Have you ever worked at a company that has laid off employees, been one of the “lucky ones” in the non-laid-off group, and heard a supervisor say something like this?

I know several people for whom today, because of a layoff, is their final day of employment at a major American company, and this kind of “Be sensitive …” advice came to mind.

Because this particular company has a lot of employees and therefore falls under the WARN Act, the company notified the laid-off employees sixty calendar days ago that today would be their final day of employment there.

The direct implication of “Be sensitive to those being laid off today.” is that those being laid off will be in a worse situation than if they had not been laid off.

The indirect implication of “Be sensitive to those being laid off today.” is that the listener will be in a better situation than those being laid off.

I am sure that at least some of those laid off will be in a worse situation, at least initially.

And anyone who is laid off suffers, at least initially, from another “L” word: loss.

But I believe that the long-term prospect for many is a different “L” word: liberation. After they work through the pain of the loss, many people review their strengths, begin to see new opportunities, and feel liberated.

And the ones who were not laid off, the ones who must now handle the additional tasks previously handled by those where laid off, are effectively told by their supervisors that they are the “lucky ones”.

You have to wonder who is “lucky” and who is not.

One more comment: I prefer “fired” to “laid off”. No matter whether I am laid off or fired, it means that I was not serving my company as well for my pay as someone who was not laid off or fired was serving my company for his or her pay.

So a “layoff” is effectively a firing.

Companies use the “layoff” euphemism to conceal the fact that they are firing employees.

The word “layoff” implies that a company later will “lay on” those laid-off employees — as if the company will start to pay them again after some period. Not!

If you believe, as I do, that a layoff leads to loss but can then lead to liberation, then you have to be optimistic for, and not just “sensitive to”, anyone being laid off.

P.S. If you are now at a company that has laid off other employees but not you, then you might want to review whether your job is still the right fit for you. For this exercise, I recommend a book titled No More Mondays, by Dan Miller.

The provocative subtitle of the book is “Fire Yourself — and Other Revolutionary Ways to Discover Your True Calling at Work”.

Read this book, and you either will renew your career in your current job or will find yourself looking for another job or self-employment.

And you truly will be a “lucky one”, too.