What Is a ‘Go-Forward’ Employee?

Layoff euphemisms — including “rightsizing” and “reduction in force” — make abstract what is a painful, human process, said Roger Lee, the creator of Layoffs.fyi, a site that tracks layoffs in the tech industry. Employers often refer to cutting roles rather than employees, he said, and such language can “dehumanize the whole process.”

Though the strong labor market has been one bright spot in this confusing economy, some industries, including banking and tech, have planned or completed rounds of layoffs. Layoffs.fyi estimates that more than 90,000 workers have been laid off from about 700 tech firms this year.

“We should have been clear and used the word layoff,” Saana Hunt, the president of the Mom Project, said in an interview, reflecting on her company’s LinkedIn post. “It was a poor decision in an attempt to soften the blow for impacted team members.” (A spokesman for Compass declined to comment.)

Mark Herndon, the chairman of the MA Leadership Council, agreed that talking about layoffs is hard. “It makes even the most fearless executives go weak in the knees,” he said, adding, “I think that causes most leaders to tap dance and be too opaque for their own good when communicating on this.”

The language surrounding layoffs is all the more challenging in the current economy, as companies balance labor shortages against warnings of a looming recession. Many companies “don’t know whether they’re laying off or hiring,” said Peter Cappelli, a professor and the director of the Center for Human Resources at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/29/business/go-forward.html