Tulkinghorn was chatting to one of his Clifford Chance cronies the other day, who happened to mention in passing that, sadly, one of his colleagues had been “adjusted”.
In his confusion, Tulkinghorn thought it might be some comment about the mental state of the colleague – perhaps something along the lines of maladjusted (which sort of fits with working at Clifford Chance). But apparently not.
On further investigation, Tulkinghorn discovered that 'adjusted' was actually the Clifford Chance euphemism for being made redundant. According to the Clifford Chance dictionary, the word is derived from the phrase 'head count adjustment'. What a genteel bunch. Not.
