Scenario 1D: Grieving Widow
This scenario involves an employee who is struggling to cope at work after the loss of her husband. After her colleagues notice her struggles, she is encouraged to speak with her team leader.
Role-Play Scenario
A few weeks ago, Jing’s world fall apart. Her husband of 10 years passed away suddenly in a horrific car accident. After taking a week off work to grieve, Jing returned to work in her role as an accountant at Dollars Accounting. Whilst the routine of work helped provide structure and meaning to her life, she was struggling to keep up with her job tasks. Her ability to focus had diminished and she was worried that she was letting her team down. After noticing her struggles, her colleagues suggested she speak with Annika their team leader. Annika suggests they catch up over coffee at the nearby coffee shop.
Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash
Role-Play Instructions
- Organise participants into groups of 3 and allocate roles (employee Jing, team leader Annika, 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 judgements 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 question to consider:
- What skills did Annika display in the conversation?
- What non-verbal cues were utilised by Annika in the conversation?
- Did the conversation end in a resolution? If so, what and how?
- What skills could have Annika 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?
