Company Employees Lay Working Economy Cut Back Bad

"In hard times" (when the economy is bad), companies try to "cut back" (reduce their costs and save money) in many ways. One way to cut back is to "eliminate" (get rid of; stop having) "perks," or the benefits of working in a job. For example, a company might stop providing free coffee, "snacks" (food eaten between meals), or water for its employees. A company could also eliminate perks by taking away "company cars" (cars that are owned by a company but that an employee can drive for professional and personal use) or cell phones.

Companies can also cut back by not having their regular holiday parties and "employee appreciation days," which are days when the company does nice things for its employees, like taking them and their families to a pizza restaurant or to go bowling. These are things that employees generally like to have, but the company can save a lot of money by getting rid of them.

Unfortunately, the easiest way for a company to cut back is to lay off employees. If a company is in a "dire" (very bad, serious) situation, it might lay off many or most of its employees and not replace them with new employees. A company that is in a "slightly" (a little bit) better situation might only lay off a few employees. Sometimes a company will lay off some of its oldest employees so that it can hire new, cheaper employees. A new employee who just finished college doesn't have to be paid as much as someone who has worked in a company for 20 years, but sometimes he or she can do the work just as well as someone with more "seniority" (the amount of time that one has worked in a company).