Dear Kotaku (and other news outlets): can you please stop referring to people getting fired as “being made redundant”?
The term doesn’t even work. The people getting axed are very obviously not redundant if axing them likely leads to the cancellation of a project.
In UK nomenclature being made redundant, rounds of redundancies, and layoffs are used interchangeably. A percentage of the workforce loses their job because of circumstances outside their control.
To be fired/sacked though, that very specifically means you did bad; you failed to do your job.
It’s probably similar in Australia?
Tbf, I didn’t see the .au in the URL.
Good point on the distinction between layoff and firing though. Although I still dislike “redundant” as a synonym for the former.
As an American, I also don’t like the term “layoff” because it sounds temporary. I prefer the term “downsize” when referring to groups of people, or “let go” for individuals.
This. There’s a legal distinction between redundancy and other forms of termination that creates some important practical differences.
You can’t just fire people without cause (e.g. gross misconduct) in the UK; it has to go through a redundancy process, and those affected get a compensation package from the company.
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