Anyone else dislike the phrase “let go” in this context? It sounds like you’re doing them a favor, or they were being held hostage, or giving them permission to do something. I’d prefer “fired” or “terminated”, even though those have their own connotation problems.
Meme’s relatable, though. This capitalist hellscape is awful.
I have heard arguments that “fired” has the implication that the employee is at fault
Generally that’s not an implication, it is the outright meaning. America is weird on that because you guys can be fired without cause; in the civilized world you’re either fired (at fault), laid off (no work for you to do), or terminated with severance pay (because you’re not at fault, but it also isn’t a layoff).
Laid off would still mean severance pay in the civilized world. In my country it’s either a layoff or a firing. I don’t think you can do a termination without it being one of the two. What’s the difference? Well with a layoff, even if you pay the employee their severance and everything… You can’t just hire a new person to fill the role. The role needs to actually disappear for a while at least.
If you’re in a country with good worker protection, there’s a big difference between ‘made redundant’ and ‘fired for cause’. There is no ‘fired for no reason’.
Redundancy doesn’t necessarily come with a golden handshake, though many employment contracts do mandate it.
But they do have to try to find you another job elsewhere in the organisation if that’s possible, and they have to disestablish the position not necessarily you. That means that if they want to make one person from a team redundant, they generally have to actually ask if anyone wants to leave, and if not, run a transparent process to decide who from the team to make redundant, not just pick someone.
You also have to not be planning to re-hire for the role any time soon as that would imply the redundancy wasn’t genuine.
Anyone else dislike the phrase “let go” in this context? It sounds like you’re doing them a favor, or they were being held hostage, or giving them permission to do something. I’d prefer “fired” or “terminated”, even though those have their own connotation problems.
Meme’s relatable, though. This capitalist hellscape is awful.
The phrase “let go” is definitely PR speak. It makes it sound less aggressive than “fired” or “terminated”.
I have heard arguments that “fired” has the implication that the employee is at fault and did something bad, but the argument is weak.
Generally that’s not an implication, it is the outright meaning. America is weird on that because you guys can be fired without cause; in the civilized world you’re either fired (at fault), laid off (no work for you to do), or terminated with severance pay (because you’re not at fault, but it also isn’t a layoff).
Laid off would still mean severance pay in the civilized world. In my country it’s either a layoff or a firing. I don’t think you can do a termination without it being one of the two. What’s the difference? Well with a layoff, even if you pay the employee their severance and everything… You can’t just hire a new person to fill the role. The role needs to actually disappear for a while at least.
True. Saying you got fired sounds like you fucked up. Maybe “dismissed” is more neutral without being totally PR Speak?
I used to think that there was a big difference between being “let go” and being “fired”, in terms of what actually happens.
If you’re in a country with good worker protection, there’s a big difference between ‘made redundant’ and ‘fired for cause’. There is no ‘fired for no reason’.
Hint: only one of these comes with a so-called golden handshake.
Redundancy doesn’t necessarily come with a golden handshake, though many employment contracts do mandate it.
But they do have to try to find you another job elsewhere in the organisation if that’s possible, and they have to disestablish the position not necessarily you. That means that if they want to make one person from a team redundant, they generally have to actually ask if anyone wants to leave, and if not, run a transparent process to decide who from the team to make redundant, not just pick someone.
You also have to not be planning to re-hire for the role any time soon as that would imply the redundancy wasn’t genuine.