Unemployment lingo

[James A. Landau <JJJRLandau@netscape.com>]

On  Sat, 7 Mar 2009 11:41:15 Zulu minus 0800  Mark Peters <markpeters33 at YAHOO.COM> wrote:

>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.
>

The State of New Jersey carefully distinguishes between "laid off" and "fired".  If you are "laid off" (no longer employed because your employer is reducing the size of its workforce) you are automatically eligible for Unemployment benefits.  However, if you are "fired", the presumption is that you were fired for cause, and an Examiner must determine the circumstances before deciding whether you get benefits.

For a vivid metaphor, consider the nickname "Neutron Jack", given to Jack Welch of GE in the early 1980's, after the then-famous (or infamous) neutron bomb, for his actions in eliminating employees while leaving buildings intact.

My only recollection of seeing the word "rightsize" was in a computer trade-press article in which the writer argued for "rightsizing" over "downsizing".  I didn't read the article, but it is obvious that for this particular writer, the two words were NOT synonyms.Mon, 26 Mar 2001

For "pink slip", I posted the following on the ADS list on Monday, March the Twenty-sixth, in the thread "Origin of the "Pink Slip"":

<quote>
In a message dated 03/26/2001 8:31:42 AM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] (Ray Ott) writes:

> Probably not labor scholars.  For the blue collar worker up until quite
>  recently, discharge or layoff would have been dealt with on a face-to-face
>  basis.  Using a pink piece of paper smacks of bureaucracy and
>   would have its origin in white-collar workplace practices, I'll bet.

Possibly labor scholars would be able to help.

Consider the following account, from URL
http://www.utu.org/DEPTS/UTUNEWS/WEBPAPER/2001/0101/9.HTM

<quote>
... Eugene V. Debs' 1894 American Railway Union strike against the Pullman
Company. After that strike, general managers for the railroads used a
blackball system to keep strikers from returning to work.

At first, the general managers refused to issue service letters proving they
had railroad experience to those who had gone on strike. Without these
letters, it was almost impossible for a striker to get a railroad job.

After one striker successfully sued his railroad company employer, the
general managers changed direction and came up with a maneuver described as
the "crane with broken neck." The general managers wrote the service letters,
but on the stationery of paper manufacturer Crane Bros., which gave them a
choice of two secret watermarks, detectable only when the sheet was held up
to the light. One, showing a crane with head erect, was given to
non-strikers. The other, used for those who were involved in the 1894 strike,
had the bird's neck hanging down. It was a warning to potential employers
that the applicant had been a striker.

</quote>

I have seen similar accounts in other sources.  Any labor scholar can discuss
the Pullman strike in detail, although s/he might not know the
broken-neck-crane story.

The point of the above is that railroad workers of the 1890's, who were
definitely blue-collar, expected as a matter of course to receive written
"service letters" from former employers, and apparently saw nothing out of
the ordinary in such documents being on watermarked paper.

While this does not suggest that railroads were the ones who started the
practice of using pink paper for firing notices, it does strongly suggest
that in the 1890's many blue-collar workers routinely received paper
documents on employment matters.
</quote>

I have since discovered that the broken-neck crane might be an urban legend.  Variations of the story exist, some citing the 1894 Pullman strike, others a 1920 strike in Chicago, and giving different watermarks.  As far as I know, nobody has ever located a broken-neck-crane letter.

           James A. Landau
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           Northrop-Grumman Information Technology
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