Ten years ago, you started working as a clerk for DMD Medical Supplies. Six months ago, Liz Jakowski, the human resources director, promoted you to office manager. You manage two employees: Jack Snyder and Ruth Disselkoen. Your office provides secretarial support for the four members of the executive team. Two years ago, Liz had assigned Jack to support Ralph Alane and Jessica Hilo. Ruth was assigned to Samuel Daley and Frank Daley. The work flow was equally balanced. You’ve noticed that in the last three months Ruth has cut her breaks short to complete her work, complains of being tired, and at least twice a month requires overtime hours costing the company an additional $200 a month. In the last three weeks, Frank Daley has complained to you a few times about the poor quality of Ruth’s work. On the other hand, over the last three months, Jack frequently seems to have little to do. He has begun coming in late a couple times a week and taking more than the allotted break times. What work he does have, however, is always professionally completed. Clearly, you must investigate to determine what is causing this change and how to improve the situation. Since nothing has changed in the personal lives of either Jack or Ruth, you conclude you must focus on the in-office work situation. You learn the following facts: • Samuel and Frank Daley share a part-time administrative assistant who works only 15 hours a week. • Ralph Alane and Jessica Hilo share a full-time administrative assistant. • Jessica Hilo has been on medical leave for the last four months, and Liz Jakowski isn’t sure whether Jessica will be able to return to work. • Jessica’s duties have been temporarily reassigned to Ralph and Frank. Although you don’t have the authority to change who Jack and Ruth are assigned to work for, you clearly need to change the work the two do so that both Jack and Ruth work regularly without requiring overtime. 1. The background explains the primary cause of the workflow problem and the negative effects resulting from it. Your task is to make up a realistic plan which solves the uneven productivity between Jack and Ruth. Use prewriting tools like brainstorming, cluster or webbing diagrams, and freewriting to outline the cause-effect situation and to develop a specific solution that best solves the problem. Also ask yourself the following questions to expand your prewriting. 2. From your prewriting, develop the single best solution to the situation described in the background. Obviously, you won’t be able to use everything you’ve prewritten, so your first step is to choose what’s most important for the purpose and audience. As you outline a solution, you may need to make up more specific details that define the steps of the plan and describe particular benefits of the plan. 3. Next, sort your details and information about the problem and the plan into one of the two sections given below. Don’t worry about complete sentences for this sorting stage; merely list the information under the appropriate section. Use information from both the background and your prewriting. Section 1 • Facts and figures that define the problem (the cause) • Details that show the impact of the problem (effects) on Jack, Ruth, and the company Section 2 • The steps needed to change the situation • Reason to implement each step, including the benefits to your employees, your supervisor, and the company • Information about your role in the change