Resource: “a supply or source of aid or support; [a] means of producing wealth; capability, ingenuity, and initiative.”
Recycle: “to treat or process (used or waste materials) so as to make suitable for reuse; to undergo reuse or renewal; be subject to or suitable for further use, activity, etc.”
To treat a resource as a recyclable is disrespectful and only serves to use it up more quickly.
No matter my potential though, I am not automatically a resource. One must work to become a resource and earn the sobriquet by contributing above-and-beyond value to the overall effort. Until I become a resource, I am a recyclable.
Calling everyone a resource, but treating everyone as a recyclable is inane, encouraging everyone to be a recyclable. Yet that is what we too frequently do and most individuals react accordingly. We treat everyone as a recyclable, first by calling everyone a resource, then by failing to ask questions, failing to listen, and/or failing to follow up; failures often accompanied by (depending on where you sit) reasons, justifications, excuses.
When treated as a recyclable and used up, a resource will (at least for a time) doggedly seek new opportunities for growth and improvement but if unavailable or unfound may slide into the role of a recyclable. When treated as a recyclable and used up, a recyclable will seek new or additional opportunities for self-gratifying justification and lacking (or not caring about) any ego or morale boost may move into a third possibility. When treated as a recyclable and used up, a cog is often allowed to wallow in the comfort of their simplicity.
I believe there may be more honor in being a cog than in being a recyclable. Yet I am fairly certain as a whole we would be better off if more of us aspired to be a resource; and even more so if we were treated as such.
Recently, when I moved from my role as a resource into a different department and role as a recyclable, HR conducted an exit interview asking what could have been done differently to have kept me as a resource. Talk about the proverbial barn door. They followed up asking if I had made my supervisors aware of my dissatisfaction. I had; repeatedly; for multiple years; politely and respectfully. The answer that always came back from my supervisors was that HR within their web of bureaucracy would not approve a just promotion and/or pay increase. HR believes justification is Justice. But Justice would actually require talking to the cows and agreeing to shut the barn door before we wander away. That is hard work (HR believes) requiring many additional layers of bureaucracy, (lots of new rules), covering every conceivable question, answer, response and reaction. HR pretends to be Human Resources. In practice, HR is Human Recycling.
And I am once again a recyclable.