ASSIGNMENT

3: Bad News Business Letter

OBJECTIVES
Correct formats for documents. Demonstrate that you know how to format and organize business
letters appropriately.
Correct strategies for documents. Deploy writing techniques for delivering negative news messages
requiring the thin sandwich approach, in addition to standard business writing techniques: context,
audience appropriate, clear and concise.

SCENARIO
Great Eats to the Beat Restaurants will be installing a software-based cooking system in all its
restaurants during the next month. Unlike sit-down bistros, GEBs new system is set into motion as a
customer approaches the counter, gives his or her name, and places an order. The cashier sends the
order electronically to the kitchen, and hands the customer a coaster. RFID strips beneath every table
pick up the signal from the coaster and send it back to the kitchen. Thats how the runnersomeone
other than the person who took the orderknows where the customer is sitting, what the customer
ordered, and the customers name.

Now that the order has gone into the kitchen, the new software-based cooking system kicks in. The new
system is smart enough to separate the elements of a customers order and send each of them to the
monitor that hangs above the relevant food-prep station. The flatbread maker sees flatbread orders; the
pantry chef, who makes all the salads and desserts, sees the salad order; the rtisseur at the broiler
stationyou get the picture. So everything everyone needs to cook shows up in a queue, and the chefs
each hit a plastic button beneath the screen to signal that they have begun. When they have finished,
they press a button that bumps the food order to the quarterback, who gathers the finished product
and puts it on a plate with all the other stuff the customer wants to eat.

For example, a customer orders our free-range chicken dish. Just as in a high-end kitchen, the risseur
cooks the chicken breast at a different spot from the one the lgumier uses to saut the vegetables. Of
course, the two elementsthe chicken and the vegetableshave different cooking times. However,
GEBs software is ready to sequence the timing. In the case of baked chicken and potatoes, the chicken
takes five minutes while the tubers take two. So the rtisseur receives the chicken order three minutes
before the potatoes order appears on the lgumiers screen. Both are finished at the same time and the
quarterback plates them together. Then the runner picks up the plate, heads to the customers table,
and says, Hi, Fred.

Taylor, our efficiency expert, stresses how the gamelike properties of this arrangement can create time
efficiencies, increase productivity and help motivate the crew, with the cooks and runners all able to see
how they are performing compared with everyone else. When you give them real-time data, Taylor
says, it can radically change their behavior. Therefore, senior management at GEB Restaurants counts
on gaining more efficient and motivated employees.

On the other hand, the software system lets managers keep score, update sales and track orders in real
time. Because of these features, you have noted that employees are grumbling about the possible
negative consequences of the new system. First, employees are worried that computerization allows
big brother to scrutinize their work habits constantly. Second, the employees feel they are already
performing well. Competing with each other will stifle their ability to build rapport with their customers,
GEB 5212

Dr. J. Ainsworth

which will hurt repeat business. Last, but not least, they are concerned that robots will take over their
jobs, which could lead to layoffs.

Source: http://www.wired.com/2012/07/ff_lyfekitchens/3/


TASK
1) In your teams, select one team member to record your brainstorming ideas during your meeting.
(Your recorder will need all teammates email addresses to send notes to after the meeting.)
2) In class, brainstorm with your teammates and discuss possible
ways of approaching the employees in your letter.
3) As a GEB restaurant manager, you must write a letter to all
Feel free to invent any details you
employees explaining that management is proceeding with the
would like to make your documents
installation as scheduled. Emphasize the positive aspects of
more realistic.
the new system. Then reassure the employees and allay their
fears and concerns about the consequences of the new
system.

Please bring a draft version of your letter to next class for peer review.
Save your document in Microsoft WORD, as yourlastname_badnewsletter.

Upload your document on Canvas to
Assignment 3: Bad News Letter.

FORMAT


Your letter will be in letter format, one page maximum. Use letter formatting on p. 128 of the textbook.

FORMATTING ALL DOCUMENTS FOR GEB5212
Page
Topic
74-81/82-
APA/MLA Citation for Articles in a
Word document
86
Journal
1-inch margins on all sides, 8.5 x 11 inch
165-166
Formatting titles
11- or 12-point businesslike font
181
Title page of report
Ragged right margin (left justified only)
215
Figure 7-14. Using Headings
Block formatting (no indented paragraphs)
214
Checklist: Using Headings
Single spaced, with an extra space between
222-223
Lists
paragraphs
128
Letter format
Paragraphs spacing before (0 pt.),
133-134
Memo format
after (0pt.)
397
Dates
Saved as yourlastname_assignmentname
403
Numbers

404
Percent vs. %


GEB 5212

Dr. J. Ainsworth