At one large Madison firm, for example, an office grunt actually saves jargon-laden company memos and waits for an appropriate ''Dilbert'' cartoon to match. When one appears, he clips the cartoon, staples it to the memo and sends it back to where it came; anonymously of course, to avoid becoming a candidate for the company's ''career-change opportunity program.''

Clifford of Vermont gave 15 employees the heave-ho. The president of the company explained to a local newspaper, ''This was not a cutback nor a layoff. It was a career-change opportunity.''