It is a linguistic irony of the modern corporation that those most desolate of resourcefulness and human rapport occupy its Human Resources department. Consistent with the culture of perverting language and policing words, "Human Resources" is one of those modern terms of which the intended and practical meanings are exact opposites. If you work for an organization large and unfortunate enough to have a dedicated "H.R." division – and even, perhaps, if you have been a member of that mirthless, officious cohort – you know of what I write. Moreover, though your conditioned response is to consider H.R. a necessary evil – after all, someone needs to hire, fire, and ensure that the company avoids legal disputes arising from personnel issues – you sense, on some level, that life would be better if the entire bureau simply did not exist. Developed in the 1980s to protect corporations from the sudden ubiquity of "sexual...(Read Full Article)