Were You Fired, or Were You Fired?

Why does the word "fired" have so many meanings?

Suppose someone applies for a job, having been "fired" (in the adjective and employment senses). Definitions of fired range from the nebulous "having lost your job," or "having been ordered to give up your job" to the ostensibly more specific. For example, the Cambridge International Dictionary of English defines fired as: "to remove someone from their job, either because they have done something wrong or badly, or as a way of saving the cost of employing them."

In these definitions lies the problem.

First, can we assume that the seemingly neutral definition of fired – "having lost your job" – is really neutral? Lost your job how? Through fault, or through no fault of your own?

And consider the longer definition mentioned above ("to remove someone from their job, either because they have done something wrong or badly, or as a way of saving the cost of employing them"). There's a big difference between Joe who was fired "as a way of saving the cost of employing (him)" (e.g., Joe was downsized) and Mary who has "done something wrong or badly" (e.g., Mary spits in her patients' soups).

Further, "as a way of saving the cost of employing them" could mean several things. It could mean that there have been funding cutbacks, so skilled, competent Joe must go. But it could also mean that Joe has been costing the hospital thousands of dollars in stolen hospital supplies.

And "having been ordered to give up your job" could apply to the above-mentioned Mary's situation – she was ordered to give it up for having "done something wrong or badly" (i.e., spitting in a patient's soup). But back to the mysterious Joe – suppose he's ordered to give up his job, not for having stolen items or for incompetence, but because the CEO's nephew wants the job, or the new grad is cheaper?

"So Jane, I see you were fired from your last position …?"

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