Single correct option
The rise of remote work has forced a quiet renegotiation of what an office is for. When a building is no longer required for the physical act of working, its value must be justified in other terms: as a site for spontaneous collaboration that video calls struggle to replicate, as a stage for organisational culture and mentorship that new hires absorb by osmosis, or as a status symbol that signals a company's permanence to clients and investors. Firms that cannot articulate which of these functions their office serves have found themselves paying rent for square footage nobody can quite explain the purpose of, while firms that redesign around a clear answer — fewer desks, more shared space, mandatory in-person days tied to specific collaborative work — report higher employee satisfaction with the arrangement than either full remote or the old five-day default.
Which of the following best summarises the paragraph?
Which of the following best summarises the paragraph?
- A. Remote work has made office space entirely obsolete, and all companies should abandon physical offices immediately.
- B. Since offices are no longer necessary for the mechanics of work, companies must now justify their purpose in other terms, and those that do so clearly outperform those that retain offices out of habit.
- C. Employees strongly prefer working from home and resent any requirement to return to a shared office.
- D. Video calls have completely replaced the need for spontaneous, in-person collaboration.
Show answer and solution
Answer: (B) Since offices are no longer necessary for the mechanics of work, companies must now justify their purpose in other terms, and those that do so clearly outperform those that retain offices out of habit.
The paragraph's logic is: offices no longer justified by necessity → must be justified by function (collaboration, culture, status) → firms with a clear function outperform those without one. Option B captures this full chain. A overstates the paragraph into an absolute recommendation it never makes; C asserts a preference not stated; D contradicts the paragraph, which says video calls only "struggle to replicate" spontaneous collaboration, not that it's impossible.
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