Bad News Message

You may choose to use EITHER the “Was that Harassment” case study as your scenario, OR you can one of the following five scenarios to write your bad news message. 

1. Notify someone they are not accepted into your sorority, fraternity, club, team, etc. Use a realistic situation to explain why this person is not accepted. 
2. Pretend a group member in one of your classes has not been participating and you have decided to take action with the instructor to get the person removed from your group. 
3. Tell a classmate that you have decided not to invest in his/her start-up idea. 
4. Pretend you have interviewed someone at your job and management has decided not to hire them.
5. Use the case study in the text on pages 264 – 265. Assume the role of Nick and write an email to your uncle explaining why you think the company needs to get out of chemicals. You think the chemicals division could be sold for around half a million dollars. You currently have about $740,000 in debt related to the chemicals division. You would need to lay off ten employees, all of whom have been loyal to the company for many years. However, you think it’s necessary because the chemical division lost nearly $200,000 last year, and you expect things to get worse.

If using the “Was that Harassment” case study, assume Teaira has moved forward with a complaint. After meeting with Coltra leadership, compliance representatives, and legal counsel, you have determined this incident constituted harassment.

Writing as Suzanne Bibb (see 162 -3 of your Case) and address your Bad News Message to Jackson. While maintaining Teaira’s confidentiality, inform Jackson of the disciplinary measures you are taking. Use your discretion in determining Jackson’s punishment. You can:

• Immediately terminate
• Require enrollment in training courses, with continued employment conditional on prompt attendance
• Issue a warning, outlining the harassment warranting your letter, and your expectations moving forward, describing ramifications for continued violations
• Reassign to another work group, department, or branch
• Suspend, with or without pay