Deck 8: Bad-News Messages

Question 1

Analyze a situation when you received bad news.
In groups of three or four, discuss a situation when you received bad news. This could be anything work related or personal that is appropriate for you to discuss in class. What communication context is relevant to the message (organizational culture, ethical responsibilities, legal requirements, level of urgency, and so on)What is important about the audience that should have been consideredWhat medium (or media) was used to convey the message
Given this background information, did you find the message effectiveWhy or why notIf not, what would have been a better approach

Answer 1

Not Answer

Question 2

Write an email rejecting an exception.
Imagine that you work for a Fortune 500 investment bank. It's two weeks before the annual Take Our Sons and Daughters to Work Day, and one of your employees asks you for a favor. Although it's clearly stated on the company intranet and in the email reminder that employees may bring only two children to work, this employee wants to bring a third child.
The employee explains that his youngest child, Emanuel, has a strong interest in finance and would get a lot out of the experience of visiting you at work. He also wants to bring his two older children, who have participated for the past three years. Acting as the HR Director for the investment bank, write an email denying the employee's request.

Answer 2

Dear XYZ,
I am pleased to hear that you will participate in the annual Take Our Sons and Daughters to Work Day. However, I regret to inform you that I cannot approve your request to allow 3 of your kids to attend the event.
As per the rules and regulations of the company only two children are allowed to attend the occasion. This might result in similar requests from other employees and any denial to them will result in unfair treatment.
I hope that you will understand my situation and take this positively.
Director

Question 3

What is the purpose of your message

Answer 3

Purpose of the Message:
The purpose of this message is to convey the unfortunate news that the Company Y will be terminating their services. They will just work on archiving the already existing videos, and will discontinue their service of hosting new videos.
The purpose is to make the employees aware about the situation that the company is facing. The decisions have been taken keeping in mind the best interest of the company.

Question 4

Write an email to turn down an invitation.
You are the purchasing manager at your firm and have received an email from Barbara Sorrels, one of your firm's major suppliers. She will be in town on October 13 and would like to take you out to dinner that evening. However, you have an early morning flight on October 14 to Kansas City and will need to pack and make last-minute preparations on the evening of the 13th. Write an email to Barbara declining her invitation.

Question 5

Organize a bad-news message.
For the following situations, would you use the direct or indirect organizational plan for a written messageWhen you choose an organizational plan, you're making assumptions about your readers and how they might react. Discuss your ideas in small groups.
• After three on-site job interviews, you decline an offer for a summer internship with an alumnus of your college.
• After meeting a CEO at an on-campus job fair, you decline an interview with the company because it is not in your hometown.
• You decline a lunch invitation from a college friend who works for a competitor.
• You decline an employee's vacation request because he wants to be away during your busy season.
• You inform a supplier that you do not plan to renew your contract.
• You inform customers that a product has been discontinued.

Question 6

Write a letter refusing a customer's request for reimbursement.
As the president's assistant at the Ford Motor Company, you received a customer letter. The customer complains that her Ford Escort is a "lemon" and has cost her over $3,000 in repairs over a two-year period after the warranty expired. She wants to be reimbursed $3,000. You cannot grant her request; however, you can offer her a credit for $1,000 toward the purchase of a new Ford car.
Write a letter explaining the decision. Present your rationale in a way that acknowledges the customer's concerns yet avoids paying for past repairs.

Question 7

Describe your audience.

Question 8

Write an email refusing a customer's request for a refund.
On Twitter, a Whole Foods customer posted this tweet:

As a representative for Whole Foods, you find this tweet and send the customer a direct message (DM) to obtain his email address. In your email to the customer, reject his request for a refund. You may invent your own rationale for the decision. Also try including a subtle sales promotion in your closing paragraph.
Exchange drafts with a partner in class and give each other feedback on the approach.

Question 9

Practice writing buffers.
For the situations in Exercise 1 for which you chose the indirect plan, write a buffer statement. Then compare your buffers with those of two other students. Which work best and why
Exercise 1
Organize a bad-news message.
For the following situations, would you use the direct or indirect organizational plan for a written messageWhen you choose an organizational plan, you're making assumptions about your readers and how they might react. Discuss your ideas in small groups.
• After three on-site job interviews, you decline an offer for a summer internship with an alumnus of your college.
• After meeting a CEO at an on-campus job fair, you decline an interview with the company because it is not in your hometown.
• You decline a lunch invitation from a college friend who works for a competitor.
• You decline an employee's vacation request because he wants to be away during your busy season.
• You inform a supplier that you do not plan to renew your contract.
• You inform customers that a product has been discontinued.

Question 10

Write an email refusing a customer's request to waive a fee.
Imagine that you work for Bank of America's credit card division, and you're trying to resolve a complaint from a customer. Through an online form on the website, you receive a customer's message, requesting that the bank waive $75 of overdraft fees accrued over the past three months.
Your policy doesn't require you to waive these fees, although you have for some customers. However, you deny this customer's request for two primary reasons:
• The customer had similar overdraft fees in the previous quarter, so the customer is aware of these fees.
• The customer's account is overdue; a bill has not been paid in two months.
Write an email to communicate your decision to the customer.

