Calligraphy By Bernard Maisner
Rosy Words For Pink Slips
U.S. employers shed 533,000 jobs in November and, it seems, used about as many euphemisms to describe the layoffs. These days the code words go way beyond “downsizing” and “rightsizing.” In a Nov. 11 press release, Nokia Siemens Networks referred to its 9,000 cuts as a “synergy-related headcount adjustment goal.” A few weeks earlier, discussing eBay’s roughly 1,600 pink slips, the company’s CFO talked about “actions to simplify our organization.” Then there’s “offboarding” and “reduction in force,” which, in its acronym form, has become a verb in management circles. (“How many will we have to RIF?”)
According to professionals who help companies during layoffs, the list goes on. Garry Mathiason, a senior partner at employment law firm Littler Mendelson, notes he has encountered “rationalizing” and “surplusing,” among other terms for job cuts. And outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reports sightings of “de-verticalization” and (speaking of redundancies) “strategic review of strategies.” Companies “think if [they’re] not so bald and straight about the term, maybe it’ll ease the impact, ease the pain a little bit,” says CEO John Challenger. They’re also “trying to spin the message.”
When it comes to such spin, U.S. companies may offer more than others around the world. (Severance, see table, is another story.) But they’re not alone in deploying indirect terms. While workers in Hong Kong use chao youyu, “to have one’s squid cooked,” to describe being fired, the official phrase for mass layoffs in mainland China is xia gang, “to step down,” which sounds voluntary. In Japan,risutora, “restructuring,” has all but replaced kaiko, or “firing.” And when French managers contemplate un plan social, they’re not talking about throwing a party.
