Let's quit calling forced terminations 'Layoffs'

[ThomWV]

Layoffs come when temporary slowdowns in demand require temporary halts or slowdowns in production. Layoffs come to an end and employees are called back to work. That's not what we have today. When an employee gets the pink slip today its permanent, there is no callback, in fact it many cases there will be no plant and equipment to be called back to, no management left to make the call. Closings are complete and permanent, equipment and tooling is shipped off to foreign lands and foreign hands or to the scrap yard for exportable metal.

What we have today are forced terminations. Many, and you may expect more, come with little notice and ignore contractual obligations to pay for accrued benefits like vacation pay.

[LisaM]

1. I agree with you but there should be some third phrase

Because people shouldn't be classified as "fired" if they were doing a good job and the job simply ended.

The word "Bushed" comes to mind.

[acmavm]

4. Unhappily you could apply that term to so many things. Iraq, Afganistan,

the economy, spying on US citizens, you name it he did it.

[MadinMo]

9. Riffed

Reduction In Forces

[Mike 03]

2. Well, having been layed off when I was just out of college and working in the auto insurance

industry, I would rather be able to say I was laid off than "fired." Nobody wants to say "I was fired" from my job. I had fantastic job performance grades. They just didn't need a typist anymore.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

3. Terminated

That's what it is. Not fired, not laid off. Terminated. Ended. Finis. Over. So long. Go home. Party's over. You got nothing. Thanks for the memories. Buh-bye.

It's going to get so much worse. That's what frightens and saddens me. We ain't seen nothing yet.

But, this bunch of thugs squatting the Oval Office have done a marvelous job of corrupting words and their meanings, and sending people through the looking glass without blinking.

Consider The "Clear Skies" Act, which did nothing but increase pollution.

[Mike 03]

5. Yeah, That is Good. How about, "Terminated for reasons other than my performance,"

or something like that?

[AndyA]

6. How about "Terminated due to the Bush economy."

That explains it all. And it places the blame fully where it belongs. Bush.

[ThomWV]

7. What do you call it when a Republican gets "laid off"? DeBushification

[Anonymous-Thoughts]

8. Unemployment

Unemployment numbers are way off. They do not include the numbers for people that were never yet employed or self-employed. It would be several percentages higher if these were calculated in.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

11. Yes.

I wonder what the REAL unemployment numbers are?

Older educated workers who were laid off a long time ago, have stopped looking for another job, and don't qualify for unemployment, for example?

Probably at least twice the percentage, or more, of what they are saying.

[NutmegYankee]

10. In Government, it's known as RIF.

Reduction in Force - and is dreaded by teachers and civil servants alike.

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

12. yes you are completely correct

Starbucks had job cuts, and then hired contract labor with no benefits to replace, at their corp office. The eliminated workers were long term employees, over 15 years, that were tossed out like so much trash. In the worst job market in my lifetime.

Starbucks had the nerve to call them layoffs. Big story in the Seattle press about the Starbucks "layoffs". And then Howard Schultz had the nerve to write about "corporate responsibility" in huff post.

edited for clarity, and because I am pissed about this