The distinction lies in your use of quotation marks (rather than subordinate clauses). If you had just said: The guy basically said he was laid off because I

The distinction lies in your use of quotation marks (rather than subordinate clauses). If you had just said: The guy basically said he was laid off because I pissed off management with his feedback. then it would have been perfectly clear that this was an interpretation of what happened, rather than a literal description of what happened.