炒鱿鱼是广东话俗语，就是被公司裁员的意思。以前被解雇的人是没有地方可以申诉的，一听到老板的通知，便只好卷起铺盖走人。因为那个年代老板提供住的地方，但棉被需要自备，因此被解雇的时候，当然要卷起自己的铺盖，被解雇的人，觉得开除或解雇这些字眼太刺耳，所以开始有些人用“卷铺盖”来代替。在炒鱿鱼时，鱿鱼被加热后会慢慢卷曲。和卷铺盖的动作相似，因此炒鱿鱼就成为被公司裁员的代名词。另一传说来源是以前香港的老板如打算裁员，会在每年所有职员围在一起吃饭的时候，加一道炒鱿鱼以慰劳大家，并暗示会裁员。
Fired squid is a Cantonese slang, which means being laid off by the company. In the past, people who were fired had no place to appeal. Once they heard the boss’s notice, they had to roll up their bedding and leave. Because in that era, the boss provided a place to live, but the quilt had to be prepared by themselves, so when they were fired, of course they had to roll up their own bedding. The fired people felt that the words “fired” or “dismissed” were too harsh, so some people began to use “roll up the bedding” instead. When firing squid, the squid will slowly curl up after being heated. Similar to the action of rolling up the bedding, firing squid has become a synonym for being laid off by the company. Another source of legend is that in the past, if the boss in Hong Kong planned to lay off employees, he would add a dish of fried squid to comfort everyone when all employees gathered together for dinner every year, and hinted that there would be layoffs.