laid off

Laid-off is an adjective used to describe someone who has been released from employment. It comes from laid off, the past tense of the verb lay off, meaning to release someone from employment.

Laid-off is often applied in phrases such as laid-off workers. Such workers are sometimes described as having been let go.

Let go is sometimes used as a more euphemistic way of saying that a worker has been fired or terminated, but these two terms imply that the worker was removed from employment for a cause, such as poor performance or a violation of the rules.

In contrast, laid-off is usually used in a more neutral way, simply to indicate that a worker has been discharged or dismissed, often as part of a wider series of dismissals (called layoffs) affecting multiple workers (perhaps because there is not enough work or because the positions are being eliminated). A person who has been laid off due to downsizing, for example, might be said to have been downsized (though this term is more often applied to an entire workforce).

Workers who have been temporarily dismissed from work are often described as having been furloughed.

In the U.K., the word redundant is used to mean removed or laid off from a job.

In broader, economic terms—and more practically speaking—laid-off workers can be described as unemployed.

Laid-off is very commonly used, especially in its verb form, and is generally considered a neutral, professional way of indicating that an employee has been discharged. It may be considered euphemistic, but it’s not usually considered as euphemistic as the similar phrase let go (which is also used in the context of firing).

Of course, layoffs are always a sensitive topic, regardless of which word is used. Furthermore, many employees may (often rightly) feel that they have been laid off unfairly or unnecessarily and use much stronger language to describe their company’s actions.

Laid-off and fired suggest different things. Fired implies that the employee has been fired “for cause”—such as poor performance or violating the rules.

Laid-off is usually used to indicate that the dismissal from employment is not based on anything the employee did but rather as a result of economic circumstances within the company, such as overall job cuts due to downsizing.