Breakroom E-Mails

Paper details:

There are two parts to this assignment: body text of two e-mails responding to a management situation and a short reflective essay. PART 1 You are the manager of a team consisting of 20 people in a medium-sized enterprise. Your office area is in one quadrant of an entire floor in the office building, which means you also have your own break room that consists of a sink, a refrigerator, vending machines, coffee maker (with creamer and sugar), cabinets, tables, and good-sized trash cans. THE SITUATION: Several times you have noticed that the break room is left in a mess (spilled coffee not wiped up, cutlery and plastic dishes left in the sink, trash left on the tables, old food in the refrigerator), and sometimes the coffee pot is left on with only a small amount of coffee in it – and more than once it has burned the pot (plus it’s not kept very clean). More than once you’ve had unannounced visits from upper management, and while your team does excellent work, you’ve been embarrassed by the condition of the breakroom. So as the manager, you need to take action to make sure things are kept neat and tidy. THE ASSIGNMENT: You will address this issue by composing the text for two e-mails. The first e-mail should bring the issue to the members of the team. In the second, the team still hasn’t taken action and the breakroom is still a mess. What do you do? Firing all of your team is not an option, neither is suspending anyone, nor is closing the breakroom or shutting off the vending macnines. In short, disciplinary action is not what’s needed. As you compose the text of the e-mails, remember that you must be goal-oriented (instrumental, relationship, and identity goals), and remember your audience (receiver-centric). Remember to be professional, concise, clear, evidence-driven, and, overall, persuasive. PART 2 In a short, reflective essay, describe how you completed the assignment. How did you use the three types of goals when you wrote the text of the e-mails? What choices did you make? Describe how you considered your audience when you wrote them. Also, note any questions you have about goals and audience. THE DELIVERABLE: Compose the text in a Word document, one page per e-mail, then an additional page for the reflective essay (three pages total). Include an attention-getting subject line at the top of each the page for the e-mails. Remember, you are writing only the text of the e-mails.