4 ms·

Yes its very cringe and only appeals to a certain section of people. At a previous company I worked at, they took this even further, organizing themselves into

by pm90 4y ago

Yes its very cringe and only appeals to a certain section of people. At a previous company I worked at, they took this even further, organizing themselves into "squads" (teams) which were part of "platoons" (orgs). Someone that interviewed pointed out that this was pretty aggressive/warlike terminology and wondered why they used it and they didn't really have a good answer.

rmckayfleming 4y ago
While using military terminology in non-military organizations is cringy, there's a good reason that military allusions come up frequently in business writing. Armies were the first large scale organizations in history and suffer from the same failure conditions except with much higher stakes. Large businesses (and similarly large governmental functions apart from the military) are much more recent inventions. The most important similarities though are a focus on logistics, team structures and specializations, as well as decision making frameworks. As a result of that, a lot of business writing is in some sense descended from military writing. And modern military writing continues to be a valuable source of wisdom in a business context because of those similarities (one of the best management books I've ever read is "Turn the ship around!" by L. David Marquet about reforming the dynamics of a nuclear submarine crew). (Of course that doesn't stop people from cargo-culting the military without thought given to the specific context.)
scottyah 4y ago
> certain section of people. Veterans who are used to the terms?
- vsareto 4y ago
  More likely non-veterans trying to sound serious
- TremendousJudge 4y ago
  I suspect people who actually went through the military would instantly spot this as ridiculous larping
- _jal 4y ago
  I'd guess grown-up mall ninjas who never got closer to serving than TV shows.
horsawlarway 4y ago
"Squads" I don't really have a problem with - it's just "team", and is often used in sports outside the US in the same way "team" is here. Technically - it's the full roster from which the team on the field is selected - but meh, close enough. "Platoon" feels pretty out of place. I'd have trouble not laughing every time I said it.

by pm90 4y ago

rmckayfleming 4y ago

While using military terminology in non-military organizations is cringy, there's a good reason that military allusions come up frequently in business writing. Armies were the first large scale organizations in history and suffer from the same failure conditions except with much higher stakes. Large businesses (and similarly large governmental functions apart from the military) are much more recent inventions. The most important similarities though are a focus on logistics, team structures and specializations, as well as decision making frameworks. As a result of that, a lot of business writing is in some sense descended from military writing. And modern military writing continues to be a valuable source of wisdom in a business context because of those similarities (one of the best management books I've ever read is "Turn the ship around!" by L. David Marquet about reforming the dynamics of a nuclear submarine crew). (Of course that doesn't stop people from cargo-culting the military without thought given to the specific context.)

scottyah 4y ago

> certain section of people. Veterans who are used to the terms?

vsareto 4y ago
More likely non-veterans trying to sound serious
TremendousJudge 4y ago
I suspect people who actually went through the military would instantly spot this as ridiculous larping
_jal 4y ago
I'd guess grown-up mall ninjas who never got closer to serving than TV shows.

horsawlarway 4y ago

"Squads" I don't really have a problem with - it's just "team", and is often used in sports outside the US in the same way "team" is here. Technically - it's the full roster from which the team on the field is selected - but meh, close enough. "Platoon" feels pretty out of place. I'd have trouble not laughing every time I said it.