5. If you could rewrite the conversation between Bart and Sean, how would you revise it? What would you want to happen that isn’t happening? What is happening that you would not want to happen? In revising the conversation, think about ways in which Sean and Bart might use communication to build a good interpersonal climate and express emotions effectively. How might each man listen more actively and effectively? When you’ve watched the video online, critique and analyze this encounter based on the principles you learned Bart and Sean have been friends and coworkers at Capital Bank for 10 years.

They’ve been through a lot together, including Bart’s divorce and Sean’s wedding, where Bart was best man. They’ve kept each other informed about everyday office gossip.

Both felt their friendship was solid until Sean got promoted 2 months ago. The promotion made Sean Bart’s boss, though both of them try to minimize that. Now Bart feels that Sean doesn’t share information with him and doesn’t talk about other employees anymore. Sean feels he can’t talk about work topics with Bart because it would be unfair to Bart’s peers, who are also under his supervision. Sean also misses the closeness he and Bart had for so long. He wants to keep the friendship as it was but separate from their work relationship.

Bart: Iheard Jack is being courted by Jefferson Financial.

Sean: I don’t know the details on that.

Bart: I mean, is Capital going to match the offer, to keep Jack?… A lot of us would be upset if he got a raise and we didn’t. It would be like encouraging us to go jobhunting just to get a counteroffer.

Sean: You know that it’s not Capital’s policy to make counteroffers to match the competition’s offers.

Bart: I know the official policy. I also know Capital ignores it when they want to keep someone. I just want to know where Jack stacks up.

Sean: I can’t talk to you about that, you know that.

Bart: You can trust me. Nothing you say is going any further.

Sean: Well, what about all the other managers who are not my best friend? How is it fair to them?

Bart: You could have fooled me. I thought best friends told each other things.

Sean: Because of my new job, there’s just some things I can’t talk to you about. For instance, this situation with Jack is creating nothing but tension between us. I can’t talk to you about anything right now.