Finding the Humanity in Our Words

Have you ever stopped to think about the words we use at work? We say someone was “fired.” We talk about “headcount,” “resources,” “RIFs,” “downsizing,” and “terminations.” These terms may sound normal because we hear them every day. But beneath the business language is a person: someone’s precious son or daughter, carrying a family, a history, responsibilities, hopes, and fears.

The word “firing” seems to come from the French military, tied to the idea of actually shooting at people. Even if we use it casually now, that history should stop us in our tracks. In the workplace, we can and must do better.

Workplace language can make a human being sound like an object being removed from a system. That is where we need to pause. When we say, “We reduced headcount,” what if we said, “Several people lost their jobs, and their families will feel the impact”? When we say, “We eliminated a position,” what if we remembered that a person’s daily work, relationships, and sense of stability may have been tied to that position? The gentler language is not less professional. It is more honest.

This is part of what Bob Chapman’s Everybody Matters philosophy asks of us: to see every employee as someone’s beloved child, not as a number on a report. As I write in Leadership With Heart, human-first leadership does not mean avoiding accountability or difficult decisions. It means refusing to hide the human consequences behind polished language.

We should choose our words carefully: not because every phrase is intentionally cruel, but because language shapes what we are willing to notice.

This week’s reflection: Listen to the language used in your workplace. Where have people become “resources,” “headcount,” or “costs”? What could you say instead to help everyone find the humanity again?

Coach Ha-Keem