Aristos
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- Dec 28, 2017
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Well, I'm not a native speaker so I need to stand corrected then.Fired generally means getting dismissed due to something the worker was at fault for. You can get fired for shit like low productivity, conduct, harassment etc... Those are things that are not beyond worker's control. Companies are not obligated to pay severance for firings.
If a worker is terminated due to something the company did such as a downsizing or a restructuring, then that's when the company is obligated to pay severance. It's generally not called "getting fired" in that situation. It's called "getting laid off".
So that was my point. Xenorav didn't get fired. The employer worked out a deal to get him a layoff (termination with severance pay) in exchange for keeping him a little longer.
Are you American, by any chance?
What I had always seen and was taught before is that both to be fired or sacked (its British equivalent) simply meant being dismissed from a job, whether with cause or not.
Those would be the most common verbs used in everyday language, while to lay off would be a more formal expression that often (but not always) denoted a temporary dismissal due to some specific problems on the company's part. That's how I had understood it until now.