The department that turned firing into a growth opportunity.
To keep employees from jumping ship to your competitors by offering just enough compensation, culture, or free snacks to make them stay. In HR circles, retention is the art of convincing talented people that the grass isn't actually greener on the other side. It's also what lawyers do when you pay them a retainer—essentially putting them on standby like a professional fire extinguisher.
The official HR term for "things employees are pissed about," ranging from legitimate workplace violations to deeply felt parking spot disputes. These formal complaints trigger processes, investigations, and enough paperwork to deforest a small nation. In unionized environments, grievances are practically an art form with their own procedures and timelines.
Marking employees whose pay exceeds the maximum for their grade or band, typically freezing their raises until the range catches up. It's being punished for making too much money, bureaucracy-style.
The department responsible for making employees smarter, usually with outdated online courses they completed at 1 AM on their last day of the quarter.
A vesting schedule where retirement or equity benefits become fully available all at once after a specific period, rather than gradually. You get nothing, nothing, nothing, then suddenly everything.
Workers classified as exempt from overtime requirements under FLSA, typically salaried professionals who can work 60 hours and get paid for 40. The 'promotion' that actually decreases your hourly wage.
A temporary unpaid leave where employees remain technically employed but don't work or get paid, preserving benefits while saving the company money. It's the corporate equivalent of 'it's not you, it's the economy'—but actually, it's definitely the company's budget.
Fair Labor Standards Act—the 1938 federal law establishing minimum wage, overtime pay, and child labor standards. It's the reason you get paid extra for working more than 40 hours, assuming your employer classifies you correctly.
The legally prohibited but distressingly common practice of punishing employees who dare to complain about workplace issues, report violations, or otherwise make waves. What starts as someone raising a legitimate concern about safety or discrimination mysteriously transforms into performance reviews that suddenly go south, convenient budget cuts to their department, or being assigned to the office next to the server room. HR departments have entire training modules on how not to do this, which tells you everything about how often it happens.
The corporate euphemism for firing someone, borrowed from the Terminator franchise to make HR sound more badass than they actually are. Can mean to end anything incompletely, but let's be honest—in business contexts, it's the word your manager uses right before security escorts you out. Also works for killing things, which really doesn't help its workplace PR.
The corporate art of extracting maximum value from resources (read: humans) while providing minimum compensation or recognition. Often disguised with terms like 'opportunity' or 'exposure.' The uncomfortable truth behind many 'entry-level' positions and unpaid internships.
Corporate-speak for when employees have collectively stopped pretending to care, manifesting as decreased loyalty, subtle rebellion, and suspiciously high LinkedIn activity. It's the organizational equivalent of your teenager saying "fine" in that particular tone. Usually caused by poor leadership, broken promises, or one too many mandatory fun activities.
A choreographed conversation where one person asks questions and the other pretends their weaknesses are actually strengths. In the corporate world, it's a ritual where both parties lie professionally—one about loving "dynamic environments" and the other about "competitive compensation." The outcome is usually determined in the first five minutes, but both sides politely continue the charade for another 45.
A derogatory term for a union-busting scab who refused to strike with their fellow workers, thereby condemning them to continue toiling. Picture the ultimate workplace traitor with a stick where their spine should be.
A public employee review on the Glassdoor platform—anonymous workplace roasting that HR reads obsessively while pretending not to care.
A proposed work movement where employees do only the bare minimum on Mondays—simultaneously more honest and more threatened by management.
A relationship where an experienced professional guides a less experienced one. It's networking with a life-size guidance system.
The time it takes a new employee to reach full productivity. It's the polite way of saying 'you're useless for the first three months.'
The state of sticking together or working as one unit—what HR desperately hopes team-building exercises will achieve.
An employee's belief in their ability to succeed at tasks. It's the difference between 'I've got this' and 'I'm doomed.'
Data-driven analysis of employee information to optimize workforce decisions. It's turning people into spreadsheets for efficiency.
The process of bringing an international expatriate employee back to their home country office. Often involves culture shock in reverse.
A job opening that remains perpetually posted but is never actually filled due to unrealistic requirements, budget freezes, or lack of genuine intent to hire. The corporate equivalent of Schrödinger's job—simultaneously open and closed.
In HR-speak, the allegedly objective process of choosing the 'best' candidate from a pool of applicants, theoretically based on qualifications rather than golf handicaps. In evolutionary biology, it's nature's brutal but effective hiring process where the most fit survive. Both involve a lot of comparison, some unconscious bias, and outcomes that won't please everyone.