Workers Are Discussing The Recent Kohl's Janitor Pay Increase
3 I have been trying to find a word to describe someone who routinely abuses their workers, and perhaps even more than that, scorns them and sees them as inferior. My first guess was despot but I think that is more routinely used within the context of political leaders. I appreciate any feedback. In English, there is no single umbrella term systematically used for workers employed by the government (unlike the word "fonctionnaire" in French or the terms "funcionario" and "funcionario público" in Spanish). The various terms that may be used are: public/civil servant, public official, senior/minor [government] official, state employee, government/public worker/employee, functionary. But ... The man who coined the term knowledge workers differentiated them from manual workers. Management guru Peter Drucker coined the term "knowledge worker." In his 1969 book, The Age of Discontinuity, Drucker differentiates knowledge workers from manual workers and insists that new industries will employ mostly knowledge workers. For example, "We are struggling to replace workers with a high level of firm-specific knowledge." "Firm-specific knowledge" conveys the idea that the knowledge lost is specific to a particular institution (in this case, the company) rather than more general knowledge. In Canada we have: salespersons who sell you items (we used to have salesmen too), cashiers who just work at the cash register and don't assist you in choosing items, managers, and specialty workers such as butchers, bakers, etc. So there isn't a single word that would cover all persons working in a store. I suppose salesperson might be the most common position.
