My dear Pete Otube
No doubt it is a difficult and stressful job you do, dear heart. So, my abject apologies to you if you are offended by the term ‘beancounter’.
Naturally, I have nothing but the greatest admiration and respect for the contribution made to our society, not to mention humanity as a whole, by the sensitive, caring and invariably upright fraternity of company accountants, especially those that tirelessly beaver away within our airlines to “make the columns balance out”.
Let’s face it, some of the airline accountant fraternity’s most noteworthy achievements include, but are not limited to: seat pitches that cause DVT in luckless passengers; routine aircrew rostering to the limits promulgated by CAP 371 where such limits are intended to be ABSOLUTE maximums; and enforced carriage of the barest minimum of fuel reserves in unwise circumstances. And, of course, the crowning glory of said fraternity would have to be the imposition upon the “pilot moneygrabbers” of the pilot bonding agreement for the alleged purpose of ‘protecting training investment’.
My hearty congratulations to you all. Based upon your own job description, then, I retract my ill-chosen term of ‘beancounter’ and will in future employ the term ‘column-balancer’. Happy, now?
Further, if the ‘moneygrabber’ cap fits then I am quietly confident that pilots would be happy to bear that description. However, my acquaintance with many hundreds of professional pilots would lead me to feel that said cap does not fit. Generally speaking, the average airline pilot so loves to do the job that his/her willingness to forego the ‘money’ is tantamount to gross stupidity. It has never been my experience that accountants are prepared to make the financial sacrifices so frequently endured by the aircrew fraternity. You, of course, are the sole exception, I suppose?
In summary, the answer to your question is yes, it is OK, dear heart. I for one will accept the term you use in the interests of fair play and each of us may choose to wear, or not wear, the cap as appropriate. If you count beans (or even make the columns balance out) then you might fairly be described as a beancounter (or column-balancer), and, if we grab money, then we must surely accept your imaginative term, must we not?
Duuuhhh, one bean, two beans, three beans, four .....
[This message has been edited by tilii (edited 22 June 2001).]