Indirect negative message.

Below is a previous year's negative news assignment case. Submit your solution to the Hub (Homework 4 folder) before next lab (May 5-8) and have a copy (paper or screen) to review in lab. Use Ch. 8, lecture information, and the checklist provided last week (and also on the Hub) to plan, create, and evaluate your message. Case You work for a small firm (accounting, finance, or insurance), and your company has been struggling to attract and keep talented staff. To help with this, the company recently implemented three new programs: unlimited sick days, flextime (different work shift options than the traditional 9-5), and telecommuting (working from home). Since administration is part of your job (you're the admin and finance assistant to the president), you helped set up the guidelines and policies for these new initiatives. At your company, any new programs go through a big review process after the first three months, to check everything's working out and whether the program was a good idea for the company. Unfortunately, telecommuting has some real problems, as you find out in your weekly meeting with the company's owner/president. PRESIDENT: I've got some bad news-we're going to have to cancel the telecommuting program. Yesterday, we had the regular management meeting, and we reviewed all three of the new programs. The managers had some pretty bad disaster stories to tell about telecommuting, like people videoconferencing in their pajamas with a pile of dirty dishes behind them, kids yelling in the background or loud music during conference calls.... I really hope this isn't happening when staff call clients from home, but it's bad enough it's happening with staff online meetings. YOU: That wasn't supposed to happen! PRESIDENT: I know, but the reality is that it isn't working. We need staff to be wide awake and ready to work in the morning, but when staff are working from home it's like they sometimes just stumble from the bed to their computer! I'm getting reports people are either late to conference calls or they're calling to say they can't join the meeting because they're at the dentist or stuck in traffic.... I understand why-it's really hard to be super productive or focused on work stuff when there's laundry everywhere and the dog wants out.... We've simply got to make sure our staff members are wide awake and working hard and professional, and that isn't really happening when they work from home. I think we just changed way too much, way too fast with all these new programs, and the staff is a bit confused and feeling like anything goes. YOU: Can't we still make it work somehow? This is really going to be a blow to the staff. Lots of them love the new telecommuting system. PRESIDENT: I know, but the managers and I aren't rushing into this or being mean. We really did consider a bunch of different options at the meeting and tried to think if there was any possible way to make it all work. It really is a matter of having taken on way too many new things too quickly. We want to make staff happy, but the good of the company comes first. At least there's something we can all agree on-that it's really important to review new programs and make any decisions about whether they're working or not based on what's good for the company-not just their personal lives. And anyway, we did give it the whole three month trial; you win some, you lose some I guess. YOU: The staff will definitely agree that having a review of the new programs is important and that any new program really needs to be good for the company. Obviously, they want the company to do really well. They just won't like it that telecommuting didn't survive the review. If the issue is that people aren't following the rules, isn't the solution then to simply remind everyone of the rules? PRESIDENT: I thought about that, but there's another reason telecommuting won't work, and it's a very serious reason. As part of the program review, we had the tech guys check how telecommuting is working for home-to-work online connections and sharing data and all that. Horrifyingly, they found out that telecommuting is actually a huge security risk for us now. It turns out a lot of our staff have pretty bad internet security. It would take a bunch of time and money to really make sure everything is secure. We have absolutely got to make sure data isn't leaking. We've had a huge increase in international clients lately, which is great, but the last thing we need is a data leak! So working from home simply isn't an option anymore. YOU: Too bad. It's going to be a real disappointment for staff. PRESIDENT: Well, even though we have to get rid of the telecommuting program for now, we can definitely start planning ways to make it work in the future-it just will take a whole lot more planning than we thought. So it's not gone forever! And, of course, another piece of good news is that the unlimited sick days and flextime programs are going great. YOU: Well at least there's good news to offer, that we're going to start working and planning to make telecommuting work in the future, and the other two programs are staying. I'm assuming you want me to break the news to the staff? PRESIDENT: Yes please! You're good at that kind of thing-giving bad news in a way that people will accept and still feel good about the company and not protest or complain. Make sure you explain about the professionalism problems as well as the security issues-if we bring back telecommuting in future, they'll need to know about the issues we've had, like with videoconferencing from home. So you'll need to figure out how to tell them (nicely) about the performance issues with telecommuting. Writing Advice Write the email to all staff, telling them the telecommuting program is cancelled. A few reminders: Don't copy phrases/sentences-the wording above is often casualegative. COPYING LONG PHRASES/SENTENCES FROM THE CASE IN NEXT WEEK'S ASSIGNMENT CANNOT PASS. Be very tactful about the problems that happened with telecommuting-don't use negative, blaming language or inappropriate specific examples of what staff did wrong. Choose wording that lets you make the issues/problems clear in a neutral/professional way. Choose the most appropriate buffer technique(s) for the situation, and follow the 5-part indirect pattern to organize your message. Use the attached checklist to plan, draft, and revise your message. Don't forget to provide an indirect subject line. Remember the five goals of negative news: clarity, acceptance, positive image, legal protection, and closure