A lay off is generally broad in scope. A department might get laid off.
Firings are usually with cause and individual. You are fired for showing up late every day. You’re laid off when they simply don’t need you anymore.
This varies from state to state across the US and probably only applies here, but if you’re fired with cause, you generally don’t get unemployment benefits. If you’re laid off you might get a severance on top of unemployment.
Particularly shitty companies will always fire as many people as they can prior to a lay off. A big part of HR’s job at these organizations is making sure they have a case to fire as many people as possible at any given time. If you’ve ever worked in any call center in the US, you’ve been subjected to this, knowingly or not. They’ll document a handful of even the slightest grievances and make sure they have two in the chamber at any given time for any given employee, so if it looks like they need to get rid of a lot of people in the near future they’ll start digging for a third infraction.
Jankatarch@lemmy.world 1 day ago
You het fired for being bad at work, coming in late, etc.
You get laid off for “we don’t wanna pay you anymore.”