CR:Given that employees of the XYZ Company could

[CHUNX638]

Given that employees of the XYZ Company could, in theory, do their work at home, the company developed a radical plan to increase efficiency: eliminate office-space expenditures by having employees work at home. To evaluate a plan to save money on office space expenditures by having its employees work at home, XYZ Company asked volunteers from its staff to try the assignment for six months. During this period, the productivity of these employees was as high or higher than before.

Which of the following, if true, would argue most strongly against deciding on the basis of the trial results, to implement the company's plan?

(A) The employees who agreed to participate in the test of the plan were among the company's most self-motivated and independent workers.
(B) The savings that would accrue from reduced office-space expenditures alone would be sufficient to justify the arrangement for the company.
(C) Other companies that have achieved successful results from work-at-home plans have work forces that are substantially lower than that of XYZ.
(D) The volunteers who worked at home were able to communicate with other employees as necessary for performing at work.
(E) Minor changes in the way office work is organized at XYZ would yield increases in employee productivity similar to those achieved in the trial

My question is, If this choice were present:
(F) Even if emplyees were to work at home, there would be no savings in terms of office-space expenditures.
choice F is right or not?
I can't figure out whether this plan is for increasing efficiency or for eliminating office-space expenditures. What's the goal of this plan?

Thank you very much!

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

Please read the forum guidelines before posting. This doesn't look like a GMAT Prep problem - what's the source please?

Pay careful attention to the wording of the question in the problem: Which of the following, if true, would argue most strongly against deciding on the basis of the trial results, to implement the company's plan? The question focuses on the connection between the trial results and the plan, and therefore we're looking for an answer that somehow discounts the trial results, that shows that the trial results are problematic in some way.

You're right that the aim of the plan is not quite clear: the company wants to save money, but the trial was about measuring productivity of the home-workers. Your answer (F) does relate to the ultimate aim of the plan, but it doesn't discount the trial results, and therefore, in my opinion, it wouldn't be a good answer. However, we're stumbling across the issue of appropriate GMAT style here. I would suggest this as an alternative to (F) that is a good answer: (G) During the trial, the money the company would have saved in office space was lower than extra costs incurred by the company, such as increased time spent by security and tech support teams.

On the question of appropriate GMAT style, I'm rather suspicious of this problem: it doesn't seem to test the kind of issues that I'd expect from a GMAT problem.

[CHUNX638]

Please read the forum guidelines before posting. This doesn't look like a GMAT Prep problem - what's the source please?

The source is definitely from GMAT Prep and it is from RON class. Maybe because this problem is very old.
I post it in GMAT Prep Verbal section because it is a GMAT Prep problem.
So I need to post the source of the problem even if I post it in GMAT Prep Verbal section, right?

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

My apologies, you don't need to post the source of the problem if it's a GMAT Prep problem. And it's in the right folder. Which of Ron's classes is this one from please?

[CHUNX638]

March 6th, 2014
the first question

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

Thanks