[smortaz]

The Burroughs OS (“Master Control Program”) in the 70s had a routine from which all other processes were started. Its name was MotherForker(). It was eventually renamed when HR found out.

[PostOnce]

Burroughs MCP impresses me with its lifespan (which is ongoing)

Initial release 1961; 59 years ago

Latest release 19.0[1] / June 2019

I wonder who uses it today and for what?

[smortaz]

Definitely. The OS, HW and Extended Algol had some nice features that were ahead of their time. I haven’t kept up, but their mainframes were very popular with banks etc.

[drfuchs]

Except that in the 70's it would have been "Personnel Administration" (or more commonly "Personnel") rather than "HR".

[DaiPlusPlus]

Honestly, that's a much better name than "Human Resources" - where did "HR" come from anyway?

[eru]

Wikipedia has got you covered: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_resources#Origins_of_the...

They also have 'Concerns about the terminology' as the next section.

[tareqak]

Anyone have any suggestions for a better name? Human Capital?

[goatinaboat]

No, “Human Resources” is an accurate description of the view a company’s senior management has of its workers. Something to be used up and then discarded, like a cartridge of printer toner.

[rmdashrfstar]

How bleak an idea.

[kitotik]

I was going suggest “Pleb Management” but the acronym “PM” is already overused between Product/Program/Project Management.

[zw123456]

Management Ass Covering is the most accurate name.

[PopeDotNinja]

Talent Retention.

[eru]

That's not really what they do in practice.

Personnel department perhaps? It's nice and bland.

(It's just a direct translation of the German Personalabteilung.)

[tiny_epoch]

The need to conflate humans with resources so the C-level can exploit them without too much thought.

[ngcc_hk]

MCP the one in tron?