Nobody Wants to be Terminated by the Terminator
QUESTION:
Benoite from France asks: “I would like to know what’s the difference between (in a work situation) “to be terminated” and “to be made redundant.”
ANSWER:
To be terminated is to lose your job, meaning that your company or boss tells you that you no longer have a job there, that you can no longer work there. “To be terminated” is a formal and official way of saying this. The more common and conversational phrase is to be fired from a job.
In a job interview, you may be asked why you were terminated from your last job. If you lost your job because the company closed or reduced its staff (group of workers), you would use the term “to be laid off.” To lay (someone) off means to dismiss a worker, sometimes temporarily (for a short time), because there isn’t enough work; to be laid off means to lose your job for this reason. However, if you lose your job because of something bad that happened, than you were terminated or fired. For example:
- “There was a letter in her work file indicating that she was terminated for stealing.”
- “I was fired from my job because my boss didn’t like me.”
In the U.S., we don’t use the term “to be made redundant.” It’s used in Britain and many Americans aren’t even familiar with this phrase. Redundant means that something is no longer needed or useful. We can use it this way:
- “Now that we have computers to do that job, these workers have become redundant.”
- “This student’s long essay is filled with redundant information and, in the end, only had one or two real ideas.”
You’re probably familiar with the Terminator movies. One thing you’d never want is to be terminated by the Terminator. His job is to take away more than just your job!
~ Lucy
December 1st, 2009 at 10:13 am
Lucy, I would appreciate it, if you could also you explain us what “be on consultation” term means. I have heard this phrase in terms of losing jobs in one big company recently and wondering what it really means. Is it that short time when you’re still working for a company but you are aware that you’ll lost your job in next few weeks?
December 1st, 2009 at 11:06 am
Interesting question indeed, thank you Benoite from France, and to you Lucy I just don´t know what to say.
Your explanation is perfect, so good and clear that every moment you put the level higher and higher to our own profit being
your grateful pupils.
For us is a privilege having you as our most nicer teacher.
Thank you so much Lucy, what is your top?. I don´t know but it is sure that we need your teaching and humor always.
To me this one post has been great and very useful.
emiliano
where are you elcomandant?………..so much time without seeing you here. I hope all is going well in Valencia.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Dear lucy .
the polite way of lay of is: let go. 100 of employees were let go( very common)
And the rude way of you are terminated is : you are finished here ,get the hell out of here(LOL)
but ,in case of your girlfriends just tell them” we re through”
‘
December 1st, 2009 at 12:33 pm
How about I got kicked out?
December 1st, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Be on consulation means a conference for discussion of something but don’t go by me.go by Jeff and Lucy my dear boy
December 1st, 2009 at 3:15 pm
in deed , time to set the bar a bit higher.you know what I mean Lucy . don’t you think ? It Is about time my dear prof.in fact , I wanna take it up a notch
December 1st, 2009 at 3:23 pm
Dear Lucy
I know you wanna take time and ease into things.totally your call sis. Do as you see fit.
December 2nd, 2009 at 12:02 am
I have also heard the verb ‘sack’, i.e. ‘to be sacked’ would be the expression. Anyway, it sounds me a bit strange to learn the expression ‘to be terminated’ is a formal way to do it. Indeed the verb doesn´t have to have exactly the same meaning as in Spanish. So the term ‘terminator’ could mean who makes the decision to fire a person from a company, or to lay off several people, or so, even though in our minds a ‘terminator’ will always be Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is unforgetable into his performance into such movies, although he is currently the Governor of California, isn’t he?
A very interesting item, Dr. Lucy, thank you very much.
Best regards from Spain,
Julio.-
December 2nd, 2009 at 5:13 am
Dear Lucy,
I just read the last part of the post regarding redundant. It is would had been funny, yet totally meaningful if you would have put it this way: the phrase “to be made reduntant” has become redundant in American English. Good one,isn’t it. Redundant basically means no longer useful or in use
Dear Jeff and Lucy by your permision; please correct me if I am wrong!
There is another side to the word redundant though. In gramitical use, redundant means that two words with the same meaning can come one after another in a sentence
For example : I repeat again is redundant because repeat means again
The most common redundant case used commonly is: we are going to go ,another words we gonna go is totally wrong ( a huge redundant case) , but we
use it any way.gramitically speaking,go can’t be followed by going to.
December 2nd, 2009 at 5:26 am
Terribly sorry,
I was doing it on my iPhone , So I couldn’t see the whole enterty
It must have gonne like this:
“It would have been funny, yet meaningfull if you had put it this way”
I am at work texing. The reason I m doing it on the iPhone is that I don’t wanna get busted again
The thing is , My boss and I are not in good terms , Last night I snuck out one hour earlier only because I had a date.
I am totally a whack job , aren’t I ?
December 2nd, 2009 at 5:32 am
Another good one just hit me
All my English text books have become redundant since my inception two years ago with EslPod
Live Large,
December 2nd, 2009 at 7:55 am
Hello!
Good question from Benoit and excellent explanation by Lucy.
When I have read the final part of Lucy answer, I have remembered the film “Terminator” and the famous phrase of Schwarzenegeer (What difficult is to write this name!)
when he got out of the police station and said: “I´ll be back” and all people in the cinema knew it would make Arnold… Lucy and Jeff, I hope he was better politic than actor
By the way, what nice is France, Benoit!
December 2nd, 2009 at 10:12 am
Dear Jeff and lucy,
I am juust done listening to the latest English cafe .as ever ,you nailed it, good job.
You are flying high my firiends;no doubt about it. Believe it or not,I hunted high and low ;you are the best in town.
in the English cofe number 218 the descusion of the word scrubs remineded me of another totally relevent ,and practical term may not be found in any dics or text books
The term is : Scrub in
“srub in” is typically used by doctors when they need some assistance at operation rooms. to put it in a simple way, scrub in means go wear your scrubs and come help me at the operatiom room.
Dear Jeff and Lucy ,I guess I am right ,aren;t I ?
Very good term to know
doc tell a nurs to scrub in
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:07 am
good job ! Excellent explanation ! Thank you and many thanks also for Jeff. We really appreciate your help with ESL. So many people already know , that English isn’t difficult with your podcasts. Best wishes from Czech Republic and stay happy in 2010 !
Ludmil
December 2nd, 2009 at 6:11 pm
On the behalf of all of your students,
Thanks for going the extra miles for helping us
I give you this ;You are good people.
December 3rd, 2009 at 1:27 pm
I liked this explanation very much…
) Especially the part about Terminator 
It’s really funny… and I never heard about “redundand” part 
))
December 5th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Hi ! I am glad that you teach us the IT language as all functions , menu , program , everything is in English in my country .
These lessons are very useful .
December 5th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Hi ! It is not an unusually topic ” Types of Guns and Weapons ” as watching the news we meet them daily .
Good explanation of the difference between guns and weapons . It was a confusion for me .
All the best for you all ,
Tania
December 13th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Thank you very much
December 15th, 2009 at 6:19 am
The sentence “to be terminated by” is new for me. I generally say “to be fired”.