Workers may complain about many things at work, but stress is not high on the list. In fact, in a recent survey a majority placed boredom at the top of their list of complaints. The assumption that job-related stress is the most serious problem for workers in the corporate world is thus simply not warranted.

Which one of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

The first point to note is that boredom is a self-generated state of mind and is the stepping-stone to stress in a working environment.

(A) Those workers who are responsible for the planning and supervision of long-term projects are less likely to complain of either boredom or stress. -- The prompt does not talk about long-term projects in the survey. The survey was a general survey about job satisfaction.

(B) Workers who complain of boredom exhibit more stress-related symptoms than do those who claim their work is interesting. This finding weakens the argument. --- B is the choice.


(C) Workers responding to opinion surveys tend to emphasize those experiences that have happened most recently. --recentness is not given in the prompt.


(D) Workers who feel that their salaries are commensurate with the amount of work they do are less likely to complain of boredom. -- Salaries not given

(E) Workers are less likely to complain about work if they feel that their jobs are secure. -- Security of the job is outside the scope
_________________

My first instinct was to go with B but now I am confused between B and C .If the bored employees are more stressed then why it is not chosen and for C it can be that the employees are not having any work as of now and therefore they considered boredom as their choice so the survey is not valid.can you help where I am going wrong

Posted from my mobile device

manjari

One shouldn't suspect the question as invalid straightaway. Such a psyche will make you doubt even the genuine questions that appear in GMAT.

In C, you can see that it refers to some recent experiences. The question of recentness is not there in the prompt. Rules do not allow new information in the last minute, unless we re-draft the prompt to suit the sly intruder. It is like cutting one's head to suit the cap. Therefore, C is out of the reckoning.

In B, one can see that the whole issue starts with boredom and then develops into job-related stress. Boredom is the visible manifestation while stress is the sub-clinical, invisible undercurrent of a disinterested mindset. An experienced psychiatrist can spot this step-by-step syndrome. That is the reason one cannot detach boredom from stress. B emphasizes that the stress is not on top of the list is erroneous.
_________________

B is the spot on here though for a moment C was on my mind but it can't be he answer.

Here's my opinion. As per C the it is generalized that workers respond to opinion surveys with their most experiences so in a way 'The assumption of job-related stress is the most serious problem for workers in the corporate world' must also have been based on opinion surveys where workers have emphasized on their recent experiences.

Hope this is making sense.
_________________

Prethinking:

We're looking for an option that rejects the notion that job-related stress is not the most serious problem for workers in the corporate world.

Process of Elimination:

A. Wrong. Workers who are responsible for the planning and supervision of long-term projects may or may not represent the whole class of workers, and therefore, this information is insufficient to draw any conclusion over the matter in hand.

B. Correct. This option is in lines with the Prethinking.

C. Wrong. This is a tricky option, but it's wrong. Just because survey takers emphasize those experiences that have happened most recently doesn't give us a reason to believe that not only boredom but also stress is the major complain.

D. Wrong. Irrelevant.

E. Wrong. No impact on the argument.
_________________