Fill in your details
The script updates automatically as you type, click Play in ScriptScroller when you're ready
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Script text
What you'll need to fill in
This script has 7 details to fill in before you read it. Have these to hand — the customizer above updates the script as you type:
- Name
- Company
- Restructuring/Reduction in force
- Severance Detail 1
- Severance Detail 2
- HR Contact Name
- Specific Contribution
It also contains 1 stage direction in grey. Those are instructions to you, not lines to say out loud — they mark where to pause, listen, or wait for a response.
That timing assumes about 130 words a minute, which is a normal conversational pace. If you are presenting to a room you will likely go slower; if you are nervous you will go faster. Read it aloud once and time yourself before it matters.
When to use this script
Use this when the message is difficult and the words will be repeated. All-hands updates, restructures, and performance conversations get quoted back, forwarded, and discussed for days afterwards. Improvised phrasing in those moments is how a reasonable decision acquires an unreasonable reputation.
Scripting matters most in the hardest passages. The sentence explaining a layoff or a missed target is the one that must be clear, honest, and free of the corporate hedging that reads as evasion. That sentence is worth writing several times.
Making it sound like you
- Say the difficult thing plainly and early. Burying it makes people distrust everything around it.
- Strip out euphemism. "Rightsizing" damages credibility in a way that the plain word does not.
- Be specific about what happens next and when. Uncertainty is what people actually find unbearable.
- Write what you will say when someone asks the hardest question. Prepare that answer before the room does.
Reading it out loud
Deliver it looking at people, not at a page — which means the script needs to be somewhere your eyes barely move to reach. For remote all-hands, that is a narrow column right under your camera. Read it aloud several times first; difficult messages are the ones most damaged by a stumbling delivery.
More on the setup side: Teleprompter for Webcam, Moving Text for Presentations, Teleprompter for Dual-Monitor Setups.
Questions about this script
How long does this layoff / difficult conversation script take to read?
The script runs to about 131 words, which is roughly 1 min at a normal speaking pace of around 130 words a minute. Your own pace will vary, so time one read-through before you rely on the number.
What do I need to prepare before using this script?
There are 7 details to fill in: Name, Company, Restructuring/Reduction in force, Severance Detail 1, Severance Detail 2, HR Contact Name, and a few more. Enter them in the customizer and the script updates as you type, then opens straight in the teleprompter.
Should difficult announcements be read from a script?
The core message, yes. Precision matters when words will be quoted and forwarded, and improvised phrasing under pressure tends toward euphemism. Take questions unscripted afterwards.
How do I avoid sounding corporate and detached?
Remove the euphemisms and say the actual thing. Detachment comes from the vocabulary of avoidance, not from using a script — a well-written script is usually more direct than an improvised one.
