Against Human
Resources
Consider
the phrase, “Human Resources Department”. You find that name in academic and corporate bureaucracies; and no
doubt in government too. What an insulting name!
For am
I a seam of coal? A vein of ore? A stand of pine? Those are resources; they
have no rights. They can be used up and then discarded. Are humans to be
treated that way too?
The
phrase “human resources”, bespeaks a management attitude in some ways worse
than chattel slavery. Chattel means cattle; a chattel slave is livestock, owned
by the owner. But a resource is not even animate; it is a passive source of
extraction; so a human resource lacks even the right of animals to not be
abused.
Surely
there are other names for the hiring department? Such as “Hiring Department”?
Or better yet, “Labor Relations Department”? I am not just any human, I am a
worker, I work for them; and I am not a resource, I am as human as my employers
and I must be related to.
Another dehumanizing term is Human Capital, which is sometimes used in my agency. Worse in some ways than Human Resources.
ReplyDeleteGood point. A resource is from nature, but capital is a human construct. I don't want to be thought of as a stand of pine, but I'd even less want to be thought of as a bank account.
ReplyDelete