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Assignment #2 Memo to Field Manager

Instructions 

WRTG 394 students,

Please read the following scenario.  Then complete the writing assignment described below.

Green Wave Landscape Management

You are the operations manager for Green Wave Landscape Management, a provider of residential and commercial landscape maintenance. You have a substantial number of customers in your metropolitan area. Due to the increase of business in the summer, you must hire additional employees. This year, you hired six new employees.

Henry Stewart is your most valued customer because he is a prominent real estate agent and refers many of his clients to your company. He recently had his home’s trees and shrubs sprayed for insects by your company.

Yesterday you received the following letter from Mr. Stewart:

August 18, 2014

Dear Green Wave,

I have been a customer of yours for five years and have sent you innumerable customers. And you have the nerve to send over two bozos to spray my yard. Those two idiots have killed over $2,000 in prize fish. Additionally, they were rude. As you may or may not know, I raise expensive koi in my fishpond. Whenever your people spray my shrubs and trees, they have been asked to cover the pond. I assumed people in your profession would know how to do that without being told. Obviously, I was wrong.

I am terminating my service with Green Wave, effective today. I demand immediate restitution for my dead fish. If payment is not forthcoming, I will see you in court.

Sincerely,

Henry Stewart

In addition to the letter, you also discover that Mr. Stewart has posted scathing commentary on your blog. He has posted the same complaint and request for remuneration publicly. Now you have a public relations crisis.

During your investigation, you discover that Tom Harrelson, field manager in charge of assigning workers to the various job sites, sent two new workers to the Stewart residence. The accident at the Stewart residence probably occurred because these new workers were sent alone. Your company policy is to pair new and experienced employees on work assignments.

Using guidelines from your course text and from any discussions we have conducted in class, write a memo to the field manager, Tom Harrelson. In your memo, you will want to review what happened and mention any relevant company policies and procedures that might have prevented the problem. Keep in mind that you are not totally aware of why Mr. Harrelson sent two new workers to the Stewart residence. He may have been misinformed about their experience with the company.  There might have been a computer database error.  Perhaps the workers were at fault in misinforming him. 

Overall, you are not sure whether employees were at fault, whether Mr. Harrelson was at fault, or whether another problem within the company was the root of the occurrence. You do want Mr. Harrelson to convey necessary information to the workers, whoever was at fault.

Strategies to Consider for this Assignment:

For general information on formatting and organizing a memo, you might explore a wikibook on professional writing by clicking here.  The Purdue Owl also have excellent information on formatting a memo.  Click here to access its page.

Length: a length of 200-500 words should be sufficient in completing this memo. However, there is no solid minimum or maximum number of words required.  Your goal is to find out more information on how the situation occurred and to engage Mr. Harrelson on steps to take at this point.

Due Date: The first draft of this assignment is due June 1, 2015.

You will receive comments from me on this assignment.  You will submit a final draft of the assignment after receiving my comments on your first draft

During your investigation, you discover that Tom Harrelson, field manager in charge of assigning workers to the various job sites, sent two new workers to the Stewart residence. The accident at the Stewart residence probably occurred because these new workers were sent alone. Your company policy is to pair new and experienced employees on work assignments.

Using guidelines from your course text and from any discussions we have conducted in class, write a memo to the field manager, Tom Harrelson. In your memo, you will want to review what happened and mention any relevant company policies and procedures that might have prevented the problem. Keep in mind that you are not totally aware of why Mr. Harrelson sent two new workers to the Stewart residence. He may have been misinformed about their experience with the company.  There might have been a computer database error.  Perhaps the workers were at fault in misinforming him. 

Overall, you are not sure whether employees were at fault, whether Mr. Harrelson was at fault, or whether another problem within the company was the root of the occurrence. You do want Mr. Harrelson to convey necessary information to the workers, whoever was at fault.

Strategies to Consider for this Assignment:

Length: a length of 200-500 words should be sufficient in completing this memo. However, there is no solid minimum or maximum number of words required.  Your goal is to find out more information on how the situation occurred and to engage Mr. Harrelson on steps to take at this point.

The instructions for assignment #2, due next Monday, can be found at the bottom of the list of assignments for Week 2 under “Content.”  You are to write a memo to the field manager who handled the crew at Mr. Stewart’s house. 

In preparing this assignment, keep these guidelines in mind:

1.  Do not use negatives, words like “failure,” “violation,” “unacceptable.”

2.  Keep the tone friendly.  The recipient of the memo is a co-worker, the field manager.  If you write as if you are calling him on the carpet, it could result in resentment and defensiveness.

3.  Keep the style of the language conversational.  You should be on a first-name basis with him.  Do not write in an ultra-formal way.  This means no expressions like “It has come to my attention” or “As per the letter of….”  Write as if you are having a conversation with him.  He is someone you know.

4. Please keep paragraphs to 5 lines, no longer than that.  In a memo, you want lots of white space for visual appeal and ease of reading.

5.  You should have 3 paragraphs in the memo.  The first paragraph should present the situation and give an idea of what the memo is about.  The middle paragraph or paragraphs should give details.  The last paragraph should state what you want the field manager to do and when you want him to do it.  It is important that you give him a task to perform, an investigation of the incident to conduct, or an invitation to a meeting.  Then a date.

In addition, there are several discussion topics for the week and a Library Tutorial for you to do.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact me by clicking on the envelope-shaped icon at the top of the page and sending me a quick message.