what does と in the sentence below mean?


>
> そんな彼らは、仕事を頼まれてもすぐに始めることができない。失敗したくないので、仕事をする前にいろいろ質問をしてくる。彼らの気持ちがわからないと、聞かれた人は自分の若い時と比べて仕事に消極的だ、ロばかりで働くのを嫌がる、
> **と** 誤解することになる。

does this "と" mean "and" and is used to connect 嫌がる and 誤解する?

or does this と mean "that" and is used to quote the content before it?I mean
the sentence "聞かれた人は自分の若い時と比べて仕事に消極的だ、ロばかりで働くのを嫌がる" is the content of "と誤解する"




It's quotative, so your second interpretation is correct. But the content is
自分の若い時...嫌がる.

The subject of 彼らの気持ちがわからない as well as 誤解する is 聞かれた人.

Thus a literal translation would be

  * When they (asked) fail to understand what they (askers) think, they (asked) misunderstand that they (askers) are passive in work compared with people of their (asked) age _and that_ they (askers) just chat and dislike working.

As a side note, _and that_ above does not exist in the Japanese sentence. The
structure is: X, Yと誤解する=misunderstand that X and that Y.

