Section B Group 2

Abin Dominic, Krittibas Majumdar

Kushagr Aggarwal, Manjeet
Paras Bhagoria, Subhadeep Bhattacharyya
Sourav Sharma

Assignment 2
Difficult Conversations

In the TV series The Office (Britain), Season 2 Episode 6, there is a scene where the regional
manager is being laid off and he, inherently being a happy go lucky kind of a person, requests to
his superiors to not let go of him.

David Brent works as the General Manager for a paper dealing firm which goes by the name
Wernham-Hogg paper merchants . He is a happy go lucky kind of guy who believes that making
the office a fun place to work in encourages the employees to work harder and gets the best out
of them. After working for 14 years in the company, first as a Salesman, then being promoted to
head of sales departments and finally now as the General Manager. Now, as the head of the
office, he tries to be a friend of his subordinates first, mentor second and probably an entertainer
third. David has a tendency to promote himself as an intelligent and politically correct man, but
often demonstrates an unwittingly offensive attitude towards ethnic minorities, disabled people
and women. Similarly, while wanting to be regarded by his staff as "A friend first, and a boss
second, probably an entertainer third", he displays a chronic lack of awareness and regard for
others' feelings. In addition to this, the branch was slogging and was not able to deliver the
targets that were set by the Corporate for them. After multiple warnings and complaints by the
HR, when David still does not change his attitude or brings about a change in the strategy used
by the office, the Corporate decides to let go off him and hire a better, more educated and a
more experienced person. Below is the conversation between David’s superiors Neil, newly
relocated boss of David and Jennifer, UK Manager where David is approached with the final
redundancy offer which he is unwilling to accept and tries to negotiate with the Corporate to let
him keep his job.

Neil: You all right, David?

David: Fine. You?

Neil: Yup.

David: Good. Small talk done.

Neil: Thanks very much. Everyone really appreciates what you've done.
David: Yeah?

Neil: OK. Down to business. That's what we've come up with as a redundancy offer.

David: Yup. More than I expected.

Neil: We've been quite generous.

Neil: You can leave on the third with your holiday, I understand, which is a Tuesday. Did you
want to come back for a party on the Friday or leave on the Friday before?

David: Whatever.

Neil: OK. Well, again, thanks very much, David.

David: Don't make me redundant. Please.

Neil: Look, David...

David: I don't want redundancy. I haven't signed anything. So...

Neil: David, unfortunately, it's not up to you.

David: All right, then. Well, I'm asking. OK? Please don't make me redundant. You can talk to
someone, Jenny.

Jennifer: The wheels are already in motion.

David: Stop them.

Neil: We're not going to discuss this now.

David: Say it's not definite before you go. I will try twice as hard. I know I've been complacent. I'll
turn this place around if you say it's not definite now and then we can…You're not going until...
Starting from now.

Followed be awkward silence.

Subject of Analysis: Neil and Jennifer

Non-Verbal Cues:
 1. The proxemics: As soon as the boss and his co-associate enter David’s (employee)
room, they place themselves exactly opposite to David. The entire placement of the
characters denotes a situation similar to that of an interrogation. The Boss and his
companion are placed on one side of the table and the Employee on the other side of
the table.
2. Body Language: Initially when the boss entered the room, his expressions were neutral.
The boss could understand that the employee had accepted what was about to come.
Hence, he initially did not show any sense of compassion. This was followed by the boss
handing over the redundancy letter to the employee. But as soon as the employee
started pleading for retracting of the redundancy letter, the expression of the boss turned
from neutral to surprised and then to compassion. Throughout the difficult conversation
the boss maintained eye contact.
3. Haptics: As soon as the boss handed over the redundancy letter to the employee, he
followed it up with a handshake. This was done to make the employee feel comfortable
so that they could part on good terms. It was also a way of respecting the employee for
all his contributions.
4. Paralinguistic: The boss maintains a neutral tone in the beginning, signifying the fact
that he was of the impression that the employee was ok with the decision of him being
axed. As soon as the employee started pleading for the decision to be retracted, his tone
became sympathetic. The scene ended with a very long pause signifying that the boss
did not want to negotiate at all but yet at the same time wanted to empathize with the
situation.

Verbal Cues:

1. The scene starts with the boss asking a rapport-building question “You all right David?”.
This is done to set the tone for the next tough conversation to come. It also eases the
employee to some extent as he, being aware of his impending doom, gets a sense of
empathy from the boss’s side.
2. The boss then follows up his rapport building question with a consolation statement
when he says: “Everyone really appreciates what you've done.”. This was again done to
sandwich the difficult unpleasant message between such pleasantries.
3. The boss is also very articulative as he communicates all the important information
regarding the employee’s removal to the employee in a crisp and understandable
manner.

