What I can’t stand is resourcing.
Resources can be mined, drilled, or pumped out of the ground. They can be traded on exchanges. You can find them in libraries. You can have closets filled with resources: paper clips, toilet paper, white board makers (but where are the damned erasers?!). You might earn resources from a lucky roll of the dice. Resources are the basic stuff of planning and budgeting. But why oh why do we insist on referring to engineers as resources?
Meine Rede. Ich find das schrecklich. Im Deutschen gibt es immerhin das Wort “Personalwesen”.
Referring to our colleagues as resources is dehumanizing, callous, and offensive. Language influences perception; these aren’t cogs, and they can’t be swapped like for like. Treating them like cogs leads to mistakes in judgement and I’ve seen it: smart engineers and smart managers who move columns around in a spreadsheet forgetting that satisfying formulas is only one goal and not the most primary one. These cogs have their own hopes, dreams, faults, and skills.
im Englischen gibt es auch ein Wort für Personal: Staff. SPrich, wenn man Englisch braucht, warum nicht einfach ein DoS, ein Department of Staff einrichten?