Short Paper: Bad News Memo
You have just been promoted to a mid-level manager at a Fortune 500 company. This promotion was a surprise, but your boss decided to leave the company and you were promoted to lead the most profitable division in the company.
This is your first week in this position, and you are taking part in a high-level meeting about the financial state of the company. Due to the poor state of the economy, which has caused sluggish sales, upper management has decided to downsize the entire company by dismissing 3% of employees in every division.
Write an appropriate memo to all of the team leaders in your division giving them the bad news.
• All downsized employees will receive three months' severance pay.
• COBRA will be available, so health insurance can be continued for up to 1 year. It costs $740/month.
• Employment counseling will be available, so employees can update their resume, get help searching for jobs, and get help finding retraining/college programs.
Defend your promotion in the memo since you used to be a team leader and know the question will be asked.
Guidelines for Submission: Memo assignments should use standard memo format: a heading segment, single-spacing, left-alignment of text without paragraph indentations, 12-point Times New Roman font and one-inch margins. Your short paper should not be more than one page in length.