Subject of Analysis: David

David was relaxed initially during the conversation as if had come for a casual conversation. He
had no idea that he was going to get fired. He had kept the eye contact till the boss handed over
the redundancy letter. He tried to be cool even after he got the redundancy letter by making a
sarcastic comment by saying its actually more than what he had expected. This attitude of
David in the initial phase of the conversation made the process easy for the boss as he
suggested the days on which David could leave the office. This conversation became difficult
when David started pleading for his job.

Non-Verbal Cues:

1. Body Language: David was sitting back relaxed on the chair which shows his casual
attitude. He leaned forward when he started pleading for his job which shows the
importance of this job and his anxiety and nervousness. He wanted the boss to take
back his decision. He was not keeping eye contact once the Boss handed over the
redundancy letter. His facial expressions changed and he became more serious after
that.
2. Haptics: when the boss gave him a handshake, he holds his hands a little longer and
pleaded for his job. This shows his helplessness in this situation. He was sorry for what
he had done which led to his termination and he wanted the boss to understand that he
is ready to change
3. Paralinguistic: David’s tone changed as he pleaded for his job. His voice was trembling
and there were pauses in between. There was a long silence at the end of the
conversation.

Verbal Cues:
1. When the boss gave him the redundancy letter he says “it’s more than what I expected”.
He wanted to show that he is cool with their decision. this shows that he is a happy go
kind of guy. But this attitude of his changed once he understood the seriousness of this
decision.
2. He gives stress on the word “please” while begging for his job. He wanted the boss to
empathize and change their decision on firing him.

Tactics used for Negotiation

1. Firstly, he tried to defend his position by saying that he has not signed anything in the sense
that he cannot be fired without his consent. But he changed his tactics when the boss said
that it is not up to him to decide.

2. He promised to work twice as hard and try to be not complacent as he was before and kept
eye contact while saying this which shows that he was sure and confident about what he
was saying

3. He tried to find alternate solutions by asking Jennifer if she could talk to anyone. Since
Jennifer was associated with him for a longer period of time, he found a familiar face in
Jennifer, which is evident from David calling Jennifer “Jenny”, and hence requested her.
 When she replied that the wheels are already in motion, he asks to stop them hoping that
this decision can still be changed.

The tactics used were not effective as the company had already made the decision and
there was nothing much they could do. Both the parties, when realising that there was no way
out, observed silence.

The alternative approach for this difficult situation could be seen from both sides, David’s as
well as Neil’s and Jennifer’s.

What David could have done differently?

The method that he adopted to get his redundancy cancelled was to plead in the moment,
which didn’t come very handy as the Corporate had already made its minds and emotional or
sentimental statements were not enough to change it as they were expecting it to come. Rather
than this, he could have come up with some logical statements along with the emotions he
showed. For the logical points, he would need to look at the problem strategically.

His first should have been delaying his redundancy, the time which he could invest in
proving that he was capable of what was expected out of him. It would have given him some
time to change the circumstances which led him to this condition, and he could also prove his
mettle meanwhile. He should have started then, with providing the organisation better and
profitable terms and conditions, so the corporate thinks to change his stance. Since some of the
initial paperwork of his redundancy was already shared with him, which is evident from his
dialogue “I still haven’t signed anything” and Jennifer saying things are already in motion, he
could also come up with some concrete approach or road map for the promises he made as it
would have a psychological and logical impact on the Corporate to give David one more
chance.

What Neil and Jennifer could have done differently?

Since the cause of firing was performance issues along with David being inconsiderate of
others feelings and passing a lot of offensive remarks, Neil and Jennifer should have come up
with the necessary records of performance and the set of complaints registered against him.
When David asked him not to fire him, they should have given him facts about his performance
and its impact on overall performance of the company. He should have told him that he is not
productive and is simply not the right fit for the company.

The prospect of firing someone you’ve worked with for years — particularly someone you
know well and respect — is daunting, but the Manager must not let his personal agony delay the
process. When the bad outweighs the good and when the employee is causing more problems
than he or she is solving, it’s time for that employee to go. This is the best way forward in the
interest of the organization. The Corporate should also have created a trail of paperwork for
future reference.
 Also since Jennifer was associated with David for a long period of time and the Corporate
had already offered a more than expected severance package to David, she should’ve given
some support from her personal ground, for instance, writing a good reference which could be
useful for David for searching for a subsequent job.