Read the following situations and think about how you would handle the pressure.

Read the following situations and think about how you would handle the pressure. Then, answer each of the 5 questoins.
Situation 1: A client called complaining that
the merchandise they ordered from your firm
arrived damaged. They point out that this is
the second shipment they have received that
has been damaged in the last 4 months. You
offer a discount, but the client not only wants
the discount; they also want replacement items.
You agree but are upset about how much it is
costing you. You are also frustrated with needing
to come up with a better way to ship your goods
to this client in the future but are determined to
find a way so you don’t incur this same type of
loss again.

Situation 2: You and a friend from college own
a restaurant You started this business thinking
that your management skills and your friend’s
culinary skills and experience would generate a
great success. The first year, things went pretty
well, and while you weren’t raking in the dough,
you made enough to generally cover expenses.
This year, however, things have changed, and
the restaurant is now losing $1,000 a week. You
realize this is a problem as you don’t have a large
cash reserve—most of your and your partner’s
money went into starting up the restaurant
As you are struggling to pay your suppliers,
employees, and other creditors, it’s taking a toll
on the relationship with your business panne;
and you are starting to fight more and more
about money and strategy. For instance, you want
to send out mailers with coupons, while your
partner disagrees and instead wants to develop
new specials to help drive traffic in the door.
You two can’t agree. Furthermore, you and your
spouse just found out that you will be having a
baby. To top it off, on your way in, you passed a
sign announcing that a new restaurant is opening
up a few blocks from yours. Sadly, you can’t call
Gordon Ramsay to help, as he’s no longer filming
Kitchen Nightmares, and Robert Irvine has turned
into a daytime talk show host.

Situation 3:You’ve been running a management consulting firm for the past 10 years that focuses on helping clients boost their output. For the first 5 years or so, things were going well. You developed a sound list of clients that engaged in repeat business, and you and your staff were typically able to generate 10 to 20 new client projects a year. However, 5 years ago, when the world entered into another global financial crisis, you went for 9 months with hardly any business. You had to let go of half your staff, and in order to keep things afloat, you exhausted your personal savings and assets—including your car and jewelry. Things have slowly gotten better; you get a few new small clients each year that help stop the hemorrhaging, but you’re not profitable. In fact, you took a second mortgage out on your home and have taken a second job driving a cab to help make ends meet. You’re finally at the point where you have decided to close the doors and walk away from the loss.

Situation 4: Last year, you started up an engineering technology firm. You’ve been
in contract negotiations with a large oil manufacturing firm that is considering becoming
a strategic investor. You’re hoping that they sign the 400-page contract you sent them last month
and deposit the $1 million due upon signing to your corporate account soon, but there has been
no indication from the oil company if they will sign or not. Right now, you have exactly $7.85
in the bank. You are 60 days late on your car payment and 90 days behind on the mortgage.
The IRS has filed a lien against you. Your home phone, cell phone, and cable TV have all been
turned off. In less than a week, the natural gas company is scheduled to suspend service to your
home, and then there will be no heat or way to prepare food.

Case Questions:
1. In these scenarios, your personal life as well as your business life are both creating stress. How can the situation in your personal life make the stress in your business better or worse?
2. For each of these scenarios, you’re definitely suffering a lot of stress. How might stress affect your attitude? What should you do to avoid creating a toxic work environment for your employees?
3. In some of these situations, the employees know things are bad and are likely feeling stressed and worried. What can you do to help employees cope with the situation? How can you keep your best employees committed and not jumping ship to other, more stable firms?
4. How, with all this stress, might you motivate yourself to keep going? How do you balance the need to escape or hide from problems with the responsibility of giving it your all to keep the business going?
5. Sometimes, a business will fail. According to the Small Business Administration, more businesses close each month than open, and more than half of all businesses won’t last 5 years. If your business were to fail and dose as in Situation 3, what would you do to cope with the stress and emotional turbulence from its dosing? How could you turn such a negative experience into something positive?