated if the company took steps to improve programmer salaries and allot programmers more office space.

Which of the following, if true, provides the strongest support for the argument’s conclusion?

(A) The annual employee satisfaction surveys, which are optional, are more likely to be completed by employees who are unsatisfied with their jobs than by those who are satisfied.
 
(B) If the programmer positions became more attractive, then many of the company’s middle managers, a position which is particularly difficult to fill, would demote themselves to programmers.

(C) The company already pays its programmers five percent more, on average, than other medical software companies do.

(D) Most of the company’s programmers have to share an office with at least one other programmer, whereas the majority of programmers in the medical software industry have their own offices.
 
(E) Presently, the cost of providing training to new programmers is lower than the cost of providing larger offices and higher salaries to current programmers.

Official Explanation   
(1) Identify the Question
Because the task is to find the strongest support for the argument, this is a Strengthen the Argument question.

(2) Deconstruct the Argument
A medical software company has staffing issues, particularly among its programmers. Employee surveys suggest that if the programmers had larger offices and higher salaries, they’d stay longer. Even so, the author concludes that giving the programmers what they want would only make the understaffing situation worse.

Here is one possible way to map the argument.

Progs understaffed

Progs want more space, more $$$

(3) State the Goal
The argument’s conclusion currently has no support. The correct answer should explain how doing something that would appear to improve the staffing situation would actually make that situation worse.

(4) Work From Wrong to Right

(A) This choice suggests that the surveys overstate the degree to which giving programmers more money and more office space would reduce the staffing problem. However, this information doesn’t explain how doing something beneficial for the programmers would actively make the staffing problem worse.

(B) CORRECT. If making things better for the programmers would reduce the company’s number of managers, then the company’s overall staffing problems could be worsened even if the programmer positions stayed filled.

(C) This choice offers an irrelevant comparison. Other medical software companies may or may not have comparable staffing issues.

(D) If anything, this choice weakens the argument by suggesting that programmer office space is indeed a serious issue. In that case, improving the office space would be more likely to reduce the understaffing problem than to aggravate it.

(E) This choice suggests that the staffing problem is not really a problem—at least, not from a financial perspective. Nevertheless, the focus of the argument is on the results of a particular plan to fix the staffing shortage, not on the results of the shortage itself. Whether this shortage has caused financial problems is beside the point.

Skywalker18 · Answer

A local medical software company suffers from understaffing; one cause is the high turnover rate among programmers, most of whom quit within their first two years of working for the company. The results of the last three annual employee satisfaction surveys have suggested that the programmers would stay longer with the company if they had more spacious offices and were better paid. Nevertheless, the company’s difficulty with understaffing would only be aggravated if the company took steps to improve programmer salaries and allot programmers more office space.

Type- strengthen
Conclusion- the company’s difficulty with understaffing would only be aggravated if the company took steps to improve programmer salaries and allot programmers more office space.

(A) The annual employee satisfaction surveys, which are optional, are more likely to be completed by employees who are unsatisfied with their jobs than by those who are satisfied.- incorrect- the survey might not give us the true picture as it overstates the dissatisfaction of the programmers
 
(B) If the programmer positions became more attractive, then many of the company’s middle managers, a position which is particularly difficult to fill, would demote themselves to programmers.- Correct, if the middle managers demote themselves to programmers, we will have a bigger staffing problem

(C) The company already pays its programmers five percent more, on average, than other medical software companies do.- irrelevant

(D) Most of the company’s programmers have to share an office with at least one other programmer, whereas the majority of programmers in the medical software industry have their own offices.- weakens - so space is one of the issue faced by the programmers
 
(E) Presently, the cost of providing training to new programmers is lower than the cost of providing larger offices and higher salaries to current programmers.- irrelevant, we are not bothered about the financial impact of the move

Answer B

Davish123 · Answer

This question is looking for which answer will support the “understaff aggregate”. “Aggregate” mean more spots are needed to be filled. And middle managers are harder to fill. That is why B is the answer choice

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Mais123 · Answer

Sorry but this question is supposed to test critical reasoning or vocabulary? If you dont know what aggravate means you just loose the question.....

einstein801 · Answer

Poor question.. question is about programmers and NOT middle managers. I am staffing programmers and not middle managers. thats a reach

napolean92728 · Answer

The  correct answer  is:  (B) 
Argument Summary:
 
  Problem:  The company suffers from  understaffing  due to  high turnover  among programmers. 
  Cause (from surveys):  Programmers might stay longer if they had  better pay  and  more spacious offices . 
  Conclusion:  Improving salary and office space would  aggravate  the understaffing problem. 
 So, even though better conditions could help retain programmers, the argument concludes it would  worsen  the understaffing.  
To  support  this  conclusion , we need a reason why making the jobs more appealing would  actually make the understaffing problem worse , not better.

Option Analysis:   
 (A)  “The annual employee satisfaction surveys, which are optional, are more likely to be completed by employees who are unsatisfied with their jobs than by those who are satisfied.” 
 
  Irrelevant.  This casts doubt on the  reliability  of the survey results but doesn’t support the conclusion that  improving conditions would worsen understaffing .

(B)  “If the programmer positions became more attractive, then many of the company’s middle managers, a position which is particularly difficult to fill, would demote themselves to programmers.” 
 
  Correct Answer.  This directly  supports  the conclusion. If the programmer role improves (with better pay and offices),  middle managers  (who are already hard to replace) might switch to being programmers. That would make  understaffing worse overall , even if programmer retention improves — fewer middle managers would mean more staffing problems.

(C)  “The company already pays its programmers five percent more, on average, than other medical software companies do.” 
 
  Weak.  This might suggest that salary isn't the issue, but it doesn’t explain  why improving salary and office space would worsen  the understaffing problem. It challenges the cause, not supports the conclusion.

(D)  “Most of the company’s programmers have to share an office with at least one other programmer, whereas the majority of programmers in the medical software industry have their own offices.” 
 
  Weak.  Like (C), this just provides context for the current conditions, supporting the idea that programmers might be unhappy — but it  does not support  the idea that improving things would  make understaffing worse .

(E)  “Presently, the cost of providing training to new programmers is lower than the cost of providing larger offices and higher salaries to current programmers.” 
 
  Irrelevant.  This is a  cost  comparison. Even if it's cheaper to train new people, that doesn't show why  improving conditions would aggravate understaffing .

A local medical software company suffers from understaffing; one cause

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A local medical software company suffers from understaffing; one cause

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