Outplacement is employer-provided assistance for employees who are about to lose their jobs. With corporate downsizing, rightsizing, and “return to core competencies,” many U.S. companies will lay off large numbers of employees. Many companies feel an obligation to try to support former employees. Specialists in HUMAN RESOURCES suggest former workers who talk to employment counselors are less likely to be talk to attorneys about WRONGFUL DISCHARGE. Outplacement can be provided either internally or externally; many companies prefer to pay outside providers. In the 1980s many employment services added outplacement services to their corporate offerings. Outplacement efforts to help workers find new jobs focus on two major activities, counseling and training in jobsearch skills, which include personal counseling, résumé-preparation and job-application workshops, recruiting services, job fairs, and office and support facilities. Employees at the managerial and executive levels will often negotiate having an office, answering service, and other support services during the transition from one job to another. The federal government, through the Office of Personnel Management Employment Service, offers downsizing planning and outplacement programming assistance. Even former presidential appointees may receive outplacement support. The comptroller general (CG) has ruled that an agency may not provide outplacement assistance to political appointees unless it generally offers these services to all its employees. The CG decision says that “an agency may not expend public money for the specific purpose of helping political appointees return to private life. . . . although an agency may offer its existing outplacement assistance program to political appointees, it may not provide outplacement services exclusively to appointees of the outgoing Administration.”