Countering the effect of professional spats

Barry Scarr is exasperated at accountants like him being labelled ‘bean counters’ by Personnel Today (Letters, Personnel Today, 27 September).
He tried to come up with a similar name that related to HR, but failed because, he said, the HR industry had never been quite sure what to call itself at any one point over the past 20 years.

Following the logic of that argument, had the accountancy profession been as complex and dynamic as HR is deemed to be, it would never have attracted the ‘bean counter’ label in the first place.

As it happens, I have thought of a suitable label for HR now that human capital metrics are all the rage: ‘human bein’ counter’.

Harun Musho’d
Deputy director of HR management, House of Commons

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