[Fiction question] What euphemisms for "layoff" have you heard?

Thinning the herd.

“Early retirement”

I’ve heard it said that “your position has been eliminated” rather than saying YOU have been.

Also, your position has been made redundant

Canned
fired
outsourced
cut
position obsolete
walking papers
long weekend

Shown the door

Kicked to the curb.

@Jeruba -

A “layoff” is not always a firing – for many union jobs, you’ll get laid off and may very well have a return date to get back to work.

So are you looking for euphamisms “fired”? Because in a way, “laid off” kind of is one already. ;-)

We had one of those days today. I overheard someone in the hallway talking about “hump day” and thought to myself that today, for many at our place, was “precipice day”.

But I digress. Among most of those above (many, at least), there’s also “pink slipped” or “got his pink slip”.

@Jeruba You’re you looking for terms that a company might use for a mass layoff or a major reduction in their workforce rather than term they might use when firing or letting go an individual employee?

@lillycoyote – sounds like you’re another professional who’s job might involve an analysis of terminations, generally. ;-)

We are giving you much deserved time off!

I’ve come across the term “right-sizing”. Luckily, I managed to keep hold of my job.

@lillycoyote, I’m interested in all the ways of saying “layoff” (as opposed to firing, which I know is different), but I’m especially looking for those weasel-word euphemisms that companies and organizations use for large-scale reductions when they don’t want to come right out and call it what it is.

Nobody is fooled by them, but they do reflect a certain thought process at the corporate level (as do revolting expressions such as “head count”). As each term becomes tainted, they have to come up with another one. “LRE” was the most recent one at my former workplace—that is, until they came up with “EER”—enhanced early retirement.

In my fictional context, I am interested in exploring what it does to a decent person’s head to be on the dishing-out end of this distasteful process.

Here’s a short article from Business Week that discusses the “language of the layoff.”

And this may not be what your looking for but the term “involuntary separation” is one my very favorite “weasel” words for firing.

Here is an example of The University of Indiana’s policy on voluntary and involutary separation

And if you want weasely, this is the university’s Reduction in Force Policy where they define the RIF as follows:

“A reduction in force (RIF) is a curtailment of the workforce… ”

How weasely it to define a euphemism for a mass firing using another euphemism for a mass firing?

resource action
involuntary restructuring

IBM has an odd term for it, which escapes me at the moment.

Your particular skill is required elsewhere.

“Being made redundant” and “getting the sack”, though getting the sack also means being fired.