Speak the market's language

28 terms

RIF (Reduction in Force)Layoffs & HR

The formal HR term for permanently eliminating positions. Unlike being fired for cause, a RIF targets roles, not performance — which is why strong performers get caught in them.

WARN ActMoney & Legal

US federal law requiring employers with 100+ staff to give 60 days' notice before mass layoffs or plant closures. Many states have stricter 'mini-WARN' versions. Companies sometimes pay 60 days' wages in lieu of notice.

SeveranceMoney & Legal

Pay and benefits offered when you're let go, typically in exchange for signing a release of legal claims. Common tech formula: a base amount plus one to two weeks per year of service. More is negotiable than people assume — especially dates, equity treatment, and healthcare.

Garden leaveMoney & Legal

Being paid through a notice period while not working — you're technically employed (vesting continues, competitors off-limits) but off all systems.

PIP (Performance Improvement Plan)Layoffs & HR

A formal performance process that, in practice, often functions as a documented exit path. In 2023–25, performance frameworks became a common mechanism for planned headcount cuts (Meta's 'low performer' rounds).

Quiet firingLayoffs & HR

Making a role unpleasant or invisible enough that the person leaves on their own: no projects, no raises, exclusion from meetings. Saves the employer severance.

Quiet hiringMarket Dynamics

Filling capability gaps without new headcount: internal moves, contractors, and increasingly AI tooling — one reason job postings understate real labor demand shifts.

Ghost jobMarket Dynamics

A posting the employer isn't actively filling — kept up to build pipelines, signal growth, or satisfy posting policies. Surveys through 2024 suggested a large share of listings qualified, which is why application-to-response rates collapsed.

BackfillLayoffs & HR

Re-hiring for a role after someone leaves. 'No backfill' policies are how companies shrink without announcing layoffs — the silent version of a RIF.

Attrition (natural)Layoffs & HR

Headcount reduction through normal departures rather than cuts. IBM's approach to AI-affected roles: don't fire anyone; just stop replacing leavers.

Hiring freezeMarket Dynamics

A pause on new hires — historically the most reliable one-to-two-quarter leading indicator of layoffs, and the first lever every CFO pulls.

The Great FlatteningMarket Dynamics

The 2023–25 trend of removing middle-management layers: wider spans of control, fewer coordinators, more player-coaches. Explicit policy at Meta, Amazon, Google and Microsoft.

Span of controlLayoffs & HR

How many direct reports a manager has. Rising norms (from ~6–8 toward 10–15) are the arithmetic behind management layoffs.

Efficiency eraMarket Dynamics

The post-2022 investor regime where markets reward cost discipline over growth-at-all-costs — the reason profitable companies keep cutting.

Over-hiring correctionMarket Dynamics

The unwinding of 2020–21 pandemic hiring, when big tech grew 40–60% for a demand spike that partially reverted. Cause of most 2022–23 layoffs.

AI-first companyAI & Work

An organization requiring teams to justify why AI can't do a job before hiring a human for it (Shopify's 2025 memo made the template public). Changes the default from 'hire' to 'automate, then hire'.

AI attributionAI & Work

Whether a layoff is genuinely tied to AI (substitution or reallocation) versus using AI as a narrative for ordinary cost-cutting. We flag it conservatively in our tracker — only when the company or credible reporting made the link.

Task exposure vs. job exposureAI & Work

AI automates tasks, not job titles. A role is exposed to the degree its task mix is routine, digital and well-specified — which is why parts of law score higher than parts of plumbing.

Human-in-the-loopAI & Work

Workflows where AI produces and a human reviews, approves or corrects. The near-term shape of most 'automated' work — and where many surviving roles concentrate.

Agentic AI / AI agentsAI & Work

AI systems that complete multi-step tasks autonomously (handling a support ticket end-to-end) rather than answering single prompts. The technology behind 2025's support-org reductions.

RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)AI & Work

Wiring an AI model to your documents/data so it answers from them. The most common first LLM feature teams ship — and a resume keyword that measurably improves response rates.

Reskilling / UpskillingAI & Work

Learning for a different role vs. deepening your current one. Accenture made the stakes explicit in 2025: staff who can't be reskilled for AI delivery get 'exited'.

Equity cliff / vestingMoney & Legal

Stock compensation earned over time (typically 4 years, 1-year cliff). Layoff timing matters enormously: leaving pre-cliff can mean losing everything, which is why departure dates are worth negotiating.

Exercise windowMoney & Legal

After leaving, the time you have to buy your vested stock options — often just 90 days. One of the most expensive things laid-off employees discover too late.

COBRAMoney & Legal

US provision letting you keep employer health insurance after leaving — at full (often startling) cost. Severance negotiations frequently include employer-paid COBRA months.

OutplacementMoney & Legal

Career-transition services (coaching, resume help) employers sometimes fund for laid-off staff. Worth asking for by name in severance talks — it costs the company little.

Boomerang employeeLayoffs & HR

Someone re-hired by a company that previously laid them off — increasingly common as firms cut broadly, then discover which capabilities they actually needed.

Open to workMarket Dynamics

LinkedIn's public job-seeking signal. Debated endlessly; the data suggests recruiters do filter on it, in both directions. Referrals still beat any badge.