Were you fired, or laid off?

When I was a young kid, there was no such thing (that I can recall) as being “laid off”. Your options were being fired, or quitting. Either the company fired you, or you quit. Giving rise to the infamous line, “You can’t fire me! I quit!”

But these days, people draw all sorts of fine lines between being “fired”, “laid off”, “downsized”, etc. Trying to soften the blow so that people feel better about it. The subtle nuances of business these days.

In my case I was laid off. But no one’s manager looks at them and yells, “You’re laid off!”