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Does anyone else feel weird about these terms used for employees. Hackeronis, Twittarians, Redditites, coinbese?
by nannal 3y ago
Does anyone else feel weird about these terms used for employees. Hackeronis, Twittarians, Redditites, coinbese?
- rocketbop 3y agoNot weird but I do think they’re embarrassing, degrading, insufferable.
- oofta-boofta 3y agoInfantilizing for sure.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- willcipriano 3y agoI'd be far less offended if you told me to fuck off than if you called me a Hackeroni.
- jonathanjaeger 3y agoI feel like a Hackeroni gets cooked in a pot with some bolognese
- sharemywin 3y agoHackeroni and cheese?
- malux85 3y agoFeels like harmless fun to me
- codetrotter 3y agoNot really. They have a “cutsie” name for us at the company I work for too. I find it endearing :)
- CoastalCoder 3y agoYes. I'm curious why companies do it. I never pushed back on it because I figured I'd just come across as a killjoy.
- frfl 3y agodont forget metamates
- paulcole 3y agoNo, it's part of how you show culture. I think Hackeronies is the best/most ridiculous I've heard. I always say "____ employees" or "____ team members" because that's the culture of where I work.
- mydriasis 3y agoLargely depends on the existing culture of the company imo. I imagine in some climates it might come off as tone-deaf or degrading, whereas in others it might feel unifying or endearing. From an outsider looking in on this one... I dunno. Firing your beloved hackeronies kind of grates.
- organsnyder 3y agoEven the most non-objectionable term is going to sound tone-deaf in the context of layoffs. Just use the word "colleague" and keep it professional.
- metalforever 3y agoyeah its cult shit
- leetrout 3y agoThis is accurate. Culture starts with cult.
- cobertos 3y agoSlightly, it feels... hivemind-y? Working at a company I identify most with my direct colleagues/team, less so with wider orgs. Feels comparable to what I felt during high school "pep rallies". Hackeroni sounds like a pasta, and I'm sure I'd meme the shit out of it if I worked there
- geodel 3y agoThanks for clarifying. I was thinking of it as a Pizza topping.
- Groxx 3y agoI keep picturing pepperoni... but ground meat is probably not they imagery they hoped for.
- tamimio 3y ago>I'm sure I'd meme the shit out of it if I worked there I would do the same till they fire me.
- samtho 3y agoThat seems like the point of the company demonym, got to drink that kool aid. What I find personality disingenuous (or perhaps even insidious) is the push to make everyone feel like they are an integral part of a group and then treat them like disposable objects when it’s more convenient at that moment.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- cobertos 3y agoExactly. When I work, I work for myself; for money and mental stability. A company-wide identity feels like something I can't accept calling myself. It's too broad, vague, and the identity itself is defined/controlled by the company/HR, with little input from those labelled as such (at least in the orgs of size I've been at). It removes a lot of individuality from my own thoughts/mind, as I would have to consider "how I reflect on the organization" (as I was taught in Catholic school) to the detriment of my own expression.
- Groxx 3y agoFun for some, cultish for others. There's not much middle ground between "try to have some fun at work because there's no reason not to" and "don't do something someone might take issue with". A completely sterile work environment isn't really any better, and for some it's definitely oppressive and worse. Is it sometimes an intentional cult-building tactic? Definitely. Is it always? Heck no, people come up with in-group names all the time. Groups of all kinds develop their own terms and memes and whatnot, it's normal.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- deciplex 3y ago> There's not much middle ground between "try to have some fun at work because there's no reason not to" and "don't do something someone might take issue with". What? There is miles of middle ground there.
- Groxx 3y agoSuch as? Keep in mind you can't make anyone uncomfortable, because uncomfortable people come to internet forums and talk about being uncomfortable. People vary a lot in what they accept. There may be plenty of room for you, but for everyone? I wish you luck.
