In the IT world, is the term "User" offensive?

[Dartgod]

So I work in IT and for as long as I've done so (20+ years), our end users are usually simply referred to as "users". This came out yesterday from our infrastructure director:

"I want to challenge all of you to stop using the word "user" when referring to employee-owners that use the systems and services we provide. You can imagine how offensive this term is to someone who is not an IT employee. Please stop using this word in presentations, training sessions, support conversations, or when simply writing a note in an incident."

When the hell did this happen? Have any of you other IT workers seen this? Hell most of the Powershell cmdlets I use daily are baser on "user"; Get-AdUser, Set-CsUser, etc...

I'm really having a hard time understanding how and when this became an offensive term?

[displacedinMN]

Everything's offensive

[TinyEvel]

The problem is that in some organizations the term "user" has a negative connotation. For starters, "use" can imply "taking advantage of,"2 thus some people in the public service may take offence since they are entrusted with the sound management of public funds. In organizations that provide social assistance and services, as in the dictionary, the term "user" refers to "a person who frequently uses illegal drugs."3

As a result some organizations look for an alternative to the word user. Here are some suggestions.

Term Definition / Comment

End User "The person who uses the final output of a project or delivered service."
“The ultimate consumer of a finished product.”

Client In the Canadian Federal Government the term Client is generally well accepted and used even though the ITIL® Glossary defines it as:
"A generic term that means a customer, the business or a business customer. For example, client manager may be used as a synonym for business relationship manager. The term is also used to mean [client/server computing]."

Business Consumer Proposed by Jayne Groll

Customer This term is already used by ITIL® and referrers to:
"Someone who buys goods or services. The customer of an IT service provider is the person or group who defines and agrees the service level targets. The term is also sometimes used informally to mean user – for example, ‘This is a customer-focused organization.’

"Generic – The person who is paying. May also be known as the client, buyer or purchaser.”

Business Customer In ITIL® Service Strategy, it means "A recipient of a product or a service from the business. For example, if the business is a car manufacturer, then the business customer is someone who buys a car."

[mnchiefsguy]

Got to be the dumbest shit I have heard today.

[Deberg_1990]

Actually im still surprised we use the terms "Master/Slave" in the IT/electronics world.

[eDave]

No. I call them EUC's or clients.

[BryanBusby]

uh, no?

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

Actually im still surprised we use the terms "Master/Slave" in the IT/electronics world.

It's really not.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

Actually im still surprised we use the terms "Master/Slave" in the IT/electronics world.

Not to mention male/female connectors. It's just wrong to limit our connectors like that.

[Hammock Parties]

dude sounds like a douche

i'm thankful to have a boss who calls our customers ****ing ****s behind their back

[htismaqe]

Jesus. What a ****ing nightmare.

[Hammock Parties]

Dude is a textbook example of the peter principle most likely.

[displacedinMN]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

Actually im still surprised we use the terms "Master/Slave" in the IT/electronics world.

that is being challenged too.

[JD10367]

[htismaqe]

So if "user" is now offensive, I take it L-user is out of the question?

[unlurking]

I'd tell your infrastructure director to stop being an asshole.

[unlurking]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

So if "user" is now offensive, I take it L-user is out of the question?

I guess the days of updating a user's win.ini file with "user=id10t" and closing tickets with "PEBKAC" are long gone.