Your Own Trash (L

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Your Own Trash (L.O. 4Understand interpersonal persuasion at work, and write persuasive messages within organizations.) 

 In offices across the country, employees are being asked to empty their own desk trash cans instead of having custodial staff empty them. Sure, it sounds like a small thing, but it could make a big difference in custodial fees. "One of the really labor-intensive parts of custodial work is walking to people's desks and emptying the trash," said Dana Williams, director of facilities for a commission that manages buildings for more than 100 state agencies in Texas. Having employees empty their own waste baskets is expected to save at least $825,000 annually in labor costs in Texas. In addition to saving money, employees who empty their own trash cans could become more conscious of recycling. At the University of Washington, employees have been emptying their own trash cans for over a decade. The program was started as part of an environmental initiative, but now it is recognized as a money saver. Gene Woodard, the director of building services at the university, admitted that the program was not always enthusiastically welcomed. He said that some employees complained about "stinky trash cans they forgot to empty before a vacation." He noted, however, that such mistakes were made only once. Dartmouth College recently launched a similar program as part of a sustainability initiative. Psychology professor Catherine Cramer said that she already was recycling nearly all the targeted items. "The only real change will be that I am expected to haul it to some central place myself instead of having custodial staff pick it up. The real goals here, however prettily wrapped in sustainability rhetoric, are rather obvious," she wrote on a university website. Professor Cramer questioned the economics of transferring work from the school's lowest-paid workers to higher-paid employees. "While I am certainly not above emptying my own trash," she said, "it's less clear to me that it's a good use of my professional time, especially to make the frequent trips necessitated by a tiny bucket." In the private sector, companies are also saving money and enhancing recycling by having employees handle their own trash cans. Brewer Science, a semiconductor supplier in Missouri, has had some employees empty their trash cans for many years. Its custodial staff is now a quarter of its original size, and its costs for hauling waste remained the same even as the company doubled in size. The Business Division at your university has been singled out for a pilot program to determine whether the entire campus will implement a trash-can-emptying program. The primary goal is saving money in the midst of campus-wide budget cuts of 25 percent in every division. The busy dean of the Business Division asks you, his executive assistant, to draft a message for him. He knows that he could simply announce a new trash mandate and demand that faculty members comply. However, he wants to persuade them to buy in to this program so that they comply willingly. He also would like to see his division cited as an example for the entire university.

Your Task For the signature of Dean Michael Ravera, draft a persuasive e-mail addressed to Business Division faculty members. Ask them to begin emptying their own desk trash cans weekly into the large dumpsters in the basement. Supply additional plausible details to enhance this persuasive message.