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In English, we have 2 distinct words for describing the loss of a job
The former implies that the action was the fault of the employee, while the later implies that the action was the fault of the company.
But when I was trying to translate laid off in Russian, the result it gave me was уволен, which is the same as getting fired.
Does this distinction exist in Russian? If you say уволен, is the context more like getting fired or getting laid off?
Уволить - It is the verb that describes the action taken by the company, it does not actually specify whose fault it is.
Был уволен - Was fired by the company.
Уволился - Left the company by his own will.
Уйти с работы - Common expression for describing the situation when an employee leaves the company by his own will.
There is also "отчисление" - but this is suitable for education.
For "laid off", Russian has the somewhat jargony-sounding, but very commonly used, сократить. It properly refers to staff cuts (сократить штат), which is why this "laid off" usage applied to a single employee (e.g. меня сократили) is slightly jarring for the inner purist, as well as a little absurd in the imagery it invokes, but that's still how you say it.
сократить in your answer. I was able to google it, but google translate is often wrong so it would help people like me who are still learning. Thanks!