8 ms·
Laid off is itself a less harsh version of fired.
by bradleyjg 4y ago
Laid off is itself a less harsh version of fired.
- margalabargala 4y agoThey're not quite the same, those two terms have taken on different meanings. "Fired" has come to mean "for cause", and "laid off" has come to mean "not for cause".
- adfm 4y agoFor some, "laid off" has the same connotation as furlough.
- tomnipotent 4y agoA furloughed employee has the expectation that employment can resume with the company, while a laid off employee does not. This is important for tax and other legal considerations.
- r_hoods_ghost 4y agoThis very much depends on where you are. For example in the UK a lay off technically means being told to stay at home because there isn't enough work [1], although it's often used these days to mean "fired without cause", i.e. the American usage of lay off has become more common and it has simultaneously became common to use the term "furlough" to describe layoffs during the pandemic. [1]https://www.gov.uk/lay-offs-short-timeworking https://www.gov.uk/lay-offs-short-timeworking
- plorkyeran 4y agoIt had that connotation 50 years ago, but anyone who thinks it still does is just confused.
- bradleyjg 4y agoMy hunch is that the evolution was driven by executives, probably in the 70s and 80s, that didn’t want to say they were firing people in order to make more money. In other words the same dynamic that now leads to ‘impacted’.
- ip26 4y agoIt’s a very useful distinction; it likely would have evolved one way or another.
- femto113 4y agoIn the UK they have the term "redundancy" (as in "your position has been made redundant"). Can't see that term catching on in the US but it does cover the use of "laid off" to mean "the company chose to eliminate the position I worked in rather than choosing to get rid of me as a person", and thus may carry less stigma.
- bmelton 4y agoSome members of my family (back in the day) used to be laid off from positions seasonally, and were then rehired the next year. I suspect that in its early versions, it referred more to the notion that "we won't have any more work until the spring, so we'll see you then." I don't know its etymology or when it might have been coopted by employers who didn't intend to rehire, but I suspect its intent is to signal that there's no ill will between the employer and the employee, and that it WOULD rehire those impacted persons in the future. I'm not as sure that it means anything so specific now.
- yamtaddle 4y agoManufacturing can still work like this (and maybe other industries?). You're laid off every now and then, if work slows down, but with the expectation (possibly contractually—many of these have unions) that you'll be brought back when work picks back up. AFAIK they can collect unemployment during the lay-off, so it's better than being kept on with much-reduced hours.
- SilasX 4y agoIt’s the opposite: they started out distinct, but then, by the euphemism treadmill, became used interchangeably. And if you go back even further it meant something even milder, like furloughed or terminated with the intent to rehire when expected business picks up.
- heyyyouu 4y agoAnd "laid off" means eligble for uneployment; "fired" often does not.
- pbj1968 4y agoEhhhh… fired for misconduct, sure. Fired because you can’t do the job? You probably qualify for unemployment. Employers sure have a vested interest in making you believe otherwise, tho.
- ThatGeoGuy 4y agoI still retain a similar model to patio11: https://twitter.com/patio11/status/1532509304846135296?s=20 https://twitter.com/patio11/status/1532509304846135296?s=20 Regardless of how you want to word it, or how you perceive it to play out socially, it does not diminish the act.
- margalabargala 4y agoIt depends on the listener's relationship with the person in question. If you're on the receiving end, then that model and the act done to you are irrelevant. If someone is applying for a job and they tell you "I was fired from my last job" vs "I was laid off from my last job", that changes your perspective on them. Having terms that distinguish whether or not it's "for cause" are a useful language feature.
- wyldfire 4y agoThey're related, I suppose. But there's a real, meaningful difference between the two.
- sidlls 4y agoDepends on the circumstances. I associate “fired” with a negative reason (e.g. performance, theft, harassment). “Laid-off” doesn’t carry the same connotation.
- DonHopkins 4y agoThey give "layoff packages" but not "firing packages".
- bink 4y agoFired -> Let go -> Laid off -> Impacted I'll be curious to see what comes next.
- zen_1 4y agoSelected for new and exciting opportunities!
- nsenifty 4y agoCompleted? (like in Never let me go[0]) [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_Let_Me_Go_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_Let_Me_Go_(novel)
- morelisp 4y agoCarousel!
- rvnx 4y ago"Let go" is the worst, it implies "I let you go" -> "I allow you to leave" which is the ultimate humiliation when you are getting fired
- Arrath 4y agoI think of it more like the protagonist (or antagonist, one could argue) of a movie holding on to the hand of someone (employee) about to fall off of a cliff (the descent, ultimately, to poverty and homelessness) just to make the metaphor as vivid as possible.
- Throw10987 4y agoRole is "disestablished"
- lotsofpulp 4y agoTerminated is to the left of fired.
- 4y ago
- make3 4y agofired usually means, with cause. laid off is for when a lot of people are getting cut at the same time because upper management asked to do big cuts
- SoftTalker 4y agoYes, and importantly if you are laid off you generally can get unemployment compensation. If you are fired for cause you often cannot.
- pcl 4y agoIn the US, “laid off” has a pretty substantially different meaning than “fired”. “Laid off” usually means that the company shut down a group of roles, and the individuals happened to be in those roles and so lost their jobs. “Fired” usually means that the individual was intentionally let go because of behavior / competence / etc. of the individual, not the group.
- xupybd 4y agoHere we say maid redundant if someone is laid off like this.
- itronitron 4y agoWe hereby lay their employment with us to rest.
- schrodinger 4y agoThere’s usually a significant difference for the individual where laid off means you get unemployment while fired (implies cause) does not.
- pbj1968 4y agoDepends on the cause. In most situations that aren’t blatant misconduct you qualify for unemployment.