In my October, 2025, blog post (“HR” Speak – BB’s Words), my HR expert friend, Maggie Peters, gave me some language that HR people use to describe typical business terms. She briefly touched on the difference between being “fired” and being “laid off.” Today, she has contributed more HR ‘euphemisms’ that are intended to convey a negative message more softly than just describing the result (e.g. no more job for you) without an attempt at an explanation.

• Strategic Investment / Partnership = Your company just got acquired. The acquiring company will put their people into the jobs and lay off the current job holders to reduce duplication of roles. If the acquirer is a private equity firm, they often replace top executive leadership, deep dive into operations to eliminate overhead and improve margins, implement aggressive growth initiatives, scale up, then sell the acquired company at a profitable exit. Whatever they have to do to reshape the company to look attractive to the next owner.
• Right-Sizing = Reducing staff, layoffs, Reduction In Force (RIF), down-sizing, streamlining operations. 
• Restructuring = Organization changes (e.g., combining two functions) usually involve job eliminations, reassignments, demotions, etc. 
• Outsourcing = Transitioning a job or function to an external service provider/consulting firm. 
• Position/Job Elimination = The employee is either reassigned to another role (if qualified) but more often, terminated. The job role is removed and this terminology depersonalizes the event since it is usually not performance related EVEN THOUGH the lowest performers are the ones chosen.
• Involuntary Separation = The employee was fired or laid off. (Voluntary Separation = The employee resigned.)
• Career Transition or Stepping Down or Exploring Other Opportunities = The employee is exiting the company (often not by choice).
• Not the right fit = The employee is being ‘let go’ due to performance or cultural mismatch.
• Shifting to a different policy or benefit = Usually a reduction or loss of a perk or an employee benefit. Better than saying ‘we’re cutting your PTO accrual.”

Apparently, HR departments might use these types of phrases for legal reasons or just to convey the message in a less harsh way.

These phrases are good examples of how we communicate without “getting to the point”!