[saretired]

'Laid off' is ambiguous: it can mean either a temporary suspension (i.e., a factory lays off some workers until conditions improve) or a permanent job loss. I haven't seen any suggestion that these job loses at Theranos are temporary, so I have no problem with the use of the word 'fired' in this context.

[derefr]

I always thought "fired" was the ambiguous word, because a firing can be with or without cause. A layoff is always without cause. In common usage, though, to contrast with "layoff", saying "I was fired" usually means "with cause."

Because of that, this headline actually feels like incorrect usage: a company wouldn't "fire" 41% of its staff unless they were all engaged in some secret after-hours lab-equipment smuggling ring (and probably not even then.)

[pascalxus]

The egregious misuse of the word "laid off" and "fired", continues to prevail. I suspect, their doing it on purpose, to get more click throughs.