penciled out + fired

[Victor Steinbok]

An overstatement, on my part, no doubt. What I meant is that "fired" is
used routinely where I expect "laid off", rarely in reverse. It took me
long enough to learn the distinction back in the 80s...

VS-)

On 9/26/2011 10:46 AM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
> I don't understand your claim of "fired" being used exclusively --
> check Google News for many, many recent  correct examples.
>
> DanG
>
>
>
> On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 5:03 AM, Victor Steinbok<aardvark66 at gmail.com>  wrote:
>
>> An unrelated observation is that I've increasingly noticed that e
>> distinction between "laid off" and "fired" has been near wiped out. I've
>> always seen "fired" as a more pro-active phrasing, suggesting that
>> either the employee did something to deserve the ax or that the employer
>> had some motive to ax the specific employee. In contrast, involuntary
>> action--such as a result of bankruptcy--would normally be written up as
>> "laid off". But, lately, "fired" is the one term that appears almost
>> exclusively.
>>
>>> Whether corporate managers issued misleading financial information or
>>> covered up growing problems remains to be determined as federal
>>> authorities probe the company, which fired its roughly 1,100 employees
>>> on the last day of August and filed for Chapter 11 protection Sept. 6.
>> Or is this recency illusion at work again?
>>
>> VS-)
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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