Coincidentally, I was listening to this old Bob Dylan tune as I ran on the treadmill the other day. Good song. Great poetry.
In any case, immediately after my run I encountered the situation of a person being vacated from his job by an organization. The official word was that this employee had been “released.” The less official word that he had chosen to leave in order to pursue other opportunities.
Maybe we all realize that “laid off” carries a specific legal meaning and “fired” a social stigma. So “released” is a relatively recent euphemistic salve.
Still, with Dylan’s aide, I couldn’t help but come to the implicit realization that if the employee is “released” then the organization casts itself into the role of zoo, hospital, (insane) asylum, addiction rehabilitation centre, or prison. Gotta be one of those to be released, no?
Nov 152011
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