Meaning & use
retrenched employee
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Meanings
nouncountablebusinessformal
A worker whose job was ended by an employer because the company needed to cut costs or reduce staff.
Grammar: Countable: say 'a retrenched employee' or 'retrenched employees'; the word order is adjective + noun, never 'employee retrenched'.
Patterns
- a retrenched employee at a company
- retrenched employees from the factory
- be retrenched from a job
The factory closed one production line, leaving 80 retrenched employees looking for work.
As a retrenched employee, he received three months' pay and free help with his résumé.
Many retrenched employees retrain in completely different industries.
nouncountablebusiness
A person who has been dismissed from a position because the job itself is no longer needed, rather than because of poor performance.
Grammar: Often used in the plural to talk about a group: 'help for retrenched employees'.
Patterns
- be retrenched
- a group of retrenched employees
She was not fired for doing bad work; she is a retrenched employee whose department was merged.
The union asked for extra support for retrenched employees over the age of fifty.
Word forms
| plural | retrenched employees |
|---|
Common combinations
- retrenched employee benefits
- The company extended retrenched employee benefits for another six months.
- a large number of retrenched employees
- A large number of retrenched employees attended the job fair.
- retrenched employees from the plant
- Retrenched employees from the plant formed a support group.
- help for retrenched employees
- The government announced new help for retrenched employees.
- be retrenched from a position
- He was retrenched from his position when the mine shut down.
Synonyms and how they differ
- laid-off worker
- The everyday American term; 'retrenched employee' sounds more formal and is common in British, Australian and South African business writing.
- redundant worker
- Used mainly in British English, often in the phrase 'made redundant'; it stresses that the job no longer exists.
- displaced worker
- More formal and broader, covering people who lost jobs through closures, disasters or restructuring.
Opposites
Word family
- retrench verb
- to reduce staff or spending, usually to save money
- retrenchment noun
- the act of cutting jobs or costs, or the period when this happens
Commonly confused: retrenched employee or redundant? retrenched employee or retired employee?
retrenched employee vs redundant
A British speaker usually says a worker was 'made redundant', not 'retrenched'; the meaning is close but the wording differs by region.
retrenched employee vs retired employee
A retired employee has stopped working by choice at the end of a career, while a retrenched employee lost the job because the company cut staff.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'retrenched employee' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Retrenched employee' is a noun phrase for someone whose job was cut, so it fits sentence 2. Option 1 is wrong because quitting is the worker's own choice, option 3 uses it as a verb with a missing article, and option 4 describes someone still in the job asking for more money.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “retrenched employee”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.