Page 47 - The Voice of Authority

sified records during the drilling to hide the fact that they
were drilling behind the specified contract deviation—27°
deviation from vertical. That’s why no one could figure it
out for 15 years and why it cost us so much money through
the years to drill extra wells to study the situation. Some-
body made a mistake, and nobody wanted to give the bad
news.”
Often, the shoe is on the leader’s foot. If the news is a
layoff, the executive may not want to disappoint or anger
others. So he or she says as little as possible, as late as pos-
sible.
According to a recent study done by The International
Association of Business Communicators, only 37 percent
of companies actually use face-to-face meetings to deliver
bad news. Their typical modus operandi? E-mail and let-
ters carry the bad news most often—40 percent of the
time. (See Figure 2.1.)
Some justify the method as efficient and fast. Others
aren’t so kind about the motive for the method.

Figure 2.1

“I Have Bad News—Sit Down”

E-mail 28%
Face-to-face meetings with supervisors 19%
Face-to-face meetings with senior leaders 18%
Formal letter/memo from executives 12%
Employee Web site 8%

Tele- or videoconference 6%
Newsletter 4%
Only 37 percent of organizations give bad news face to face.
Source: International Association of Business Communicators

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