How many layers of obfuscation on the average euphemism?

[Charles C Doyle]

Then there's "let go"--when the employer reluctantly acquiesces to the employee's desire to not have a job.

Charlie

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From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Larry Sheldon [LarrySheldon at COX.NET]
Sent: Monday, March 12, 2012 1:42 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: How many layers of obfuscation on the average euphemism?
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The question came to mind trying to parse (decode?  decrypt?)
"rightsized", which you might mistakenly think from context is something
done to a company, but is actually a way of making a human being disappear.

"Rightsized" hides the depressor in "downsized".

"Downsized" obfuscates the implied humanity in "layed off" or "furloughed".

Here the track gets hard to read:  "layed off" seems to be an attempt to
de-sting "fired" which has taken on an aura of misbehavior that it did
not have in times past. But it picks up a vague stench of "cast away",
"discarded", "shitcanned" while "furloughed" wants the listener to
believe that the person chose this action because it is such a good
idea, like a "vacation".

Dead ends (like the jobs being discussed( seem to include "dehired",
"disemployed", and "management empire building thwarted".
--
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