3 ms·

A lot of organizations operate as if they are made of headcount slots, and heads to fill those slots are some interchangeable commodity.

by pavlov 4y ago

quantum_state 4y ago
I cannot agree more with this, especially for organizations with incompetent management…
- red-iron-pine 4y ago
  are profits stable or increasing? stock going up? incompetence only matters so long as the company is doing badly. happy employees are tangential to successful companies.
ansmithz42 4y ago
The infamous "fungible resource".
Levitz 4y ago
Yeah people often are treated as a resource that happens to be human. Human resources, what a concept huh?
pdntspa 4y ago
This is what is taught in business school. Also why we are "human resources"
coldpie 4y ago
I was literally referred to as "a resource" by a big company client at a previous job. Like, "once your resource [i.e., me] is on site, let's...". This was years and years ago and it still stands out in my memory.
- brookst 4y ago
  I hear this a lot and it really doesn't bother me. It's just an abstraction over the concepts of employee, contractor, seniority, team, etc. One resource is roughly equal to one person, but can also be half time each from two people, so "person" doesn't work. It's a little odd to use the abstraction when you know exactly the person you're dealing with, but like any jargon, people who live it all day end up using when vernacular is called for (e.g. the electrical engineer who tells their spouse that the dishwasher's heating element has become too resistant).
  - coldpie 4y ago
    > people who live it all day end up using when vernacular is called for I think it's probably that, yeah. Just felt like a very de-humanizing label, for someone who isn't used to that world. Beep boop, I am resource, here to provide service until ready for replacement with like kind, boop beep.
ilyt 4y ago
My favourite corporate dystopian term that has popped up because of that is "body lending"

A lot of organizations operate as if they are made of headcount slots, and heads to fill those slots are some interchangeable commodity.

by pavlov 4y ago

A lot of organizations operate as if they are made of headcount slots, and heads to fill those slots are some interchangeable commodity.

quantum_state 4y ago

I cannot agree more with this, especially for organizations with incompetent management…

red-iron-pine 4y ago
are profits stable or increasing? stock going up? incompetence only matters so long as the company is doing badly. happy employees are tangential to successful companies.

ansmithz42 4y ago

The infamous "fungible resource".

Levitz 4y ago

Yeah people often are treated as a resource that happens to be human. Human resources, what a concept huh?

pdntspa 4y ago

This is what is taught in business school. Also why we are "human resources"

coldpie 4y ago

I was literally referred to as "a resource" by a big company client at a previous job. Like, "once your resource [i.e., me] is on site, let's...". This was years and years ago and it still stands out in my memory.

brookst 4y ago
I hear this a lot and it really doesn't bother me. It's just an abstraction over the concepts of employee, contractor, seniority, team, etc. One resource is roughly equal to one person, but can also be half time each from two people, so "person" doesn't work. It's a little odd to use the abstraction when you know exactly the person you're dealing with, but like any jargon, people who live it all day end up using when vernacular is called for (e.g. the electrical engineer who tells their spouse that the dishwasher's heating element has become too resistant).
- coldpie 4y ago
  > people who live it all day end up using when vernacular is called for I think it's probably that, yeah. Just felt like a very de-humanizing label, for someone who isn't used to that world. Beep boop, I am resource, here to provide service until ready for replacement with like kind, boop beep.

ilyt 4y ago

My favourite corporate dystopian term that has popped up because of that is "body lending"