Question 11

At what point in the message will you convey the bad news

Question 12

Write a memo announcing employee layoffs.
You are the SVP of human resources for a financial software company that has 7,500 employees. The company has decided to sell AccountSoft, one of its major products. The software has suffered declining sales for the past two years, and it no longer fits with the new mission of the company, which is to sell to small businesses and individuals, rather than larger accounting firms (currently 95% of AccountSoft's buyers).
You will have individual conversations with employees who are affected by the layoffs, but first you advise the CEO to send an email to all employees to announce the decision to sell AccountSoft and to prepare employees for the downsizing and what will happen next.
As you write this memo for the CEO to send under his name, consider that not all employees from the AccountSoft division will be laid off. The sales and marketing staff (about 150 people) will be leaving the firm, but the software developers will go to the acquiring firm, Accounting Support Services, Inc. This was your agreement with Accounting Support Services, as part of the acquisition deal.
Write the memo to communicate the decision clearly and help employees understand and accept the message.

Question 13

Analyze a rejection letter.
What follows is a typical rejection letter for a job candidate. In small groups, discuss how you might react to such a letter. In what ways does the letter effectively consider the audience, and in what ways does it fall shortOn your own, rewrite the letter according to your analysis, and compare versions within your group.

Question 14

Write an email to tell employees about a product recall.
As the vice president of public relations at Wilton Industries, you need to communicate to staff that one of your products has been recalled. The notice from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission explains the potential burn hazard associated with your Chefmate Tea Kettle. Customers should return the kettle to Target to receive a full refund. Address an email to all Wilton employees to explain the situation.

Question 15

Write the first sentence of your email. Be professional, yet sensitive to employees' concerns.

Question 16

Write a memo announcing no bonus.
You are the manager of a fitness equipment manufacturing plant called Muscles Galore located in Gary, Indiana. The plant has been in operation for seven years. Over the years your employees have been very productive, and sales have been high. Therefore, Muscles Galore has been able to give generous holiday bonuses (usually more than $1,000) to all of its employees for the last five years.
This year, however, because of a slow economy, you will not be able to offer the holiday bonus. Although the workers have been very productive, fitness equipment sales are down about 15% from last year. Your projections indicate that the economy is recovering, and sales should be up about 20% next year. If the projections are accurate, you should be able to offer the bonus again next year-but you won't make any promises.
Write a memo to your employees letting them know the bad news. Add details to make your message complete.

Question 17

Send an email rejecting an idea for online ordering.
Imagine that you run a local used bookstore, where you receive this email from a new employee:

Write an email response to this employee rejecting the suggestion. You can invent whatever rationale you'd like, and keep in mind that this employee did not put a lot of thought into the suggestion.

Question 18

Write a letter announcing a decision not to renew a lease.
Assume the role of Gene Harley, the leasing manager of Northern Shopping Plaza. You have decided not to renew the lease of T-shirts Plus, which operates a tiny T-shirt decorating outlet in the mall. Three times in the past 13 months, the store's employees have left their heat-transfer machinery switched on after closing. Each time, the smoke activated the mall's smoke alarms and brought the fire department to the mall during the late-night hours. Although no damage has occurred, your insurance agent warns that the mall's rates will rise if this situation continues.
The lease that T-shirts Plus signed five years ago specifies that either party can decide not to renew. All that is required is written notification to the other party at least 90 days in advance of the yearly anniversary of the contract date. By writing this week, you will be providing adequate notice. Convey this information to the store's manager, Henry D. Curtis.

Question 19

How will you explain the reasons for the decision

Question 20

Write a letter about no longer volunteering.
You own Kitco Inc., a small financial consulting firm in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For the last 12 years, some of your employees have voluntarily prepared and served a Thanksgiving meal at St. Benedict's homeless shelter in Baton Rouge. You paid for the turkeys, hams, and other trimmings to feed the 100-150 people; your employees cooked the food at their homes and served the meal at a local church. This meal has been greatly appreciated by the St. Benedict staff and anticipated by the poor and homeless people in the area. However, you are closing your office in Baton Rouge and moving to Dallas in early October; therefore, no one from your company will be available in Baton Rouge to prepare and serve the meal. You have enjoyed your partnership with the homeless shelter, and you plan to continue the tradition in Dallas. Although you cannot prepare and serve the meal, you will donate $250 to the shelter to cover the cost of buying the food. Write a letter to Pastor Sullivan DeMarco, giving him the bad news.

Question 21

Write a memo rejecting an idea to shorten wait lines.
You're new to the management staff of Cedar Point, a large amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. Cedar Point is renowned for its 14 roller coasters and dozens of other exciting rides. Each ride can accommodate many people at once, so the lines don't stand still for very long.
Even so, on summer holidays and weekends, the wait for Cedar Point's most popular rides, such as the Millennium Force roller coaster, can be lengthy. In fact, when Wall Street Journal reporters sampled the midday waiting time at parks around the United States, they waited one hour for the two-minute Millennium Force ride. At the other end of the spectrum, the reporters waited only 11 minutes or less to jump on rides at Monford Bay, an old-fashioned park where the lines lengthen after dark.
Your boss, Cedar Point's top operational officer, has asked all employees to submit ideas for a system that would make the wait less onerous for customers. One employee suggests that parents with strollers be allowed to go to the front of the line, on the theory that this policy reduces the likelihood of noisy scenes with fussy kids.
You believe that other customers would resent this system; you also don't believe that it would dramatically affect either the wait or customers' perceptions of it. You decide to reject this idea. Write this memo, using your knowledge of bad-news replies (making up any details you need).

