The HR department acts as an internal service provider, helping various divisions throughout the company with hiring, benefits, training, and other employment functions. An HR rep is assigned to each division, working with the managers and employees in that division, but reporting to HR executives in the corporate office. As in all other professional relationships, personal aspects can enter the relationship. Even competent professionals can start to rub each other the wrong way at a personal level, which can corrode the business relationship over time. Unfortunately, that has happened with one of your best staff members. Shirley Jackson is widely admired for her HR skills, but the general manager of the division where she is assigned has asked you to replace her with a new HR representative. Although you'd prefer to tell Jackson in person, schedule conflicts dictate that you send her an e-mail. Which of these buffers would be the best way to open the message?
a. Your work for the St. Louis Division continues to be first rate, but you never can tell how these things are going to work out, can you?
b. If it were up to me, Shirley, I would never deliver a message like this, but the St. Louis Division has asked me to re-evaluate the HR staffing assignments.
c. As I've expressed on many occasions, thank you once again for the top-quality work you've done for the St. Louis Division over the years.
d. As you know, Shirley, I continually evaluate the HR staffing assignments to make sure the various divisions are satisfied with the quality of our work and the overall nature of our relationship with them.