Corporate Euphemisms for Employees

The cluster discusses annoyance with corporate jargon and euphemisms like 'resources', 'talent', 'individual contributor', and 'staffer' used instead of straightforward terms like 'employee' or 'worker', often highlighting dehumanizing aspects of such language.

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#1502
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Keywords

e.g VP US DB XYZ MBBD HN IT BS EMS employee employees ambulance resources term manager workers corporate employed really really

Sample Comments

mulmen Jun 14, 2023 View on HN

Here’s an idea, call them employees.

maxxxxx Aug 1, 2018 View on HN

In my company they have started to call people "resources" :)

mambo_giro Sep 25, 2025 View on HN

It’s their term for corporate employees.

rvz May 18, 2020 View on HN

That sounds like a very qute name for 'employees'.

windows_tips Jul 10, 2018 View on HN

I meant employee in a general sense. Maybe "worker" is better?

zelly Jun 15, 2020 View on HN

I suggest the terms "boss" and "employee".

hidelooktropic Dec 26, 2023 View on HN

Not trying to be mean here but do you mean "Employee"?

rounce Nov 13, 2019 View on HN

Why 'staffer' instead of 'employee'?

McAlpine5892 Sep 25, 2025 View on HN

This pains me so. Every time I have to hear "individual contributor", "leadership", or "the brand" I die a little inside.Please just call me an employee or engineer. As for "leadership", I am somewhat convinced that the word "management" would lead to a mid-life crisis. Such inflated egos. As for "the brand", they are my employer.This Newspeak has benefits though. Mainly that it hides in plain sight the top-down hierarchy of power

tptacek Feb 10, 2022 View on HN

It's not an overloaded term. It means "employee".