Monday, April 02, 2007  New Word Department  The company has
completed a wage management initiative that will result in the
separation of approximately 3,400 store Associates. The
separations, which are occurring today, focused on Associates
who were paid well above the market-based salary range for their
role. [Emphasis added.]   That’s how Circuit City, perennial
also-ran to Best Buy in the electronics superstore wars, chose
to describe ‘people getting fired’ when revealing yet another
turnaround plan last week in a press release quoted above.
“Separations” certainly sounds much softer than “firings” or
“layoffs.”  Even “downsizing,” which has for years been the
euphemism of choice among corporate officers taking, on the one
hand, multi-million dollar option packages for their own good
while, on the other hand, “downsizing” the hourly work force and
shifting production elsewhere, now appears too harsh.  Could be
that The Office has made “downsizing” a much scarier word by
revealing, in its hip, sardonic wa