adr - your point re "unit of human resource" is well made. Some years back, when my company's Personnel Dept. became the Human Resources Dept., I remarked to my boss that I objected to being referred to as a "resource". With a straight face, he told me "but that is just what you are, a resource of this company, to be used on company business as I see fit".
It took the wind from my sails, I can tell you, but it was what he practised from then on. We were no longer people, but units of the company, identified by a company number!
Kind regards,
TheNightOwl.
