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My friend got rif'd

Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 4:31 am
by peacock2121
Never heard of that word before. Reduction in Force.

When did they do away with "laid off"?

Anyway, she is a special ed teacher (physical education) and their school did not get enough commitments from the main stream schools to need her (and 2 others). Seems the schools need to save money and will try to keep their special ed kids in house.

Re: My friend got rif'd

Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 5:24 am
by vettech
I know the federal government has used the term RIF for decades. Maybe local governments do the same?

Re: My friend got rif'd

Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 5:26 am
by peacock2121
She was almost in tears when she was telling me and I had no clue what it meant. I thought she had been assaulted in some way. I let her talk and I figured it out.

Re: My friend got rif'd

Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 6:17 am
by jaybee
The term has been around for a long time. It's usually used when there are multiple layoffs or cutbacks in production that require a smaller workforce. I think the intent is to soften the blow - getting RIF'd has less stigma than getting fired or laid off as you are always a part of a group who lost their jobs, not just one individual who was let go. A small point though. I hope your friend can regroup and find an even better job.

Re: My friend got rif'd

Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 6:58 am
by vettech
peacock2121 wrote:She was almost in tears when she was telling me and I had no clue what it meant. I thought she had been assaulted in some way. I let her talk and I figured it out.

Oooh, yes, I can see how that can sound even worse than it is. :shock: I hope everything works out for her.

Re: My friend got rif'd

Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 6:59 am
by BackInTex
I was Rif'd in 2005. The term is business PC.

Re: My friend got rif'd

Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 7:07 am
by mrkelley23
I think the term stems from legalese in some Federal law or policy pertaining to how such layoffs are to be handled. Those entities who have to worry about obeying federal laws on labor (and schools definitely fit that category) tend to use that term, because that's what it's called in the language of the Act. RIFs are painful, but not usually permanent. There have been two times in my career when I have gotten RIFed, and in each case I was hired back before school started again. Something about the act's requirements means they tend to notify many more people than they actually intend to lay off, so maybe there's still hope for your friend.

We do tend to lose a lot of good young teachers every time the economy tanks, though -- that's when RIFs happen, of course. That's what the conscientious "reformers" are trying to address (wrongly, IMHO) by attacking teacher unions.

Re: My friend got rif'd

Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 7:58 am
by andrewjackson
My brother-in-law got rif'd 20 years ago just when he was about to marry my sister. Spent 2 years as a commercial plumber's assistant before he got hired back at his school. He's been there ever since. And their daughter is about to graduate from the same school. She is in the running for valedictorian but I don't know yet if she got it.

Re: My friend got rif'd

Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 7:59 am
by geoffil
My favorite term is "sun setting." I worked at a company that was eliminating a division. Our branch was number one in the region and number 2 in the country for profits. It was so profitable that on the same day our VP gave our branch several awards for sales goals and customer service, he announced the division was sun setting. Never once told us it meant the division was being eliminated. We never knew the truth until 6 months later. Too chicken. The good news is although the sales people couldn't sell the service anymore everyone else kept their jobs for years because it made money.

Re: My friend got rif'd

Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 8:25 am
by Bob Juch
geoffil wrote:My favorite term is "sun setting." I worked at a company that was eliminating a division. Our branch was number one in the region and number 2 in the country for profits. It was so profitable that on the same day our VP gave our branch several awards for sales goals and customer service, he announced the division was sun setting. Never once told us it meant the division was being eliminated. We never knew the truth until 6 months later. Too chicken. The good news is although the sales people couldn't sell the service anymore everyone else kept their jobs for years because it made money.
"Sunsetting the mainframe" is now en vogue.

Re: My friend got rif'd

Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 8:29 am
by littlebeast13
I think there's an even bigger rif'ing we all need to be worrying about.........

lb13

Re: My friend got rif'd

Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 8:40 am
by peacock2121
Where the heck have I been?

Re: My friend got rif'd

Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 8:45 am
by silverscreenselect
BackInTex wrote:I was Rif'd in 2005. The term is business PC.
I wonder if Donald Trump will use that term on the next season of Celebrity Apprentice.

"Stephen Baldwin... you've been RIF'd."

Re: My friend got rif'd

Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 8:49 am
by christie1111
Found it!

Re: My friend got rif'd

Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 8:54 am
by Queen Fantine VIII
Reading is Fundamental

From both grade school and Paris is Burning....ha!

Re: My friend got rif'd

Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 8:57 am
by littlebeast13
Queen Fantine VIII wrote:Reading is Fundamental

From both grade school and Paris is Burning....ha!

I almost made a Reading Is Fundamental joke until I finally realized I had the lead-in for this weekend's avatar....

lb13

Re: My friend got rif'd

Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 3:55 pm
by mellytu74
About three years before I actually got my job with The Electric Company, I interviewed for another communications job in the company.

Right after my interview, the position was eliminated. The company was going through a consolidation and the woman from grade school who told me about the initial opening say it was a riff.

I'd never heard the term before and this was 1997. Right after the consolidation, I was hired as a part-time contractor to work on Y2K materials and eventually hired full-time (for non-Y2K) in 1999.

When my job was eliminated in 2004, no one used the term "rif." So, go figure.

Re: My friend got rif'd

Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 3:55 pm
by mellytu74
And hugs to your friend. It stinks.

Re: My friend got rif'd

Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 8:00 pm
by elwoodblues
littlebeast13 wrote:I think there's an even bigger rif'ing we all need to be worrying about.........

lb13
This was post #380,000. LB gets a gus in a post about the coming Apocalypse. And it was his 26th gus (13 x 2 and also mini's number).

