RIF
Formal mass layoff
RIF stands for reduction in force—a formal term for layoffs or workforce cuts, especially in government and corporate contexts: The company announced a RIF affecting two hundred employees.
As a verb, to be RIFed is to lose one's job in such a reduction: Half the department got RIFed last quarter.
The acronym softens the blow linguistically while describing the same outcome as being fired or laid off.
Eliminating employee positions
- workforce reductionCutting employee headcount
- personnel cutsEliminating staff positions
- staff reductionDecreasing employee numbers
- headcount reductionCutting employee numbers
corporate downsizing · hiring freeze · voluntary separation · early retirement · buyout · attrition · human resources · cost reduction
Act of ending something
- severanceTermination pay or disconnection
- unemploymentBeing without paid work
- pink slipEmployment termination notice
- furloughGranted absence from work
dismissal · redundancy · outplacement · discharge · joblessness · notice period · exit interview · COBRA
Enforced economic stringency
- deficit reductionShrinking budget shortfalls
- sequestrationAct of setting apart
- budget cutsPlanned spending reductions
- belt-tighteningReducing expenditures deliberately
cost-cutting · government shutdown · appropriations · federal budget · spending freeze · fiscal year · discretionary spending · public sector
reduction in force
Eliminating employee positions
- workforce reductionCutting employee headcount
- personnel cutsEliminating staff positions
- staff reductionDecreasing employee numbers
headcount reduction · corporate downsizing · hiring freeze · voluntary separation · early retirement · buyout · attrition · human resources · cost reduction · operational efficiency
termination
Act of ending something
- severanceTermination pay or disconnection
- unemploymentBeing without paid work
- pink slipEmployment termination notice
furlough · dismissal · redundancy · outplacement · discharge · joblessness · notice period · exit interview · COBRA · job search
austerity
Enforced economic stringency
- deficit reductionShrinking budget shortfalls
- sequestrationAct of setting apart
- budget cutsPlanned spending reductions
belt-tightening · cost-cutting · government shutdown · appropriations · federal budget · spending freeze · fiscal year · discretionary spending · public sector · defense cuts
- federal employmentfederal jobs, federal employees, federal workers, federal workforce, government workers
- Semantic Webtriple, triples, ontologies, knowledge graph, semantic web
- civil servicecivil servants, bureaucrat, civil servant, administrator, clerk
RIFhiring
Giving someone work
recruitment · hiring spree · onboarding · staffing up · talent acquisition
RIFexpansion
Increase in scope
growth · scaling up · buildup · ramping up · business expansion
- guitar riffShort repeated musical phrase
- bass riffRepeated low-pitched musical phrase
- dimensional riftOpening between parallel realms
- rift valleysFault-bounded crustal depressions
- Great Rift ValleyTectonic depression spanning continents
- East African RiftContinental divergence zone