You can barely turn around these days without bumping into news of yet another company that’s cutting staff, downsizing or laying off workers. These are all the same thing, of course, and no matter what label you put on it, in the end it’s about people losing their livelihood or “involuntarily separating” from their employer, as they sometimes say in HR Land.

I understand layoffs, and I’ve been involved in more than I care to remember (from both sides of the table). But I’ve never understood the misguided notion that layoffs are some sort of smart business strategy. Layoffs, for the most part, are simply a way to quickly cut costs and improve the bottom line. There are times when they make sense, but all too often, they’re done with a chain saw instead of a scalpel.

No one seems to do them with more zeal than the Tribune Co., the Chicago-based media company run by journalist-hating and employee-slamming wild man Sam Zell. I’ve written before about how Zell and his lackeys seem to revel in getting rid of people, and maybe that’s simply because they have a lot of practice from doing it with so much relentless regularity.

One my favorite Zell-owned newspapers, the Los Angeles Times, has been hit particularly hard. But to add insult to injury, Zell’s minions have now started to move away from just plainly stating that they are laying off staff and have instead started to engage in the worst form of corporate B.S. Here’s what I’m talking about:

According Crain’s Chicago Business and other media, the Chicago Tribune eliminated at least a dozen staff positions from its newsroom this week as part of a new wave of cuts designed to rein in costs as advertising revenue continues to decline. Tribune warned of the cuts last week when Tony Hunter, CEO of Chicago Tribune Media Group, told employees that the company was engaging in “right-sizing activities.”

What the hell, you may ask, is a “right-sizing activity”? It’s PR blather and corporate cover for the real word that should be used here: layoffs. It’s silly and patronizing to the people losing their jobs to call it anything else. And it makes me wonder where Sam Zell gets his Tribune executives? Does he stand in line at the School for Brain-Dead Management and simply roll them into his car when they graduate?

Why do companies feel that they have to resort to silly, incomprehensible corporate speak in an attempt to deflect attention from what they are really doing—in this case, seriously reducing the workforce? Do they think that anyone is so stupid as to not see what’s afoot?

Here’s a tip: Be kind but talk straight to your workforce. Even if you must get rid of people, don’t insult them with silly, politically correct jargon that seems to come straight from some Orwellian HR department.

This also reminds me that there is still time to nominate your candidate for the 2008 Workforce Management Stupidus Maximus Award, which I give each spring to the “most ignorant, shortsighted and dumb workforce management practice of the year.”

Last year’s “winner” will be hard to top, because Circuit City and then-CEO Philip Schoonover set the company on the course that led to those wonderful going-out-of-business sales you see today. But as I’ve noted before, Zell and his team at Tribune make a formidable Stupidus Maximus candidate for the 2008 honor. They might be very tough to beat.

There’s still time, of course, to nominate someone else for this singular “honor.” Please let me know if you have a better candidate, either with a comment on this blog or via an e-mail sent to me directly at jhollon@workforce.com. All nominations will be held in strict confidence, of course, to protect the innocent from the guilty.

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