insultation period

In a corporate setting, when making staff redundant, there is a legal requirement to pretend that the proposed staff cuts are merely being considered, and have not formally been decided on. There is a gap of several weeks “consultation period” between the announcement and the actual redundancies taking effect. During this period people who are about to be summarily executed get several weeks to be repeatedly asked how they “feel about the changes”. Since this “consultancy” is entirely fictitious, and is in fact a patronising artefact of gormless corporate stupidity , it is more accurately referred to as the “insultation period”.