I was chatting with this lady a few days ago, and part of our conversation was on smart career moves, what kind of topics are relevant and hot right now, etc.
Then she mentioned she was "made redundant" by her (now former) company and proceeded to explain the new directions she was researching. And while she didn't come across as hurt or resentful at all, quite the opposite, she was eager to discover new career paths, the word "redundant" stuck with me.

What is this weird label we give people when we don't want them to stay at the company anymore? We use strange, and quite frankly, hurtful and dismissive words to tell someone that they are no longer part of the company. We use words like "severance package", "let go", and "redundant" right to someone's face. 
It doesn't take a scholar to imagine the impact of those words on people. In some case, that person has been working 40hrs a week for several years in that company to the best of their ability, only to hear that they are excess bagage, simply redundant to the success of the company.

Now I do get that sometimes hard decisions need to be made, especially as we are in the middle of the Covid crisis. But we should never forget we are human beings in the first place, interesting, wonderfully made, and precious in its own existence. And to simply label that as "redundant", as if you were throwing out the trash, that simply won't do.