Breaking Bad News: Final assignment
Caroline Barbier (2623538), Group 26
Chapter 1: Breaking bad news
This was an online roleplay conversation where I played the role of Jimmy, a digital
marketing specialist at the Haka Haka Resort who will have to supervise the intern Tessa.
Unfortunately, due to an HR-manager absence, the working VISA of Tessa has not been
applied and Tessa is thus now unable to complete her internship at the resort. My role was to
break the bad news to her. The conversation can be found on YouTube
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdQERO_BLZE).
The conversation was divided into three phases. The first one was that I had to deliver
bad news immediately. I did that by first asking how Tessa was doing and thanked her for
being able to call. I then used the phrase “Listen. I am afraid that I have unpleasant news for
you. It is unfortunately not possible for you to start your internship at the Haka Haka Resort.”
At the end of this sentence, I said that I understood that it was bad news for her and that we
were saddened that a mistake with her VISA happened. I moved on to the second phase where
I received her reactions. I dealt with this phase by giving her time to react and listening
carefully. I also reflected on her feelings a lot by saying, for example,” I understand that you
are really disappointed”. I also explained more in detail what the mistake was and how it
happened. Finally, I moved on to the last phase, which was looking at solutions when she said
that she did not know what to do. She did not have another option so we looked together if
she could delay her internship and I said that I was going to ask around if there were other
internship vacancies at resorts in the region. I, of course, said that the VISA might still be a
problem. I also summarized all the options we have found together and excused the resort
again for the mistake.
My learning goals for this conversation were silence and reflecting on emotions. I
chose the first one as it is important in the second phase to give space to the conversational
partner to react and let their emotions out. I also chose reflecting on emotions as I have
mentioned in earlier assignments that I still had some difficulties with this skill.
Chapter 2: Observations
My first learning goal was silence. I used silence the first time when I had delivered
the bad news. I then used it again after I had motivated the bad news clearly. After Tessa told
me that she had already arranged a place to live for her stay and said that she was really upset,
Caroline Barbier (2623538), Group 26
Chapter 1: Breaking bad news
This was an online roleplay conversation where I played the role of Jimmy, a digital
marketing specialist at the Haka Haka Resort who will have to supervise the intern Tessa.
Unfortunately, due to an HR-manager absence, the working VISA of Tessa has not been
applied and Tessa is thus now unable to complete her internship at the resort. My role was to
break the bad news to her. The conversation can be found on YouTube
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdQERO_BLZE).
The conversation was divided into three phases. The first one was that I had to deliver
bad news immediately. I did that by first asking how Tessa was doing and thanked her for
being able to call. I then used the phrase “Listen. I am afraid that I have unpleasant news for
you. It is unfortunately not possible for you to start your internship at the Haka Haka Resort.”
At the end of this sentence, I said that I understood that it was bad news for her and that we
were saddened that a mistake with her VISA happened. I moved on to the second phase where
I received her reactions. I dealt with this phase by giving her time to react and listening
carefully. I also reflected on her feelings a lot by saying, for example,” I understand that you
are really disappointed”. I also explained more in detail what the mistake was and how it
happened. Finally, I moved on to the last phase, which was looking at solutions when she said
that she did not know what to do. She did not have another option so we looked together if
she could delay her internship and I said that I was going to ask around if there were other
internship vacancies at resorts in the region. I, of course, said that the VISA might still be a
problem. I also summarized all the options we have found together and excused the resort
again for the mistake.
My learning goals for this conversation were silence and reflecting on emotions. I
chose the first one as it is important in the second phase to give space to the conversational
partner to react and let their emotions out. I also chose reflecting on emotions as I have
mentioned in earlier assignments that I still had some difficulties with this skill.
Chapter 2: Observations
My first learning goal was silence. I used silence the first time when I had delivered
the bad news. I then used it again after I had motivated the bad news clearly. After Tessa told
me that she had already arranged a place to live for her stay and said that she was really upset,
