Read the passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the best answer to each of the following questions from 6...

Read the passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the best answer to each of the following questions from 6 to 13.

A corporate realignment is abruptly terminating the era of flexible work. Major companies, one after another, are rescinding remote policies and issuing compulsory return-to-office mandates. The unequivocal nature of these directives is notable. It is happening despite extensive productivity metrics from the remote period remaining high. The messaging suggests a complete repudiation of the employee-centric models celebrated just two years prior, creating significant friction within the professional class.

Public justifications for the mandates invariably focus on intangible concepts. Executives expound on the necessity of "spontaneous collaboration," "corporate culture," and "in-person mentorship." Such elements are notoriously difficult to quantify. Their value provides a convenient, unfalsifiable rationale for policies that profoundly disrupt employee lives. The nebulous idea of "culture" is being employed to enforce a return to centralized, high-cost physical spaces, often without clear evidence that proximity actually improves output.

The professional workforce, having recalibrated their lives and domestic arrangements around a new flexibility, views the mandates as arbitrary and a breach of trust. They point to their own proven output as superior evidence against the need for a physical return. The response is not open rebellion, but a wave of disengagement. Companies are observing heightened attrition among top performers and a rise in "quiet quitting." The forced return has fostered a fractious work environment, characterized by sullen compliance and a measurable erosion of employee morale.

Underlying the official justifications are more prosaic financial pressures. Vast, expensive commercial real estate portfolios, locked into long-term leases, sit perilously underutilized. A return to offices is seen as a way to justify these immense overheads. Furthermore, an entire class of managers, whose roles were defined by direct, visible oversight, has struggled to adapt. The push is widely interpreted by employees as a blunt attempt to reassert pre-pandemic managerial hierarchies and restore a visibly monitored, centralized workforce.

(Adapted from ScienceDirect)

Question 6: Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage as an official justification executives use for mandating a return to the office?

A. Spontaneous collaboration B. Corporate culture
C. In-person mentorship D. Enhanced employee well-being