By MEI FONG * APRIL 16, 2009
BEIJING -- A staff-restructuring in China by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. may result in about 2.5% of its local work force, or about 1,400 people, relocating or getting pay cuts.
The changes will trim Wal-Mart's current five-tier management system, primarily by cutting jobs at the middle-manager level. The company said affected employees will be forced to relocate to other stores in neighboring areas or face reduced salaries.
Wal-Mart said the moves are meant to improve efficiency and maintain growth. "There are no layoffs," said Jonathan Dong, a spokesman for Wal-Mart in China. "If someone wants to go somewhere else [outside Wal-Mart], that is their decision," he said.
Despite the global financial crisis, Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, has continued to expand in China, one of its fastest growing markets. It has opened 23 stores in the country so far this year. Last year, it opened a total of 30 stores.
As of March 31, the company had 246 retail units in China, including Wal-Mart supercenters; bulk discounter Sam's Club stores; and Trust-Mart hypermarkets, a Taiwanese chain in which Wal-Mart took a 35% stake two years ago. Wal-Mart has more than 54,000 employees in China, not including workers at Trust-Mart.
—Jin Jing contributed to this article.
source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123978789871920415.html
本篇文章的阅读可以注意以下几处：
一是有关个别单词，如staff-restructuring, relocate, trim, reduced salaries, layoffs，另一部分主要是沃尔玛（中国）发言人对媒体的公开表态中的措辞。
此篇报导发生的外部环境是美国金融危机越来越糟糕的现状，负面影响由虚拟经济转向实体经济，由于沃尔玛本身的价值链涉及到这两种类型的经济形式（沃尔玛全球采购涉及到的基本上是实体经济，即生产制造业，运营及现金流等部分依赖于虚拟经济等与消费零售有关的部分，另外其竞争优势所基于的物流及仓储控制部分的固定成本非常大），因此只有通过裁员减薪等方式降低成本。
然而，对于一家全球五百强的企业，减员减薪这样的报导有损于公司形象，在华尔街日报的报导中，采用了另类的表达，具体的说，是员工重构(staff-restructuring)、再置(relocating)、修剪(trim)、下岗(layoff)等实际意义均为裁员炒鱿鱼的做法。对于不得不用的词汇，如减薪，也避免使用动词（词组）的形式，而改为名词，如reduced salaries, (getting) pay cuts, there are no layoffs等，以使措辞显得较为缓和。
在沃尔玛官方发言人的表态中，上述委婉用法依然存在，但从具体的语句表达中，可明显体会到这个全球商业巨鳄的霸道，如第三自然段中最后称“如果有人想到别处去（指因下岗减薪等政策而离开沃尔玛），那也是他们自己的决定（意思是和沃尔玛无关）。”这种“无关于己责任”的企业思想也反映在其它地方，比如该段开头“the moves are meant to improve...”就表明沃尔玛在中国的裁员减薪政策是一个“行动”（move在这里代表了某种决心），意图（mean这个词并不代表肯定的意义，即是说其后的目标未必一定要实现，因此可判断所谓的“保增长”只是随便找来的裁员理由）提高效率、保持增长。
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update@Jan 18, 2019
DigitalOcean is laying off staff, sources say 30-50 affected
https://techcrunch.com/2020/01/17/digitalocean-layoffs/
“DigitalOcean recently announced a restructuring to better align its teams to its go-forward growth strategy. As part of this restructuring, some roles were, unfortunately, eliminated. DigitalOcean continues to be a high-growth business with $275M in [annual recurring revenues] and more than 500,000 customers globally. Under this new organizational structure, we are positioned to accelerate profitable growth by continuing to serve developers and entrepreneurs around the world.”