Does anyone else feel weird about these terms used for employees. Hackeronis, Twittarians, Redditites, coinbese?
Hackeroni sounds like a pasta, and I'm sure I'd meme the shit out of it if I worked there
I would do the same till they fire me.
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.
From an outsider looking in on this one... I dunno. Firing your beloved hackeronies kind of grates.
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.
There’s a whole Earth between no fun and clown fiesta.
What? There is miles of middle ground there.
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.
(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.
You're saying there are pure non-creepy fun actions for everyone that a business can do. I'm saying it's too gray to make that assertion, not too black and white. So I'm curious what you think is perfectly safe for everyone.
that said:
> You're saying there are pure non-creepy fun actions for everyone that a business can do.
I didn't say that. I don't think you'll please everyone with team-building exercises and frankly some people find the entire concept distasteful which is fair enough. That doesn't mean that all team-building stuff is equally bad (or, equally good).
I mean that "fun harmless in-crowd things" can be disturbing from the outside - context and intent matters. A strange in-crowd name is pretty far down the "there are harmless causes for this" side of things imo. Using it in a layoff announcement is probably not the best place though, unless they honestly think the laid-off feel good about it. A large enough package might achieve that tbh, but that's obviously rarely the case.
I'm honestly not sure if there exists a thing that a business can do that its employees would enjoy that will not be interpreted as creepy by some. Everything excludes someone somewhere somehow, the most you can do is target your crowd as best you can... and people commenting on a forum are not in that target audience, so I find the obsession over the name here to be pretty dumb. (Not claiming you're obsessed, just that it's the majority of the comments here so far)
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.
But "digit" to refer to DEC employees never really did.
It's when execs use it that it becomes idiotic and insufferable.
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.
I never pushed back on it because I figured I'd just come across as a killjoy.
That said, management should really not be using those names.
That's not so. I haven't actually worked for a company where the employees call themselves any kind of special name.
I always say "____ employees" or "____ team members" because that's the culture of where I work.
I show I'm part of the culture by working well with my team. What more is really needed?
You can use Foo Corpians in like a invite to the yearly softball game.
In situations like these it gives psychopath vibes.