How companies use alternative terms to refer to layoffs in the context of Spotify and Meta platforms.
Have you experienced an unexpected change in your career recently? Maybe you were affected by “corporate outplacing,” which is unfortunately seen as a necessary outcome of your company’s efforts to “rightsize.” Managers are struggling to find new ways to inform employees that they no longer have a job. In the first month of 2024, numerous layoffs have resulted in tens of thousands of individuals losing their jobs, with the tech industry alone eliminating 32,000 positions. The manner in which this unfortunate news is communicated has become increasingly crucial, as companies are concerned about facing backlash on social media due to poorly executed final conversations. Executives are resorting to various euphemisms in order to avoid being direct with their employees.
Harvard Business School professor Sandra Sucher said sensitive language is the result of “moral disengagement,” an attempt by the wrongdoer to rationalize and soften the action for themselves. Ultimately, the meaning is the same for the employee: they lose their job.
“Just because you call it a downsizing or an organizational change — whatever it probably is — doesn’t mean that employees aren’t going to experience something as a result of what you’re doing,” Sucher said.
The vocabulary that euphemistically describes layoffs became common in the late 1980s and 1990s, when job cuts became normalized, according to Sucher. In the past, layoffs were rarer and were mostly caused by a manufacturer closing a factory in the city.
In early December, Spotify Technology SA chose the term “right-sizing” in a letter announcing job cuts. Citigroup Inc. in a statement in November referred to a “simplified operating model” to describe its plans to cut 20,000 jobs. At Meta Platforms Inc., Mark Zuckerberg referred to “organizational changes” in a lengthy memo that included several personnel changes at the company, including job losses. And United Parcel Service Inc. announced a “workforce reduction” of 12,000 people during its latest earnings call. “We’re going to align our organization with our strategy,” CEO Carol Tome said, according to the transcript.
According to Stanford professor Robert Sutton, managers believe that such vague language reassures employees. He called the “sleeping” language “password monoxide.”
“They somehow seem to believe that if they use language that’s more vague and less emotive, people won’t be upset,” Sutton said. Instead, it has the opposite effect, he said.
According to CU Denver Business School professor Wayne Cascio, the general shift away from the word “fired” is likely due to the stigma associated with it. Terminations are used to describe dismissal without cause, while “termination” is now typically a response to a violation of company rules.
The synonyms of dismissals are not completely useless. They differ in the scope of potential significance, which helps the company figure out its next steps. “Simplifying” might mean laying people off or the company cutting meetings. “Reorganization”, on the other hand, can also just mean that the employee moves departments. Layoff is something else entirely, as employees can return to work after an unpaid absence. The “sizing of rights” is intentionally vague, so the company leaves room to change its plan, according to Cascio.
The phrase can also vary by region, according to Sucher, who said “reduction in force” was more commonly used in Europe.
It’s usually a good way to announce a layoff, and it’s not euphemistic. Experts said company leaders should take responsibility for the job losses, especially as many reacted to their own overpayments after the pandemic.
“You have to acknowledge that you’ve done something that you understand has harmed their lives very directly,” Sucher said.
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