Joy at Work: A Revolutionary Approach To Fun on the Job (Pocket Wisdom)

by Dennis W. Bakke

We had already followed the lead of Wal-Mart and others and replaced the words “employee” and “manager,” which we felt had become somewhat demeaning over time. (Let me say again that I will occasionally use these terms in this book because they are so widely applied outside of AES.) We decided we would identify every person who worked at the company as an “AES person” or “AES people.” It seemed silly that we would feel compelled to identify people as “people.” But it was more than a matter of nomenclature. Throughout history, especially from the onset of the Industrial Revolution, working people were often treated as less than human. At most AES plants, most of our people decided that everyone who was not a leader in the plant should have equivalent titles: “AES technician,” “AES plant engineer,” or something similar that would indicate general responsibility for a significant area of the plant. Most of the traditional industrial designations, such as welder or pipe fitter, were jettisoned.