Need some legal advice please. Is there a legal benefit or attribute to being called or defined as a “Team Member” versus an “Employee”? It seems the term “Team Member” is being purged and replaced as “Employee.”
Is this legal maneuvering/ positioning to mitigate class actions?
@2annn That is the definition you are putting on it. Your reply speaks to your emotions around the terms. An employee is a person who has agreed by contract to perform specified services. You work and you get paid for it. If you feel that working together for a common goal takes being an employee to the next level that's on you. Personally, it sounds to me like you have your rose colored glasses firmly in place.
We are employees. All of us. I don't go to work because of common goals. I go to work for the paycheck. If I am lucky enough to have a good team, that's great, but that is not a guarantee.
@2idv+17liYnwN and it's corporate speak to call people employees vs. team members. Team members work together for a common goal. They pick up the slack and put in extra work so that the team looks good and thrives. An employee labors for a paycheck. Charlie wants employees, not team members.
@1akc
It's all corporate speak. If your manager is telling you to be team player that just means you are not performing they way they want you to. It has nothing to do with actually being a team player.
The next time your manager says you're not being a team player, remind them that you are an employee, not a team member.
Team Member or Employee is such a small thing. Why do you all care? I've always referred to myself as an employee because legally that is what we are. Team Member is just corporate speak. It means nothing and is a faux way of making it appear that we are all in this together. Yeah, right.
I remember years ago I worked for a bank where we had Coaches and Sales Leaders. Basically, a Coach was an Assistant Manager and a Sales Leader was a Sales Manager. It was stupid then and it's stupid now.
I want to be part of a posse.
Or a squad.
Seriously, it's a meaningless term meant to make you feel like you're part of something special.
We are not part of something special, we employees at a big evil bank.
Who can understand why Charlie does this, but he always does it. Everybody understands their place, but referring to employees as a team is cheap goodwill. Taking time out of a busy day to make clear to teammates that they are just employees is a cheap demoralizer.
Ego, intentional demoralization, a personal affectation, who really knows?
Well if you go back to the stagecoach heritage, team member means you are just one horse among a team so don’t be too wistful. In front of every stagecoach you’ll find a horse’s a–.
Amazon calls employees team members. Good enough term at a leading edge company but not good enough for Schmarlie.
Companies call their employees team members, family, partners, whatever, it's not a real thing.
It's not a legally binding name, it's just a name.
Have people forgotten when they were hired on by Wells Fargo, they signed an Arbitration Agreement that said any legal claims arising out of employment with WF will be resolved by final and binding arbitration? Unless WF has done something illegal, your pursuit to sue WF is an uphill climb.
It may have originated as a differentiator between contractors and FTE employees.
It’s a purging of the prior culture where for the most part, while dysfunctional operationally as a company, were one big happy family, part of the team, most got good reviews and good payouts, so generally most were happy. Now, we’re just peasants, not one big happy family, still dysfunctional (maybe more) and will receive less payout due to decreased performance rating as a result of being downgraded to peasants
It's about personal preference - Charlie's preference to be exact. He doesn't like the employees being called team members. That's all.
Legal advice? Simmer down, OP. You are overthinking.
The term Team Member worked for decades and didn't seem to cause any problems. Calling us employees is just a way to strip people of a human factor.