This short blog started as a comment on a document I am editing.  The paper I am working on discusses the concept of "human resources," a widely accepted term I personally find extremely offensive.  I realize this particular phrase is very common in human resource circles.  Forty years ago, the office would be called the personnel office, a name I liked that emphasized people, not machines worked for a company.  Human resource managers that come to think of people as assets. Language changes, and the Orwellians took over.  I find the entire concept of human resources extremely offensive. But I'm in the minority in this point of view. I don't like the company thinking of me as an asset, as something owned, as a slave. I'm human. I'm not building, I'm not a cash register, I'm not a backhoe, and I'm not a gallon of gas. I'm a person and the company does not own me so they should not think of me as an asset. My skills maybe an asset invaluable to the company but I'm not their slave.  This note has nothing to do with the quality of the sentence or its acceptability in the modern world. It is just my opinion.