Scenario 1B: Work-Life Balance Struggles
This scenario involves an employee who is struggling with managing her work-life balance and discusses this with her manager during her mid-year performance review.
Role-Play Scenario
It’s June and time for the employees at Echo Plus to have their mid-year performance review with their manager (Peter). Zara is first on the list for her review with Peter. As a mother and carer, Zara has been struggling to manage her work-life balance. She is having a hard time meeting work deadlines and her co-workers have mentioned to Peter that she is struggling whilst they understand the pressure she is under, they are concerned that as a team they will not be able to meet their important non-negotiable project deadline due to her limited contributions. She sometimes has to take many phone calls during the day, often is 30 – 60 minutes late to work and in the past has had to leave unannounced to tend to her mother. Zara logs onto Zoom and begins her chat with her manager, Peter.
Photo by Daniel Thomas on Unsplash
Role-Play Instructions
- Organise participants into groups of 3 and allocate roles (employee Zara, manager Peter, observer)
- Ask participants to read the role-play scenario information
- Suggested role-play time is 50 minutes
- Preparation time: 10 minutes
- Role play time: 20 minutes
- Debrief time (observer to also provide feedback to role players): 10 minutes
- Group debrief time: 10 minutes
Role-Player 3: Observer
As the observer, your role in the scenario is to observe the relationship and conversation between the two role players. Part of your role is not to make judgments or interrupt the role play, but rather take notes on the conversation. Taking observation notes will be a critical part of the debrief, where you are able to provide the role players with your perspective on how the conversation went. To assist with taking observational notes, here are some questions to consider:
- What skills did Peter display in the conversation?
- What non-verbal cues were utilised by Peter in the conversation?
- Did the conversation end in a resolution? If so, what and how?
- What skills could have Peter utilised to assist in the conversation?
Post Role-Play Debrief Questions
At the conclusion of the role-play, it is imperative that the participants are given the opportunity to debrief with each other and other role-playing groups. It is also important for the observer to provide the role players with feedback on what they observed in the relationship and conversation between the two role players. The debrief should be prefaced by first outlining the importance of feedback in the spirit of learning through action and reflection and not seen as the opportunity to highlight weaknesses or communicate criticism. The following questions can be utilised to guide the debrief process, with the ability to include further content-specific questions on the counselling process and/or skills in accordance with your curriculum.
- How did you find the role-play exercise?
- What went well in the role-play?
- What did you find difficult about the role play?
- What would have helped improve your experience in the role play?
- What would you do differently next time you engage in a similar conversation?
- What skills were evident in the role play?
