Single correct option
The rise of remote work has quietly dismantled an assumption that once shaped office design: that visibility, seeing and being seen by colleagues, was itself a proxy for productivity. Managers who once equated a full car park with a productive workforce have had to find other signals, often to their own surprise, that presence was never quite what they thought it measured. Some have adapted by measuring outputs directly; others have simply reinstated visibility by other means, tracking software, mandatory video calls, that recreate the old assumption in digital form rather than abandoning it.
Summarise the paragraph in one sentence.
Summarise the paragraph in one sentence.
- A. Remote work has proven that office attendance was never necessary for productivity, and all managers now measure output directly instead.
- B. Remote work exposed the flawed assumption that visible presence indicated productivity, prompting some managers to measure output directly while others recreated the old assumption through digital surveillance.
- C. Managers were surprised to discover that full car parks had always been an accurate measure of a productive workforce.
- D. Digital tracking software and mandatory video calls have proven more effective than physical office presence at ensuring productivity.
Show answer and solution
Answer: (B) Remote work exposed the flawed assumption that visible presence indicated productivity, prompting some managers to measure output directly while others recreated the old assumption through digital surveillance.
The paragraph's core movement is: an old assumption (visibility = productivity) was undermined by remote work, and managers responded in two different ways, some measuring output directly, others simply digitising the old assumption. Option 2 captures both halves accurately. Option 1 overstates ('all managers'), which contradicts the paragraph's explicit split into two responses. Option 3 inverts the paragraph's point, which says car parks were never actually an accurate measure. Option 4 is an unsupported evaluative claim the paragraph does not make.
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