This is truly a sign. We are doomed.

Re: My friend got rif'd

Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 8:04 pm
by littlebeast13
elwoodblues wrote:
littlebeast13 wrote:I think there's an even bigger rif'ing we all need to be worrying about.........

lb13
This was post #380,000. LB gets a gus in a post about the coming Apocalypse. And it was his 26th gus (13 x 2 and also mini's number).

This is truly a sign. We are doomed.

It was meant to be.... had I not created the ES pic first, I'd have never gotten it....

I guess this means I won't have to go to work tomorrow....

lb13

Re: My friend got rif'd

Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 8:08 pm
by Beebs52
littlebeast13 wrote:
elwoodblues wrote:
littlebeast13 wrote:I think there's an even bigger rif'ing we all need to be worrying about.........

lb13
This was post #380,000. LB gets a gus in a post about the coming Apocalypse. And it was his 26th gus (13 x 2 and also mini's number).

This is truly a sign. We are doomed.

It was meant to be.... had I not created the ES pic first, I'd have never gotten it....

I guess this means I won't have to go to work tomorrow....

lb13
So all that bitching about our Kodak riff'ing with the business imaging systems division back in 1996 was only a precursor to this? We coulda pressed for more digital stock. Or some film to put in our archives as an artifact. Piss me off.

Re: My friend got rif'd

Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 10:06 pm
by SportsFan68
Rif, plus riffed and riffing, made it into the OSPD (Official Scrabble Players Dictionary) a while back, very annoying. As someone pointed it, it wasn't used in 2004. Once a word is in OSPD, can it come back out? I was annoyed at several of the words that made it in that year but rif is the only one I can remember.

Re: My friend got rif'd

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 3:33 am
by peacock2121
SportsFan68 wrote:Rif, plus riffed and riffing, made it into the OSPD (Official Scrabble Players Dictionary) a while back, very annoying. As someone pointed it, it wasn't used in 2004. Once a word is in OSPD, can it come back out? I was annoyed at several of the words that made it in that year but rif is the only one I can remember.
One of the many things I love about this place is how a conversation starts has no bearing on where it goes.

Re: My friend got rif'd

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 8:49 am
by plasticene
SportsFan68 wrote:Rif, plus riffed and riffing, made it into the OSPD (Official Scrabble Players Dictionary) a while back, very annoying. As someone pointed it, it wasn't used in 2004. Once a word is in OSPD, can it come back out? I was annoyed at several of the words that made it in that year but rif is the only one I can remember.
That's embarrassing. I knew RIF was a word (we usually use all caps when we talk about words in the context of using them in a game), but I didn't even realize it was a verb, since RIFFED and RIFFING are also forms of the common verb RIFF.

It's fairly unusual for a word to be removed from the OSPD. A large number of "offensive" words were removed when the third edition was published, but we still use them in tournament play. Here is the full list of words that were removed when the fourth edition was published: ALNICOES BIRDSHOTS BUCKSHOTS COULISES EMF EMFS HAFIS NUMINOUSES. Most of those are erroneous plurals, HAFIS looks like a misspelling of HAFIZ, and someone must have formerly thought that EMF (electro-motive force) was pronounced as a single syllable rather than spelled out. It isn't clear why AMU and AMUS (atomic mass units) weren't eliminated by the same logic, but as long as they're on the list, we have to consider them kosher for playing the game.

The word list used virtually everywhere but the US and Canada for English-language Scrabble, which contains all of our words as well as thousands of words not valid here, is getting a revision effective January 1, 2012, which you might have read or heard about. There is a long list of words being eliminated, including at least a few neologisms that they had included in their last revision, such as WASM (an outmoded "ISM").

Re: My friend got rif'd

Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 8:57 am
by peacock2121
plasticene wrote:
SportsFan68 wrote:Rif, plus riffed and riffing, made it into the OSPD (Official Scrabble Players Dictionary) a while back, very annoying. As someone pointed it, it wasn't used in 2004. Once a word is in OSPD, can it come back out? I was annoyed at several of the words that made it in that year but rif is the only one I can remember.
That's embarrassing. I knew RIF was a word (we usually use all caps when we talk about words in the context of using them in a game), but I didn't even realize it was a verb, since RIFFED and RIFFING are also forms of the common verb RIFF.

It's fairly unusual for a word to be removed from the OSPD. A large number of "offensive" words were removed when the third edition was published, but we still use them in tournament play. Here is the full list of words that were removed when the fourth edition was published: ALNICOES BIRDSHOTS BUCKSHOTS COULISES EMF EMFS HAFIS NUMINOUSES. Most of those are erroneous plurals, HAFIS looks like a misspelling of HAFIZ, and someone must have formerly thought that EMF (electro-motive force) was pronounced as a single syllable rather than spelled out. It isn't clear why AMU and AMUS (atomic mass units) weren't eliminated by the same logic, but as long as they're on the list, we have to consider them kosher for playing the game.

The word list used virtually everywhere but the US and Canada for English-language Scrabble, which contains all of our words as well as thousands of words not valid here, is getting a revision effective January 1, 2012, which you might have read or heard about. There is a long list of words being eliminated, including at least a few neologisms that they had included in their last revision, such as WASM (an outmoded "ISM").
This is another one of those "This is what it's like when I talk about golf" posts.