--- title: Soft words for hard things: work, firing and the economy — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Soft words for hard things: work, firing and the economy», a lesson of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Losing a job is painful and frightening, so bosses, newspapers and governments reach for soft words when they --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/21-work-firing-and-the-economy/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Euphemisms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/) / Soft words for hard things: work, firi… # Soft words for hard things: work, firing and the economy Lesson 21 of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school: 22 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/euphemisms/21-work-firing-and-the-economy/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/21-work-firing-and-the-economy/0/) — Losing a job is painful and frightening, so bosses, newspapers and governments reach for soft words when they talk about it. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/21-work-firing-and-the-economy/2/) — A company that sacks two hundred people may announce "a headcount reduction", as if it only changed a number on a chart. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/21-work-firing-and-the-economy/3/) — Economists do the same with bad news: "negative growth" sounds like growing, but it means the economy got smaller. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/21-work-firing-and-the-economy/4/) — When you hear such a word, ask: what really happened, and to whom? - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/21-work-firing-and-the-economy/5/) — "Resting" means out of work, said jokingly of an actor (mostly UK). - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/21-work-firing-and-the-economy/6/) — "Taking a career break" means not working for a while, often because there is no job. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/21-work-firing-and-the-economy/9/) — "Workforce adjustment" means layoffs (business jargon, common in Canada). - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/21-work-firing-and-the-economy/10/) — "Outplacement" means help given to fired workers to find new jobs. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/21-work-firing-and-the-economy/11/) — "Garden leave" means being paid to stay at home, away from work, until the notice period ends; the notice period is the last few weeks of a job after you have been told it will end (UK). - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/21-work-firing-and-the-economy/12/) — "Early retirement" often means being pushed out of a job before the usual age. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/21-work-firing-and-the-economy/13/) — "Voluntary severance" means being paid to leave one's job. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/21-work-firing-and-the-economy/14/) — "Shown the door" means fired. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/21-work-firing-and-the-economy/15/) — "Given his marching orders" means fired or told to leave (mostly UK). - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/21-work-firing-and-the-economy/16/) — "Relieved of his duties" means fired, in official language. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/21-work-firing-and-the-economy/17/) — "Negative growth" means the economy is shrinking. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/21-work-firing-and-the-economy/18/) — "Economic slowdown" means a recession or something close to one; a recession is a time when a country's businesses make and sell less, and many people lose their jobs. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/21-work-firing-and-the-economy/19/) — "Market correction" means a big fall in prices on the markets. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/21-work-firing-and-the-economy/20/) — "Quantitative easing" means the central bank (the country's own bank, in charge of its money) creating new money. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/21-work-firing-and-the-economy/21/) — "Soft landing" means a slowdown that avoids a full recession. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/21-work-firing-and-the-economy/22/) — "Flexible hours" often means irregular hours with no guaranteed pay. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/21-work-firing-and-the-economy/23/) — "Independent contractor" means a worker without the rights and benefits of an employee, such as sick pay, holiday pay and a safe job (US). - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/21-work-firing-and-the-economy/24/) — "Sanitation engineer" is a joking or puffed-up name for a rubbish or garbage collector (US). - ← previous: [Soft words for hard things: money and poverty and work, firing and the economy](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/20-debt-and-jobs/) - next →: [Soft words for hard things: work, firing and the economy and business and advertising](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/22-jobs-shops-and-estate-agents/) - ↑ back to [Euphemisms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/)