Unemployment lingo

[Herb Stahlke]

I've heard RIF mostly from teachers and local school boards.

Herb

On Sat, Mar 7, 2009 at 5:19 PM, Dave Wilton <dave at wilton.net> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Unemployment lingo
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>
> 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
>
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