A Good Way to Give Bad News?

A business eliminating or transferring jobs is not surprising in these weak economic times.  But intimate apparel giant Victoria’s Secret raised eyebrows recently—not because it transferred 470 jobs from Columbus, Ohio, to two other states but because of the way it gave employees the news.

According to The Columbus Dispatch online (08/23/01), employees were taking orders at the company’s telephone center when the lines suddenly went dead.  The employees were then summoned to a meeting and told the center had closed.  The article notes that employees also received a letter at the meeting stating “the last day you will report to the Columbus Call Center is today.”

Giving bad news is never easy, and few people want to give bad news if they can help it.  Still, most people prefer tact when receiving bad news—especially when that bad news is that their jobs are about to be negatively affected.

Remember that when giving bad news, you have both primary and secondary purposes:

Primary Purposes:

·      To give the reader the bad news.

·      To have the reader read, understand, and accept the message.

·      To maintain as much goodwill as possible.

Secondary Purposes:

·      To build a good image of the writer.

·      To build a good image of the writer's organ­ization.

·      To reduce or eliminate future correspondence on the same subject so the mes­sage doesn't create more work for the writer.

To maintain goodwill, consider how you give the message, as well as the actual words you use.

For more information on giving bad news, see Module 11.