Meaning & use
down staffed
Last updated
Meanings
adjectivenot comparablebusiness
Having fewer employees than before, because some workers have been removed from the payroll.
Grammar: Used after a linking verb: the department is downstaffed. It is not usually placed before a noun.
Patterns
- be downstaffed
- a downstaffed department
- badly downstaffed
After the merger, the whole department was downstaffed and everyone took on extra work.
The hospital says it is dangerously downstaffed on night shifts.
We are downstaffed by about ten people compared with last year.
verbtransitivebusiness
Reduced the number of employees in a company or department, usually to save money.
Grammar: Takes an object: they downstaffed the office. The past form is usually 'downstaffed'.
Patterns
- downstaff something
- be downstaffed
- downstaff a department
Management downstaffed the call center before the busy season began.
The firm downstaffed two teams last spring and moved the work overseas.
Word forms
| third person singular | downstaffs |
|---|---|
| past tense | downstaffed |
| past participle | downstaffed |
| -ing form | downstaffing |
Common combinations
- heavily downstaffed
- The warehouse is heavily downstaffed during the holidays.
- downstaffed workforce
- A downstaffed workforce often means longer hours for those who remain.
- badly downstaffed
- The clinic is badly downstaffed and patients wait for hours.
- be downstaffed by ten people
- The sales team is downstaffed by ten people this quarter.
Synonyms and how they differ
- understaffed
- This is the everyday word for not having enough workers; 'downstaffed' specifically suggests the number was cut on purpose.
- short-staffed
- Informal and common in speech; it means the same but does not suggest a planned reduction.
- lean
- Used in business to describe a company with few employees, but it sounds positive, while 'downstaffed' sounds neutral or negative.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: down staffed or understaffed?
down staffed vs understaffed
'Understaffed' means there are not enough workers for the job, whether or not anyone was dismissed; 'downstaffed' focuses on a reduction in numbers.
Practice
The factory was badly ______ after the new owners cut two hundred jobs.
Choose one answer.
After 'was' we need a past participle used as an adjective, so 'downstaffed' fits. 'Downstaffing' would need a form of 'be' plus another verb pattern, and 'downstaff' is the base form.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “down staffed”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.