"Right Sizing"

This evening, my daughter told me her fiance's company has told its employees their company will be "right sizing" in the next few weeks. I'd not heard the term before, but apparently it is the new slang for laying people off.

The concept, I imagine, is that "down-sizing" (the old slang) made it sound like a company was shrinking, falling back, retiring from the field of economic battle. In contrast, "right-sizing" gives the impression that a company is getting correct, getting straight, lean, all-muscle, clean.

All well and good for the company which sheds the onus of its failures in a maze of nomeclature. Not so good for the employees who have been shed. After all, if the comapny is now right, then the former employees were wrong.

They are no longer seen as valuable assest the company was unable to retain, but as unhealthy, unnecessary weight that has been dropped during the corporate diet.

The psychological burden of the company's troubles has been shifted to the employees, who are subconsciously made to feel as it that failure was theirs. By casting them off, the company has cleansed itself from the parasites that were sucking its resources dry.

Its bad enough to lose one's job without being made to feel as if you were hurting the company, rather than the other way around. So next time you hear anyone bandying about the catch-phrase "right-sizing" tell them just how wrong that is.

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