Here are essential business English idioms and vocabulary for employees leaving a company, from giving notice to being shown the door.
give
notice, v. phr. To inform an employer
one will resign from a job. The notice
might be spoken or written.
• It’s customary to give two weeks’ notice before quitting a job.
• Carl gave notice at work today.
pink slip, n. phr. A notice from an employer that someone is being terminated
(fired or laid off) from a job. Traditionally such notices were written on pink
paper.
• Our manager was shocked to receive a pink slip.
• You’re going to wind up with a pink slip if you keep arriving at work late.
fire, v. To terminate
an employee, possibly because of poor behavior.
• You’ll get fired if you keep showing up at
work late.
lay off, phrasal verb. To terminate an employee, often because business is poor or a company is downsizing. Also: let go. The noun is layoff.
• A lot of people got laid off during the recession.
• Our company is laying off a hundred employees.
• We’re going to have to let you go.
• I hope we don’t have more layoffs.
There are many ways to say “get terminated” from
a job. Here are some synonyms.
Formal
• get fired
• get laid off
• get a pink slip
• dismissed (formal)
• sent away
• relieved of duties
• let go (= laid off, a kind phrase)
Informal
• made redundant (corporate speak)
• downsized
• reassigned
• get the boot
• get the ax
• get the sack
• get sacked
• get canned
• get (one’s) walking papers
• get axed
• get shitcanned (rude)
• told to clean out (one’s) desk
• shown the door
