If you've come to this blog looking for any serious or meaningful takeaway, I apologize in advance.
I don't happen to have any deep thoughts on the state of the industry at the moment. But I do have one thing that has really been annoying me for the past week or so: The phrase "labor force."
It's come up a couple of times in the past week specifically because HNN has had columnists say incredibly valuable and interesting things about how to treat workers — such as Glenda Lee's great takes on how to expand opportunities and remove biases and Rick Takach's insightful piece on the importance of rebuilding the industry's ... labor force.
I suppose it makes sense as a broad descriptor of the working population in the U.S., but something about it doesn't sit right with me.
Probably the biggest thing about it that gets under my skin is how similar it sounds to various branches of the U.S. military. We've got the Air Force. We've got the Space Force. And we've also got the Labor Force.
In that context, maybe it's a phrase that would more aptly be applied to a group like the Army Corps of Engineers — a group that I can confidently say as a native and resident of the Great Lakes does not get their proper due for all their amazing work.
Maybe there are other, more subtle reasons behind my distaste for the phrase. It does have a weird classist connotation if you think about it for a while, as if the working people of the serve at the benefit for some executive class. I don't think this is really anyone's intention in using the phrase, but we don't really conceptualize executives as part of the labor force, do we?
As a writer, I appreciate the brevity and simplicity of language provided by terms such as "labor force," but I just can't shake how dehumanizing it feels at some level. And that's a lesson we all need to take away from the past few years. The "labor force" is not a sea of nameless, faceless workers. It's a series of individuals who all have their own needs, wants, aspirations and obstacles, and learning how to navigate that reality is a big part of how we deal with the ongoing labor crisis.
Let me know what you think on Twitter, LinkedIn or via email.
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