Amy came out of her boss’ office; fingers shaking, pulse racing. She had only been on the job for a week and her vice president had just asked her to write a memo. Secretarial school had taught her the proper format of a letter, but no one had ever taught her how to write an announcement telling the whole company that a senior manager had been fired. What if she does it wrong? Her boss had not been much help; in fact he appeared embarrassed to talk about it with her.
It was after 5:30 pm, the office was as quiet and as cold as a tomb. She jumped when the printer whined. The office witch –crooked fingers, hunched back, thick spectacles and frowning face– shuffled stealth-like towards the machine. Amy shivered again as the hag eyed her.
Olga sniffed. “Working late are we.”Amy stammered, “Yes, Dr. Soon asked me to write a memo for him.”
“Well, you best go and do it now.”
Amy hesitated. She needed help but she was scared of Olga. This was her first job and she wanted so badly to succeed but Olga was rumoured to have a mean temper. On the other hand, she was inexperienced and Olga had been with the company for so long her employee number was a single digit. The secretary cleared her throat.
Olga turned, just enough to see Amy from the corner of her eye. “Did he dictate the memo to you?”“No, he did not. He said it would be good for me to learn to do things by myself.”
“What is the memo about?”
“It’s to inform the company that Mr. Wong had been fired.”
“And he asked you to do it on your own!” Olga’s eyebrow rose with her voice.
“Yes.”
Crooked fingers picked up papers from the printer as the head above it shook and mumbled incantation-like words. Then Olga turned to Amy and said, “Come with me.”
The young secretary trailed behind her like a wary, stray puppy being offered a meal by a stranger.
Announcement Memo Concerning Employees
First Olga told her to collect as much information as she could about the subject matter.
Information required
Office doing the announcement
Name: Soon Le Mah, Dr.
Designation: Vice President
Department: Sales and Supply Chain Management
The person leaving the company
Name: Wong Tsu Koo, Mr.
Designation: Senior Manager
Department: Procurement and Logistics Reason: Discharged with immediate effect.
The person taking over
Name 1: Prunella Ding, Ms.
Designation: Procurement Manager Section: Procurement
Name 2: John Deer, Mr. Designation: Logistics Officer Section: Logistics
Effect on Organization: Ding and Deer report directly to VP SoonIn-House Memo
Ref: Memo/030107-01
Date: 3 January 2007
From: Dr. Soon Le Mah, Vice President of Sales and Supply Chain Management
Fellow Colleagues,
Re: Organization Announcement
It is with regret I announce that Mr. Wong Tsu Koo, Senior Manager of the Procurement and Logistics Department, will be leaving this company. I wish to use this opportunity to thank him for his past contributions and to wish him all the best in his future undertakings.
With immediate effect Ms. Prunella Ding, the Procurement Manager and Mr. John Deer, the Logistics Officer will take over duties handled by Mr. Wong within their own sections until further notice. Both persons shall report to me directly. Your cooperation in assisting Ms. Ding and Mr. Deer in the performance of their new responsibilities will be appreciated by the company.
Please contact either my office or the Human Resource Department for further clarification if you are unclear with regard to your role under this new arrangement.Best Regards,
……………… Dr. Soon Le Mah
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Amy re-read the memo and looked up with a frown. “I don’t understand. Why don’t you add in the fact that he had been fired?”
“Some things are best not put in writing because Mr. Wong can sue the company for tainting his character.”
“Will he do that?”
“We don’t know, but any form of scandal can ruin the image of the corporation. Even if Mr. Wong was a dubious man, though I suspect it was more of a disagreement in management styles, the general public will lean more towards the individual than to a corporation.”
“But what if he really did something wrong?”
“Then he should be in jail. In fact, if we insist that he was wrong and we don’t charge him personally, the shareholders are going to wonder if we have swept anything else under the carpet with their money.”
Amy broke into a sweat: What! You can get into that much trouble from a single memo?Again Olga spoke, “It is best to keep such information quiet. Those who need to know will have known about it already. You only need to tell people what is changing and how it will affect them. Anything more can get you into trouble. Also make sure that you have a reference number, and make absolutely sure that you never duplicate them.” She added as an afterthought. “Remind Dr. Soon to write to all the vendors, suppliers or other people who deal with Mr. Wong. Use a letterhead with the company address.”
“Do I write the same things in there?”Olga cackled then shook her head at the puzzled look on Amy’s face. She started typing again.
Announcement to 3rd party
Ref: Announcement/030107-01
Date: 3 January 2007
From: Dr. Soon Le Mah
Vice President of Sales and Supply Chain Management
Direct Line: +60-xxx-xxx
Direct Fax: +60-xxx-xxx
Email: Soon@here.com
Dear Vendor/ Supplier/ Customer/ Bank etc,
Re: Organization Announcement
It is with regret I announce that Mr. Wong Tsu Koo, Senior Manager of the Procurement and Logistics Department, will be leaving this company. With immediate effect, he will no longer be representing Here_And_Now Inc. on any form of transactions.
Matters on Procurement will be managed by our Procurement Manager, Ms. Prunella Ding, while Logistics will be handled by our Logistics Officer, Mr. John Deer. We apologize for the inconvenience caused to your organization. Your cooperation in assisting Ms. Ding and Mr. Deer in the performance of their new duties will be appreciated by Here_And_Now Inc.
Feel free to contact my office for further clarification.Yours truly,
……………… Dr. Soon Le Mah
NOTE: If you have typed out the designation at the front of the letter, it is not necessary to repeat it here.
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Amy beamed and thanked her. She took both copies to Dr. Soon for his approval. The worry lines on his face cleared when he read them. Amy went home at 8:00 that night; the hag’s computer was still running rows of data, but Olga was no where in sight.