Unemployment lingo

[Dave Wilton]

I'd be careful about terms like "rightsize" and "synergy-related headcount
reductions." I've never heard this actually used by anyone in industry, but
they get a lot of play by journalists and others precisely because they're
too cute by half. I'm sure someone, somewhere has used them in other than a
tongue-in-cheek context, but I think those usages are vanishingly rare.

Another one that is actually used is "RIF" or "reduction in force," both as
a noun and verb, as in "I've been riffed." I think it started as a
government term that infiltrated private industry.






-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Mark Peters
Sent: Saturday, March 07, 2009 11:41 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Unemployment lingo

I'm doing a column on the many words and phrases for firing people: let
go, downsize, rightsize, shitcan, sack, discard, terminate, pink slip, show
the door, etc.

There are two things I'd like to sip (siphon?) from the collective pool of
wisdom:

1) What other words fit in this category? I have some recent ones like
getting
fit and synergy-related headcount reductions, but there must be
more.

2) Any info on the history of shitcan? The OED doesn't have it, and HDAS
doesn't go that far...

Thanks!

Mark

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org