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Can anyone explain the obsession nowadays with changing long-established, well-understood words for new words which are unclear and misleading? Some of the changes are obviously due to Political Correctness but other changes seem to have been made purely to confuse us.
Take, for example, "Personnel Department", a clear description of an office which deals with recruitment and organisation of a workforce in a business. This has been replaced, without explanation, with "Human Resources", a term which sounds as if it concerns employees laid out on a meat rack. "Human Resources" itself has become too much of a mouthful: callers to my small business now ask to speak to "HR", Exactly what has been gained by changing 'Personnel' to 'HR'?
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Some of these changes are actually detrimental to the running of the business. I phoned my bank recently with a minor query and went through the usual series of menus, trying to get through to a bank representative. Eventually I was offered a choice of "Balance" or "Agent". Presumably "Representative" has now been replaced by "Agent" but this term sounds too much like somebody trying to sell me something. I rang off.
There are countless similar examples. Are you happy about our "Police Force" now being described as a "Police Service"? Do our railways run more smoothly because we are now "Customers" instead of "Passengers"? Add your own examples.
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