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It was the fatal shift from "personnel" to "human resources".

xcambar 4y ago
- fpl67 4y ago
  Fun for who? You? The people around you getting off on it? The HR employee who didn’t elect the name of the organization and who is just trying to get through a day like you are, and apparently has to put up with meme confrontations in the workplace? There is not much that is more cringe than overhearing someone do this within earshot; it’s almost as bad as a joke everyone has heard and can predict while someone loudly stumbles through it a few cubes over. As described, you’re not funny, you’re just an asshole. What form does this confrontation take, exactly? That might help clarify. (I’m not in HR)
  - xcambar 4y ago
    Every position has a storytelling. That of HR is about building a double standard: on the one hand, a discourse that emphasizes on the employees' best interests, while on the other hand, take actions that are on the employer's sole interest. Is it expected? Yes of course, I stopped being naive on the topic long ago. Where this is pervasive is that even some HR people tend to buy it. Also the tech industry should consider happy to at least have some reassuring (yet false) speech. Sure, in the tech industry, people may be considered a bit better, but I've seen and met people in blue collar industries where people were not worth so much more than the paper clips holding their contracts together. And since HR, as a support function of a company, does not differ much from one indistry to another, the culture of HR, really, fundamentally, is to treat people as you'd do with your trucks or machines or chairs or paperclips, and that is, treat them as resources. Hence the very apt name of the function: human resources. And this is the kind of perspective I have on HR and the kind of points I could (but not always do) raise if we touch on the societal aspects of our jobs. Note that as a manager myself, I have my fair share of cognitive dissonance to bear as well, and critics are always welcome :)
spaetzleesser 4y ago
At my company they aren't hiring "people" anymore but "resources". Even when looking for somebody internally to help out with a project, managers try to "find a resource", not "finding somebody".
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- justin_oaks 4y ago
  Does anyone know the origin of this terminology in businesses? Or why people keep using it? I refuse to refer to people as resources. I won't willfully dehumanize people by treating them as raw materials or as machines.

fpl67 4y ago
Fun for who? You? The people around you getting off on it? The HR employee who didn’t elect the name of the organization and who is just trying to get through a day like you are, and apparently has to put up with meme confrontations in the workplace? There is not much that is more cringe than overhearing someone do this within earshot; it’s almost as bad as a joke everyone has heard and can predict while someone loudly stumbles through it a few cubes over. As described, you’re not funny, you’re just an asshole. What form does this confrontation take, exactly? That might help clarify. (I’m not in HR)
- xcambar 4y ago
  Every position has a storytelling. That of HR is about building a double standard: on the one hand, a discourse that emphasizes on the employees' best interests, while on the other hand, take actions that are on the employer's sole interest. Is it expected? Yes of course, I stopped being naive on the topic long ago. Where this is pervasive is that even some HR people tend to buy it. Also the tech industry should consider happy to at least have some reassuring (yet false) speech. Sure, in the tech industry, people may be considered a bit better, but I've seen and met people in blue collar industries where people were not worth so much more than the paper clips holding their contracts together. And since HR, as a support function of a company, does not differ much from one indistry to another, the culture of HR, really, fundamentally, is to treat people as you'd do with your trucks or machines or chairs or paperclips, and that is, treat them as resources. Hence the very apt name of the function: human resources. And this is the kind of perspective I have on HR and the kind of points I could (but not always do) raise if we touch on the societal aspects of our jobs. Note that as a manager myself, I have my fair share of cognitive dissonance to bear as well, and critics are always welcome :)

At my company they aren't hiring "people" anymore but "resources". Even when looking for somebody internally to help out with a project, managers try to "find a resource", not "finding somebody".

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
justin_oaks 4y ago
Does anyone know the origin of this terminology in businesses? Or why people keep using it? I refuse to refer to people as resources. I won't willfully dehumanize people by treating them as raw materials or as machines.