Scenario: You are a manager with 15 direct employees. Your company recently started an “Adopt-A-Cause” initiative, and has tasked you and your team with choosing a good cause to support. Twice a year, you solicit proposals from your employees about what program/cause/project your company should support. You have recently received applications from the following people about their proposed initiatives:
Sarah Johnson: Operation Catnip (helping find homes and provide safe environments for feral cats, many who surround your office campus)
Staci Aberdeen: Habitat for Humanity (building homes in the community for the less fortunate)
Kristina McDonald: Read for Kids (adopting a kindergarten to read with once a month)
Mike Kaplan: St. Francis House (feeding the homeless)
Raquel Sanchez: Clean Water for Florida (monthly river/lake cleanup)
Your company has decided that for this July-December, the company will partner with Habitat for Humanity.
Your job: Choose one of the other four people/causes other than Staci Aberdeen/Habitat for Humanity. Then write a bad news email to that employee (from yourself) that explains the context, rationale, bad news, and alternative compromise. Your goal is to maintain employee morale while delivering the bad news, so goodwill will be essential in your conclusion.
Things to Remember:
1. Email format
2. Bad News Strategy (sandwich it!)
3. ROAM table (include on a separate page before your document using this template); your employees are very passionate about their causes. Make sure you show concern as well as confidence in your decision.
4. No mention of bad news in the intro or conclusion (don’t apologize!)
5. As always, feel free to name your own company and establish a company mission. In fact, doing so will help you write a clearer, more informative message.