Dismissal (employment)

Dismissal (also called firing) is the termination of employment by an employer against the will of the employee. Though such a decision can be made by an employer for a variety of reasons, ranging from an economic downturn to performance-related problems on the part of the employee, being fired has a strong stigma in some cultures. To be dismissed, as opposed to quitting voluntarily (or being laid off), is often perceived as being the employee's fault. Finding new employment may often be difficult after being fired, particularly if there is a history of being terminated from a previous job, if the reason for firing is for some serious infraction, or the employee did not keep the job very long. Job seekers will often not mention jobs that they were fired from on their resumes; accordingly, unexplained gaps in employment are often regarded as a red flag. While the main formal term for ending someone's employment is "dismissal", there are a number of colloquial or euphemistic expressions for the same action. "Firing" is a common colloquial term in the English language (particularly used in the U.S. and Canada), which may have originated in the 1910s at the National Cash Register Company. Other terms for dismissal are being "sacked", "canned", "let go", "ran-off", "axed", being given walking papers, the pink slip or one's cards, or "boned". Other terms, more often used in Commonwealth countries, include "to get the boot" and "to get the sack". Most US states have adopted the at-will employment contract that allows the employer to dismiss employees without having to provide a justified reason for firing, although the variety of court cases that have come out of "at-will" dismissals have made such at-will contracts ambiguous. Often, an at-will termination is handled as a "layoff". Sometimes, an employee will be dismissed if an employer can find better employees than the incumbent, even if the fired employee has not technically broken any rules.