When layoffs were rife in the 1980s, many euphemisms were coined to soften the blow. My favorite of these was "decruited," and that was the therm I used when I became superfluous to my own employer back then. This did, though, make me wonder: When I am "recruited," does that mean I've been there before?

Here are some other terms, cribbed from a New York Times poll found here:

Instead of "fired":

- bumped
- decruited
- de-hired
- deselected
- destaffed
- discontinued
- disemployed
- dislocated
- displaced
- downsized
- excessed
- involuntarily separated
- nonretained
- nonrenewed
- severed
- surplussed
- transitioned
- vocationally relocated

Instead of "layoffs":   

- degrowing
- executive culling
- job separation
- payroll adjustment
- personnel surplus reduction
- reduction in force or "rif" (verb form:" I was riffed")
- redundancy elimination
- refocusing job the skill mix
- refocusing of the skill mix
- resource reallocation
- reorganization
- right-sizing
- work force imbalance correction