"Listening" Please respond to the following:

• The CEO of the company you work for just announced that 20 people were terminated due to budget cuts. You find out that one of those people is your co-worker, Kathy, that you have had lunch with every week for 10 years straight. She comes to you to share how she’s feeling, and for advice on what her next steps will be.
• What type of listener would you plan to be and why? Choose one of the following, and provide an explanation of your choice:
  • People-Oriented (A friend willing to lend an ear)
  • Action-Oriented (Can grow frustrated with a disorganized speaker)
  • Content-Oriented (Soaks up many perspectives on an issue)
  • Time-Oriented (More concerned about time than the content of the message)

Respond to:

In this situation I think I would be a people-orientated listener. My reason for this is because Kathy has been my co-worker and we are close enough to have lunch every day for 10 years, budget cut lay offs are very difficult. It's not as if she was let go or fired for poor performance or behavioral problems there just simply isn't enough budget for salary. This is an emotional situation, you give you all to a company you have longevity with, its going to be a process to fully understand what this is going to mean for her. She's probably wondering why her, why was she laid off and not someone else, she's going to have questions that I could not answer. I would listening to her feelings and how she is taking the situation and in the process of her speaking she can express where she is at and then together we could discuss what is next for her.