8.3.1 Direct Approach
A direct approach offers the bad news immediately. You may want to use a direct approach if you feel it is the clearest way to communicate bad news to a large audience, and to cut down on possible misinterpretations.
You may want to use a direct approach if
- as a supervisor, you need to correct an employee’s behavior.
- you know that your audience is prepared for it and expecting the communication.
- the situation is minor and routine.
- you need to curtail communication with a particular audience.
Examples
- Effective immediately, you may no longer make personal, non-work-related copies on office copy machines. Since paper costs have risen 25% in the last year, and we have been ordering 30% more paper, the company is consciously trying to reduce costs of unneeded copying to sustain current operations. We appreciate your compliance in supporting the good of all in this company
- Mr. Smith, you have been consistently over a half hour late to work for the last month. You are now under probation for the next month. If this situation persists, the next steps are salary reduction and then termination. If you have any questions or want to speak directly to inform me of extenuating circumstances, please feel free to connect.
- As you have heard, we will be losing the publications division and outsourcing our marketing publications as of April 15. Therefore, publications will not accept new projects after March 15.
- Darren, I will no longer be able to respond to your repeated suggestions for a change in process since, as you know, I have broached the subject multiple times and have been told that our processes are not slated to change soon.
Choosing a direct approach does not mean that you can simply say what you need to say without considering your language, tone, and overall effect on your audience. When you use a direct approach to giving bad news, you need to pay special attention to your language to get your audience to accept and understand the bad news without offending them.
This section is adapted from “Bad News” available at Communication for Professionals by Susan Oaks, licensed under CC BYNC: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International, unless otherwise noted.
