Resources? Not necessary!

This morning I received a message saying some "resources" were not available. That was actually about some people not being in the office today and I wanted to ask for a better wording next time. 

The discussion about "resources" vs. "overhead" is popping up every now and then on twitter and other channels. But so far I haven't seen a list of things that one could use instead. I thought, as so often with critique, it might be useful to give some clues what one could use instead of resource. As I didn't find such a list, I started one with the help of twitter and within about 7 hours we had already more than 40 entries. 

Later today I sent this list over to the person that had written the original message with a note that I don't want to offend but rather love to be in an environment where we think of people instead of resources:

"Did you know that a fairy dies every time we use “resources” when we mean people? Here’s a short list of terms that we can use instead:

[List]

Happy fairy hunting ;) "

And the answer I got was agreeing and sweet, so I might do it again, but I guess it depends a bit on what kind of connection I have to the person I want to send it to. 

However, if you have a use for that list and/or want to contribute, it can be found on googledocs.