Bumping

Bumping is a practice used during organizational downsizing that allows a senior employee whose position is being eliminated to displace a less senior employee in a lower-level role. The senior employee moves into the junior position, and the person previously in that role is let go.

The logic is straightforward: rather than losing experienced, high-performing employees to redundancy, the organization preserves them by moving them into roles that would otherwise be filled by less tenured staff.

How bumping rights are applied, and whether they exist at all, typically depends on employment contracts, union agreements, or company policy.