Question 22

Write an email about a party cancellation.
Nobody likes a party more than Edgar Dunkirk, the president of Rockabilly Enterprises, a record label. In the early days, the company's holiday parties were legendary for their splendid food arrangements and outstanding entertainment (featuring the label's popular singing stars). Employees performed elaborate skits and competed for valuable prizes. These days, however, sales of the company's country and rockabilly recordings are down. In fact, Dunkirk recently had to lay off 150 of the company's 350 employees, the most severe austerity measure in the company's history.
Because so many employees had to be let go, including some who had helped Dunkirk found the company a decade ago, the president has decided that a lavish party would be inappropriate. He has therefore canceled the traditional holiday party. As Dunkirk's vice president of human resources, write an email communicating the news to Rockabilly's employees.

Question 23

Write the last sentence of your email. Strive for a forward-looking approach, but be careful not to minimize employees' feelings.

Question 24

Write a product recall letter.
You have received two reports that users of your ten-stitch portable sewing machine, Sew-Now, have been injured when the needle broke off while sewing. One person was sewing lined denim, and the other was sewing drapery fabric-neither of which should have been used on this small machine. Fortunately, neither injury was serious. Although your firm accepts no responsibility for these injuries, you decide to recall all Sew-Now machines to have a stronger needle installed.
Owners should take their machines to the store where they purchased them. These stores have been notified and already have a supply of the replacement needles. The needle can be replaced while the customer waits. Alternatively, users can ship their machines to you prepaid. Other than shipping, there is no cost to the user. Prepare a letter that will go out to the 1,750 Sew-Now purchasers. Customers can call your toll-free number if they have questions.

Question 25

Write a blog post to reject an idea on behalf of Starbucks.
Imagine that you work for Starbucks. The company has a well-developed website, My Starbucks Idea, which gathers suggestions from customers and employees (www.mystarbucksidea.com). Review a few suggestions, and choose one for your negative response.
As you prepare your reply, you may need to do some research about the issue and about Starbucks' current practices. Then, write your response as a blog entry, which might be posted on the site (although Starbucks does not respond to all ideas posted).

Question 26

Write an email refusing an employee's request.24 You manage the conventions department for a hotel, where you supervise an employee named Robert. Robert is responsible for meeting with companies that hold events at the hotel. This morning, you received the following email from Robert:

You won't be able to approve this request for the following reasons:
You have no budget for this capital expense. It's possible to budget for this next year, but you're not sure an iPad just for client presentations would be worth the expense. You really don't see the point because you recently spent a lot on printing beautiful materials, which Robert takes to clients with him.
Robert started work at your company only one month ago. Although you encourage ideas, you do not like Robert's presumptuous tone.
Also, you'd like to encourage Robert to put more time and thought into his ideas. Although not a huge expense, an iPad for your department would need to be justified-and Robert would benefit from supporting his suggestions more convincingly.
His preliminary marketing plan was due two days ago, but he hasn't submitted it yet. You'd like him to focus on his current responsibilities as a priority.
On the other hand, you hired Robert because of his strong work background and excellent skills, and you hope he will have a long career with your company.
Also, the hiring process was lengthy and expensive, and you have no desire to go through it again. You don't want to discourage him.
Write an email to Robert that rejects his request. Next, exchange emails with another student. At this point, your instructor may give you more information about Robert's perspective. If you were Robert, how would you react to the emailProvide feedback to the original writer.

Question 27

Write a letter to refuse a favor for a colleague's son.
Assume the role of vice president of operations for Kolor Kosmetics, a small manufacturer in Biloxi, Mississippi. One of your colleagues from the local chamber of commerce, Dr. Andrea T. Mazzi, has written asking whether your firm can provide a summer internship in your department for her son Peter, a college sophomore who is interested in a manufacturing career. Kolor Kosmetics has no provisions for temporary summer employees and does not currently operate an internship program. Also, the factory shuts down for a two-week vacation every July.
Write a letter to Dr. Mazzi explaining why you are unable to provide a summer internship to her son Peter.

Question 28

Write an email denying a request for a salary advance.
Imagine that you own a website design firm, and an employee asks you for a favor: a one-month salary advance. This is one of your best employees, someone who has worked with you for over five years, and you know she's buying a house. But you cannot advance her the money for these reasons:
• It's against your company policy (according to your employee handbook).
• You want to be fair to everyone and cannot accommodate others' requests.
• You don't want this to set a precedent for this employee.
• You don't believe it's your responsibility.
Decide how you'll organize the email and which of these reasons you will present to the employee. You don't need to include everything unless you believe it will explain your rationale and maintain the employee's goodwill.