Indefinite Idling,' 'Redirected,' And 46 Other Euphemisms We Use In Place Of 'Fired

flickr/i8nastymanAxed.

George Orwell wrote that "political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging, and sheer cloudy vagueness."

For the "1984" author, euphemism was a method by which powerful people cloaked violent acts. The more vaguely you described something violent, the less awful the violence sounds.

That trend has carried over to corporate America and Silicon Valley, where CEOs and HR departments invent all sorts of creative language to cloak the fact that people are getting fired.

One example: When the CEO of Fab announced it would fire 100 people in its Berlin office last year, he called the layoffs an "opportunity to start your new job search immediately" in an internal memo.

As the New York Times has reported, there are at least 48 examples of euphemisms for getting fired.

Here's the list:

1. Asked to Resign
2. Axed
3. Canned
4. Career Assessment and Re-employment
5. Career Transition
6. Chemistry Change
7. Coerced Transition
8. Decruited
9. Degrowing
10. Dehiring
11. Deployment
12. Deselected
13. Destaffing
14. Discharged
15. Dismissal
16. Displacement
17. Downsizing
18. Excessed
19. Executive Culling
20. Force Reduction
21. Fumigation
22. Indefinite Idling
23. Involuntary Separation
24. Job Separation
25. Let Go
26. Negotiated Departure
27. Outplacement
28. Personnel Surplus Reduction
29. Position Elimination
30. Premature Retirement
31. Redeployment
32. Redirected
33. Redundancy elimination
34. Release
35. Reorganization
36. Replaced
37. Requested Departure
38. RIF - Reduction in Force: "I was Riffed"
39. Right-sizing
40. Sacked
41. Selected Out
42. Selectively Separated
43. Skill Mix Adjustment
44. Termination
45. Transitioned
46. Vocational Relocation
47. Workforce Adjustment
48. Workforce Imbalance Correction

Got any more? Tell us in the comments.