- deciplex 3y agoYou don't see the middle ground between "make no one uncomfortable" and "make everyone uncomfortable?" It seems to me you're viewing this completely in black and white and then insisting that it really is black and white in actual reality, when in fact what you need is a better TV. (To strain the turn of phrase to its breaking point.) e: I mean, shit, even in the false dichotomy of "make no one uncomfortable" and "make everyone uncomfortable" there is middle ground: making everyone a little bit uncomfortable vs making everyone extremely uncomfortable.
- 3y ago
- varjag 3y agoMany years ago one my colleague remarked that HR appears to be a progression on a career arc from summer camp supervisors.
- philip1209 3y ago"Demonym" is a fun vocab word for these kinds of labels: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonym https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonym
- mupuff1234 3y agoI find it ok if the origin comes from ICs and used among ICs (still kinda weird, but less so) It's when execs use it that it becomes idiotic and insufferable.
- marcosdumay 3y agoEvery group of people creates some name to call themselves. That said, management should really not be using those names.
- JohnFen 3y ago> Every group of people creates some name to call themselves. That's not so. I haven't actually worked for a company where the employees call themselves any kind of special name.
- duxup 3y agoIn small groups and organic kinda thing that the individuals come up with is fine. IBMer back in the day felt natural and inoffensive. But it was also pretty generic. Organizations of even moderate size and it gets slapped on like a label on your forehead by management… and it starts to feel weird and insincere…. and as they trend towards cutie affectionate names it gets really creepy IMO. Personally I prefer a little more professional disconnection.
- JohnFen 3y ago> IBMer back in the day felt natural and inoffensive. But "digit" to refer to DEC employees never really did.
- unsupp0rted 3y agoYes. It's in line with "our company is a family"... or at minimum "our company is a collective farm". I'm not a Hackeroni or a Twittarian- I'm an adult individual who exchanges time and skill for money. I get paid as long as I'm useful. When I stop being useful the company has no qualms about me not being a Hackeroni or a Twittarian anymore.
- sharemywin 3y agoso you were never a Hackeroni at heart to begin with. Otherwise you would stay and work for free.
- savanaly 3y agoI don't know, every single layoff announcement on HN has this exact comment at the top of the comments, wonder if anyone else feels this way?
- im_down_w_otp 3y agoFounder conceit made manifest through a culture of overwrought branding & marketing? Workforce infantalization? Former summer camp coordinators turned HR executives?
- joegahona 3y agoI don't mind them. Some feel more forced than others. That said, there's a time and a place to use them. A layoff announcement is possibly the worst place to use them, perhaps second to a death announcement. "Today we are devastated to announce that longtime Hackeronie Phil Sludge has lost his battle to colon cancer."
- icepat 3y agoFar worse than Redditites. They use the term Snoos for their employees from some leaked email that came out during the Reddit strike.
- andsoitis 3y agoHow do you feel about someone calling themselves a xoogler?
- smsm42 3y agoI'd assume if it's done seriously, about 85% chance that person is a douche.
- ThrowawayR2 3y agoIt's no weirder than Linux users sporting Tux (the penguin) logos and getting excited about Linux desktop marketshare or Rust advocates referring to themselves as rustaceans. People are tribal.
- joshcafe 3y agoYou can't be fired from Linux, and if you contribute to the codebase, you do own it under the terms of the GPLv2. (Idk if Linux does copyright assignment but even if they do, it's still GPL). Whereas a company can tell you to fuck off for literally no reason, give you nothing, and shove you out onto the street with no healthcare and no salary, and then sue you if you if you try to do anything about it.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- f4c39012 3y ago"Twittarians" sounds lofty, a knowledgeable group. "Redditites" sounds like a mob, possibly armed with sticks. "Coinbese" sounds... like a mindless herd? But "Hackeronis" is just patronising, considering their audience why are they not simply "Hackers"? That can't be a bad word in their context!
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- smsm42 3y agoHuman brains are wired for kinship relationships. There are studies that find that just assigning people to random groups activates in-group/out-group dynamics. There's no wonder corporate HR wants to plug into this wiring and use it to improve group cohesion and morale.