Fearing social media backlash, companies are using all kinds of euphemisms to avoid being straightforward about layoffs — ‘right-sized’, ‘org changes’, ‘simplified operating model’::Managers are running out of ways to say you no longer have a job, but the way the bad news is delivered is more important than ever.
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Perhaps you were a casualty of “corporate outplacing,” the unfortunate, yet ostensibly necessary result of your company “rightsizing.” Managers are running out of ways to say you no longer have a job.
The way the bad news is delivered is more important than ever, as companies fear being canceled on social media after a poorly executed final conversation.
Harvard Business School professor Sandra Sucher said that delicate language is the result of “moral disengagement,” a harm-doer’s effort to rationalize and soften the action for themselves.
“The fact that you’re calling it downsizing or an org change — which it very well probably is — doesn’t mean that workers are not going to feel something as a result of what you’re doing,” said Sucher.
In early December, Spotify Technology SA opted for the term “right-sized” in its letter announcing job cuts.
The general shift away from the word “firing” is likely because of the stigma associated with it, according to Wayne Cascio, a professor at CU Denver Business School.
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