I wrote a post about the word 'resource' many years ago.
https://leedare-plex2e.blogspot.com/2016/10/feeling-resourcefulnot.html
Today for a little bit of fun, I asked 'co-pilot' to refactor it, add humour and energy. This was the result! Quite impressive if you ask me.
Thanks for reading and don't bother reading the original as 'Co-pilot' did way better!
Lee.
Let’s get one thing straight: my most hated word at work is not f$%k, tosser, w&^%er, or even the dreaded “c-word” (and no, I don’t mean Christmas). Those are fine in context — usually shouted across a pub table after someone’s nicked your chips.
The word that makes me twitch, the one that should be banished from every office, is this:
“We don’t have the resource.” “I’ll check the resource schedule.”
Every time I hear it, a little part of my soul packs its bags and heads for the door.
Calling people “resources” is corporate code for: you’re replaceable, interchangeable, and about as personal as a stapler.
Once upon a time, companies had Personnel Departments — actual humans looking after actual humans. Then came the Americanisation: Human Resources. That was the moment we stopped being people with skills and started being reference numbers with salary ceilings.
And if your company still talks about you as a “resource”? Time to polish your CV, or at least stand up and say: No thanks, I’m not coal.
Let’s remember what a resource really is: coal, sugar, soybeans, oil, cocoa, tin, steel. All fine words for things you can burn, melt, or trade on an exchange.
But last time I checked:
Coal hasn’t written a single C# function.
Sugar hasn’t debugged a parsing algorithm.
Soybeans haven’t offered counselling.
Oil hasn’t built a school.
Humans do those things. Humans with talent, experience, and the kind of domain knowledge you can’t just order off Amazon Prime.
I work in software engineering. Sure, you need technical chops — databases, languages, platforms. But you also need business knowledge, context, and the ability to translate messy real-world problems into clean code.
Thinking you can pluck someone off the street and have them instantly productive on a complex system? That’s not “resource planning.” That’s fantasy football.
Open a thesaurus and you’ll find words that actually respect people:
Ability
Capability
Talent
These words recognise skill. They acknowledge contribution. They don’t reduce you to a consumable item that can be replenished like printer paper.
Project managers love “resource.” Middle managers (especially the 6ft 5” ones with clipboards) practically bathe in it. But every time I hear it, I cringe.
So I’ve made it my mission: wherever I work, I beat the drum to eradicate this corporate cancer. Replace it with Capability, Skills, Staffing, Talent, Capacity — anything that reminds us we’re humans, not coal.
If you’re reading this and still calling your colleagues “resources,” stop. Unless you genuinely believe Dave from Accounts is interchangeable with a sack of soybeans.
Words matter. Use better ones.
Moan over.
Thanks for reading,
Lee.
