Layoffs, downsizings and rightsizings all mean the same thing: The company will continue long after you are gone.
Companies have come up with creative names to describe when they eliminate jobs and people that they don’t need.
They used to call it a layoff ie. “We are laying people off. You are being laid off.”
Then they started calling it a downsizing ie. “We are downsizing. You are being downsized.”
As political correctness crept into our vocabulary, HR-types figured they needed to soften the blow and invented the term called rightsizing ie. “We are rightsizing. You are being rightsized.”
Rightsizing means the same as layoff and downsizing but it sounds better. Rightsizing makes us believe that we weren’t the problem, the company was the problem.
Trust me, you were the problem. Specifically, it was a problem that you were taking up a desk and chair and cashing a check every few weeks. That was a problem to the company’s board of directors and by extension to their shareholders. And their earnings per share, too.
The most recent round of layoffs were probably described by senior management as helping the company “prepare for the future” or to “become leaner” or “to become better able to compete in the new economy” or something like that.
By rightsizing, your company has told you that they were the wrong size while you were in their employment. Now that you are no longer there, they are the right size.
Interestingly enough, the company has also indicated that it was their right to rightsize you. That’s why it’s called rightsizing. They had the right to reduce their size and rightsizing happens to involve downsizing you. In that regard, the choice to rightsize you will always be considered the right decision.
Very clever, eh?
