Dear Senior Managers:

Due to budget issues, we are forced to discontinue our Professional Development Program effective immediately.

We know you enjoy the program, and we know this will be an inconvenience for many of you. We apologize for the inconvenience, but of all the things we can cut to help our financial situation, this program has the fewest consequences companywide. No other employees even get this benefit, and laying them $($or you$)$ off, cutting health insurance coverage, or cutting sales incentives while senior managers enjoy vacations from work on the company's dime is simply unacceptable. There are better and cheaper ways for you to network $($e$.$g$.,$ local professional organizations, webinars, brown$-$bag lunches hosted by area professionals$),$ and this will give you the opportunity to find them. If you want to take your own vacation time and pay for your own professional development, you may, but the company, unfortunately, will no longer pay for any time off or any cost associated with professional development activities.

Again, we apologize for the inconvenience. Many of us have enjoyed these professional development activities, but we will need to suspend the program indefinitely. We hope that your commitment to your customers will be sufficient motivation for doing your job well as a senior manager.

Does Mara need to apologize to her readers?

Multiple Choice

No$.$ The readers$$ feelings about the decision are irrelevant.

Yes. The readers deserve an apology for Mara$$s extreme actions.

No$.$ The readers are probably not going to be that upset by the news anyway.

No$.$ The decision is based on sound business reasoning.

Yes. The news will be extremely upsetting to the readers.