When you want to take a vacation, your company may ask, “Could you move your vacation to another date? Now’s not a good time for you to be out of the office.”
When you tender your resignation, your company may ask, “Can you give us more time before your last day? Now’s a really inconvenient time for you to be leaving us.”
But when the company lays you off, can you say, “Gee, could you lay me off some other time? Now’s not a good time to be unemployed.” ? No, that’s just not done. Why not?
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Updated 2/8/09: I keep fiddling with the wording of this one. I’ll stop now.
Seek Nuance 
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