5 ms·

While we're at it, let's please stop referring to people as mere resources. We are fellow human beings, people with feelings and needs and desires. Degrading pe

While we're at it, let's please stop referring to people as mere resources. We are fellow human beings, people with feelings and needs and desires. Degrading people as "resources" goes hand-in-hand with referring to them as being "poached". I hear this from managers and project coordinator types, not from fellow hackers, so I'm probably preaching to the choir. It might help to prudently point out dehumanizing language when we hear it.

notalaser 11y ago
I noticed this, too. Referring to people as "people", not "resources", is my favourite way of trolling managers during meetings. I don't do it just because calling people "resources" is dehumanizing, I also do it because I think this attempt of reducing complexity is naive. You can treat people the way you treat other items on a timesheet, sure, and you might even get a great deal of satisfaction from it, because you're so cold-hearted and professional that a drop of blood just harvested from your aorta could turn the global warming problem into a neverending winter problem if it's dropped over the North Atlantic. That doesn't make it a smart thing to do though. People aren't resources in the classical sense. They aren't predictable and "budgeting reserve time" is not the correct approach to deal with that. Encouraging and nurturing the kind of behaviour that a project depends on is a far better approach.
- deleted 11y ago
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LesZedCB 11y ago
To the people who stand to make money from our labor, we will always be resources, just like the computers, and the office. We will always be a cost, just like health insurance, and the rent and electricity bill. Treating us nicely is just a means to the same end of them making money from us. Such is the problem of individual ownership, instead of worker ownership.

5 ms·

While we're at it, let's please stop referring to people as mere resources. We are fellow human beings, people with feelings and needs and desires. Degrading pe

by npongratz 11y ago

notalaser 11y ago
I noticed this, too. Referring to people as "people", not "resources", is my favourite way of trolling managers during meetings. I don't do it just because calling people "resources" is dehumanizing, I also do it because I think this attempt of reducing complexity is naive. You can treat people the way you treat other items on a timesheet, sure, and you might even get a great deal of satisfaction from it, because you're so cold-hearted and professional that a drop of blood just harvested from your aorta could turn the global warming problem into a neverending winter problem if it's dropped over the North Atlantic. That doesn't make it a smart thing to do though. People aren't resources in the classical sense. They aren't predictable and "budgeting reserve time" is not the correct approach to deal with that. Encouraging and nurturing the kind of behaviour that a project depends on is a far better approach.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
LesZedCB 11y ago
To the people who stand to make money from our labor, we will always be resources, just like the computers, and the office. We will always be a cost, just like health insurance, and the rent and electricity bill. Treating us nicely is just a means to the same end of them making money from us. Such is the problem of individual ownership, instead of worker ownership.