dumbsizingn.
/ˈdʌmsʌɪzɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈdəmˌsaɪzɪŋ/ colloquial (originally and chiefly U.S.).
The practice of reducing the staff numbers of a company, organization, etc., to foolishly low levels, with the result that work can no longer be carried out effectively. Cf. downsizing n. 3.
ΚΠ
1992 San Francisco Business Times (Nexis) 25 Dec. The Trends Research Institute, a New York-based think tank, warns that the continued downsizing may soon turn into ‘dumbsizing’, with companies cutting into muscle rather than into fat as they seek to further maximize profits.
1993 Guardian 14 Oct. i. 15/1 You had ‘downsizing’, a euphemism for sacking workers. You had ‘dumbsizing’, which occurs when downsizing goes too far.
1996 Drug Topics (Nexis) 10 June 11 To many firms, that meant downsizing, which as the Wall Street Journal recently commented, was really ‘dumbsizing’ because often, the same people who were fired were later rehired on a consultant basis at a higher compensation rate.
2002 Sales & Marketing Managem. Aug. 12 I think it is sad that the recent rounds of ‘dumb-sizing’ are displacing great sales and marketing people.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, September 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1992