Bulldozer00's Blog

The most politically correct (a.k.a. least offensive)  way to ensure that employees take note of the fact that they are a notch below them, managers love to use the term “individual contributor” to DICs. Managers use this term repeatedly during annual performance reviews to subtly pre-empt any discontent over the measly 2% raises almost all non-managers get every year. The unspoken but unambiguous top-down message is: “You shouldn’t expect more because you’re only an individual contributor. I, on the other hand, am a manager – a multi-vidual contributor.”

Say what? Aren’t managers individuals? Aren’t managers (well, at least the non-BMs amongst them) contributors? Individual + contributor = individual contributor, no? Is it time to come up with a new, creative, and clever replacement term that will continue to promote the false impression that all managers are more important than all DICs? How about “limited influencer” or “lesser contributor”? Nah, these are not politically correct enough. Got any suggestions?