HR-Speak: The Language of The Unconscionable

Corporate HR-speak has two very specific purposes. It exists to minimize the corporation’s exposure to lawsuit, and it exists to minimize management’s exposure to their own consciences. If I write someone up, my conscience will ask me if they deserved it. But if I put them on a “performance improvement plan,” I’m practically doing them a favor. No questions needed. If I fire someone, my conscience will remind me of the struggle that they and their family will face as a consequence. But if I “separate them from employment,” that’s much more clinical sounding. There’s no need for reflection or regret. Through judicious use of corporate HR-speak, I don’t need to acknowledge their humanity, or my own. Through HR-speak, all misdeeds are possible through the linguistic manipulation that makes them socially acceptable.

It’s not a massive layoff that contributes to the destruction of the middle-class, it’s a “workforce reduction that allows us to fulfill our fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders.” It’s not a massive pay cut for 80% of the workforce so the C-suite can get their bonuses, it’s a “restructuring of the compensation plan designed to reward top performers. Did I mention that there is no cap on commission?” It wasn’t an assassination of a whistle blower to prevent a billion dollar judgement against the company, it was “an unfortunate suicide, and our thoughts and prayers go out to the family.”

This language has spread everywhere. Anyone who has dealt with the so-called healthcare system has experienced it. “The patient” is not someone’s husband or grandfather. A doctor has a same relationship with “the patient” that a mechanic has with “the car.” They hope they can fix it, but, you know, sometimes these things don’t workout. The most insidious deployment of corporate HR-speak is the word “stable,” as in “The patient is stable.” If your loved one is in “stable condition,” that means the they are not going to die within the next 24 hours, so the hospital is going to send them home while they have this open window of plausible deniability. If your father dies on your watch, then you can’t sue the hospital for negligent homicide.

So keep your ears open for corporate HR-speak, because it’s tentacles have spread to every aspect of life. Remember that the purposes are plausible deniability and the attempt to dodge one’s conscience. If I become a purveyor of HR-speak, then I can deny your humanity, and my own. If I am dispensing HR-speak, then you can’t sue me, and I can’t be shamed by my own conscience, or so I believe. All misdeeds are possible, because I didn’t do that unconscionable thing that you said, I did the clinical thing that I said, regardless of the fact that we are describing the same course of action.

Corporate HR-speak and plausible deniability are both attempts to escape one’s conscience, and the shame that it produces. Remember that conscience is the voice that calls us to be our most authentic, most courageous, most extraordinary selves, and calls us out when we fall short. Shame is what one feels when their conscience calls them out for falling short. Here’s the irony of HR-speak and the attempt to create plausible deniability: no one has ever escaped their conscience; not once, not ever. Hell isn’t someplace you go after you die. Hell is the place you go before you die, when you look back on a life of deception, cowardice, and mediocrity. That is when people truly know Hell. Then their fate is a spiral of regret, resentment, despair, and destruction. They didn’t avoid that confrontation with their conscience, they just deferred it until it was too late for them to correct any of their shortcomings.

We can have a social contract that says, “I won’t say anything to make you confront your conscience if you don’t say anything to make me confront mine,” or we can have a social contract that says, “I believe in your talent, and I can’t wait to see who you can become. How can I help you develop the skills you need to follow your conscience, no matter the obstacle and no matter the sacrifice?” It’s our decision to make as a culture. Keep in mind who we are is a reflection of our culture, and our culture is a reflection of who we are. So, who are you, and what do you want to do about it?

Ask yourself, do you want to live in a world of the unconscionable, a world where all misdeeds are made socially acceptable through linguistic manipulation? Do you want to find yourself trapped in a hell that you created with your own words? Speak precisely. Speak honestly. Speak with integrity. Follow your conscience, no matter the obstacle and no matter the cost. If you’ve got my back, then I’ve got yours. Let’s do this.