Giving difficult news – answers

By Berni | October 16, 2011

Headings:

Signal you need a private conversation

  • Can I have a moment?
  • Have you got a minute?
  • Can I have a word?

Introduce the topic

  • I’m afraid…
  • The decision has been made….
  • I’ve asked to speak with you today because…….
  • It has come to our attention that ….
  • I’m not sure how to say this so I’ll get straight to the point.
  • I wanted to tell you this myself as I feel we have a good relationship.
  • I’m sorry to have to tell you this but….

Offer help

  • If you need to talk, my door is always open.
  • Take some time to think about this and then we’ll speak again.
  • I understand that you’ll need to think this over.

Avoid saying if possible

  • Is that OK?
  • I know how you feel
  • I know it is difficult to see now, but you’ll get over it.

Which of these phrases would you use in:

  • a disciplinary situation

    It has come to our attention that ….

    I’ve asked to speak with you today because…….

  • a redundancy situation

    I’m sorry to have to tell you this but….

    The decision has been made….

These are not exclusive to these situations and could be used in other scenarios but they seem to fit well here

Which of these are in the passive voice – why do you think this is?

  • It has come to our attention that ….
  • The decision has been made….

The passive voice is often used in difficult situations to remove ‘blame’ from the person who is delivering the bad news and therefore avoiding direct conflict. We often use the passive in letters of complaint for the same reason.

Exercise 2 – now listen to short one-sided conversation in the panel above:

Posted in Vocabulary