Your newspaper ran an article on the front page of the business section featuring a local business that provides employees with unlimited vacation days. Now your Employees Council has come to you requesting the same perk. They say they are all responsible adults who would see that their work is covered, and note that it would be an excellent recruitment tool for top-notch people (and you are the owner of an expanding company). You promised to consider their request carefully, and you have.

Now you owe them an answer. Write an e-mail to send to all your employees telling them you will not be offering that perk. When writing, consider these questions:

■ Is your audience uniform? Do all your employees think unlimited vacation is a good idea?

■ How should you organize your e-mail?

■ Where can you use positive tone and you-attitude in your e-mail?

■ What explanation will you give?

■ How will the size of your company affect your explanation (20 employees might need different reasons than 100 employees)?

■ Is there an alternative you can propose?