You Can't Fire Me; I Voluntarily Separate From the Company!

What is the best way to say that someone has ... uh, suddenly found himself out of work?

The Associated Press this week reported its ... er, nationwide downsizing five different ways in just the first four paragraphs of a story:

    • "... laid off an undisclosed number of news employees. ..." (Implying they might be recalled)

    • "... refused to specify how many jobs were eliminated ..." (Implying no jobs available to which they might be recalled)

    • "Leaders of the News Media Guild ... said 38 Guild-covered reporters, editors and photographers had been fired ..." (Implying they had it coming)

    • "The Guild did not have a count of how many managers and workers outside the U.S. lost their jobs." (That's funny; they were here just a minute ago ...")

    • "... an undisclosed number of union-represented technicians were cut earlier." (The unkindest kind)

How would you want to "go out"?

Mose doesn't like routine use of the word fired unless the termination was made for cause – that is, she did have it coming, and for good reason.

The denotative (dictionary) meaning of the word is innocent enough –  "[pun on discharge] To dismiss from a position; discharge."

But the connotative (perceived) meaning is much more harsh. People don't get fired for no good reason, do they? Wonder what they did wrong. ...

Writers need to be as precise as possible with word choice to avoid confusion. And, as the parenthetical notes above indicate, words have different meanings to different people.

But even the dictionary agrees that layoff generally implies "temporary unemployment." There's something much more permanent about job elimination. (It's not you; it's your job.)

A few years ago, Mose argued that fired was inappropriate in the case of a woman who had been "dismissed" from her job. Her contract had expired, but she stayed on as interim manager during the search for a permanent director.

When another applicant was chosen, a reporter picked fired as the verb of choice to report the board's termination of her employment. Mose argued that the word's connotation requires the reporter to explain the reason for the "involuntary separation." Members of the board of directors gave none, indicating merely that another candidate was preferred, so fired seemed to be a hammer blow when a mere tap was required.