Studies have shown that people are more likely to fall ill when they a...
Pre-Thinking
Conclusion Clarification
The conclusion states that the co. can save on the money lost as a result of the business lost when their employees take SL if they follow a recommendation. The recommendation is to implement regular leisure trips to keep employees healthy by organizing several GBFs that colleagues can engage in.
Pre-Thinking Approach
In order to evaluate the plan, we’ll look at the linkages and pre-think assumptions. Any question that can help us evaluate a central assumption made by the author will be the correct evaluating question. To pre-think assumptions, let’s look at the linkages and understand the conditions under which they don’t hold. The assumptions then will be that these conditions don’t exist.
Linkage#1
- Falsification Condition: What if the leisure trips involving group activities do not help in stress reduction? We see that the plan is likely to fail in such a case. Hence, unless we know the impact of leisure activities with colleagues on stress reduction in employees, the proposed plan cannot be justified.
- Assumption 1: The leisure trips involving several group-bonding fun activities that colleagues can engage in help in stress reduction.
Linkage#2
- Falsification Condition: What if the proposed leisure trips end up costing the company more business days than it would have lost in sick leaves? If so, the plan would not be successful.
- Assumption 2: The average days spent in the proposed leisure trips would not be greater than the average days lost by the company on account of the sick leaves taken by its employees.
With this pre-thinking in mind, let’s evaluate the answer choices.
Answer Choices
A
Whether companies can organize seminars by motivational speakers who can increase the efficiency of employees
Incorrect - Irrelevant
The argument focuses on only one way (leisure activities with colleagues) to achieve a result. An alternate way (seminars) to achieve the same result does not help in evaluating the proposed plan.
B
Whether employees would find out of office get-togethers with colleagues de-stressing
Correct
This option is written along the lines of the assumption 1 mentioned in the pre-thinking analysis. If the answer to the question is yes, it would strengthen the proposal. If it’s no, the proposal would be weakened.
C
Whether the management of such companies would approve the plan to hold leisure trips
Incorrect - Irrelevant
We are concerned with the success of the plan in case it is approved & implemented. Therefore, whether the management will actually approve the plan or not is not our focus.
D
Whether there is any chance that despite these trips there will be a few employees who will fall ill.
Incorrect - Irrelevant
The argument says “...people are more likely to fall ill when they are stressed.” Here, we are only concerned about higher chances of illness because of stress. Therefore, the argument does not rule out the possibility of illness because of other causes. Also, even if a few people still fall ill because of stress despite going on the leisure trips, the plan can still be successful if many employees who go to leisure trips do not fall ill because of stress.
E
Whether there are any good locations in the area the employees are based in that can be used for such trips.
Incorrect - Irrelevant
The location of the trip doesn’t help us assess whether the company will be able to save on the money lost due to employees’ illness. Even if there aren’t any good locations in areas where the employees are based, such trips can be organized at some other locations.