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co-worker

co-worker

co-worker

(OP)
I recently got asked by my (English) parents whether the term "co-worker" was some PC-gone-mad term or some horrific Americanism.  Can anyone contribute?

RE: co-worker

Have you heard of "co-ed"?
The term "co-worker" would be describing another employee you work with. Has been around for as long as I remember.

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks 06 4.1/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 06-21-06)

RE: co-worker

Been around for as long as Dilbert. Don't confuse them with cow-orkers.

Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

RE: co-worker

I've always thought that it was short for company worker.

"We are all company workers at Acme Engine Company, until you become management."

Wes C.
------------------------------
No trees were killed in the sending of this message, but a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.

RE: co-worker

Never heard of a "company worker" before.
rofl

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks 06 4.1/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 06-21-06)

RE: co-worker

What's wrong with colleague?

That said I thought I heard Co-worker used in the UK while I was still there but my memory isn't what it was so....

RE: co-worker

I think I used to use "workmate" when on the shop floor and  "colleague" after 'upgrading' to the office environment, but like KENAT, the memory isn't what it was. I've been in Canada for so long (25 years today actually) that I tend to forget which terms 'belong' to which country.

cheers
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to find answers ... FAQ559-1091

RE: co-worker

Wow, I've only been here 3 years and get confused.  I blame globalisation!winky smile

I thought workmate was that flimsy mobile workbench from a certain well know power tool company.smile

Did a bit of digging on wikipedia/google and think it might be American, wasn't definite though.

What's PC about it though?  What discriminatory term did they think it used in lieu of?

RE: co-worker

Colleague, at least for me, implies a certain level of familiarity above co-worker. A co-worker is someone who occupies the same building or gets their paycheck from the same place as I, but otherwise has no other direct connection to me; another (worker) bee in the same hive. A colleague is someone with which I work on a regular basis or is someone in in the same profession as me.

JRaef.com
Eng-Tips: Help for your job, not for your homework  Read FAQ731-376 pirate

RE: co-worker

I believe the root source of the prefix is short for "cooperative".

i.e. "co-chairman", "co-vice presidents"

RE: co-worker

D'oh!~
"...with WHOM I work ...",
not
"...with which I work ..."

JRaef.com
Eng-Tips: Help for your job, not for your homework  Read FAQ731-376 pirate

RE: co-worker

(OP)

Quote:

Colleague, at least for me, implies a certain level of familiarity above co-worker.

I think that's it.  To my ears, "co-worker" is a deliberately chosen word to make it clear that the named person is not and will not ever be a friend.

RE: co-worker

Co-worker or coworker has the same meaning. Instead of Co worker or coworker one can say fellow, colleague, and comrade.
   
I like that! Greg Locock the terms cannot be confused with cow orker, which is a slang term of co-worker and coworker

In Canada I suppose the ones who work in the automotive area know the CAW workers (Canadian auto workers).

atom

RE: co-worker

Most of my co-workers I consider to be friends. Some are colleagues, but I have colleagues (at Eng-tips for example) who are not my co-workers. Comrade sounds too communistic. Fellow I won't comment on. And cow-worker is a unisex term for cowboy.

RE: co-worker

LOL stevenall. I was composing almost the exact same comment!

Fellow, for me, is too stuffy or phony. That term has fallen out of favor here in the US, maybe because of Lyndon Johnson, i.e. "Mah Fellow 'Mahrcans"

JRaef.com
Eng-Tips: Help for your job, not for your homework  Read FAQ731-376 pirate

RE: co-worker

(OP)

Quote:

Been around for as long as Dilbert.

I must admit, that was the first place/time I ever heard the term and honestly assumed it was a Dilbert-ism rather than common parlance.

RE: co-worker

Interesting,

I sometimes use colleague as an almost derogatory term.


e.g. Some of my colleagues don't believe in the need for strict document control.

RE: co-worker

I usually use "Cohorts in Crime".

RE: co-worker


Probably not worth very much, but here’s my own rules;

A coworker is someone who works for the same company, but I never use the term to describe my boss who is one of the owners. The receptionist or one of the CAD guys are coworkers but the owners are not.  The owner who is my direct supervisor is my boss.  I have a problem assigning a name for the other two owners who are not my direct supervisors.  I usually refer to them as ‘other owner’, which is a bit clumsy and requires too much explanation.  I can’t really call them coworkers (that requires that they actually work, not just delegate) and I’m reluctant to call them my boss since I only do work for them when my work load is light.  Their stuff gets dropped the instant my boss has work for me and I get to tell the other owners to go elsewhere to get their work completed.  That’s just not a boss in my book.

 A colleague is someone at or very close to the same level, unless at an outside meeting with Clients, then everyone is your colleague.  That’s not PC, it’s courteous.

A counterpart is someone who does almost exactly the same work and has similar training and experience.

"If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance!"

RE: co-worker

counterpart = oppo in Oz. Not too sure of the derivation.


Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

RE: co-worker

I've heard oppo used in the UK too.

RE: co-worker

Counterpart to me would mean someone who does the same job but for a different company.

RE: co-worker

Team mates may be the new term for the current trends. It still is colleagues for old guys like me and ofcourse Comrades for the unionised workmen.(Remember we are Socialist Democratic country)

RE: co-worker

I believe 'Oppo' is from 'opposite number'.

'Workmates' and 'The lads' is the term we use for the fellow workers we get on with, even when a female is in the group. We aren't sexist! 'The Management' is a frequently used term but is seldom heard in a complimentary context. 'The Gaffer' is common for a popular team leader or department head. 'That pr--k' is also common, but for the unpopular ones!

----------------------------------
  Sometimes I only open my mouth to swap feet...

RE: co-worker

My favourite term for managers, especially the higher ups whose decisions seem to defy logic, is 'the grown ups'.

Sompting, I'm still intriged by what they thought co-worker may be PC replacement for.

I think 'lads' above is the only one so far even approaching any kind of discrimination.  (No Scotty I'm not saying you're being sexist)

RE: co-worker

(OP)

Quote:

Sompting, I'm still intriged by what they thought co-worker may be PC replacement for.

Classless, sexless, anythingless.  By saying "co-worker" there is no possibility of transgressing any real or imaginary social boundaries.

RE: co-worker

Co-worker: Someone I at the same place I work
Lads: Sort of like "guys".
Colleague: Someone I work with (regardless of employer).

?

"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."   
Albert Einstein
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

RE: co-worker


Then there are words such as associate, confrère, partner, co-aid, ally, collaborator, coadjutor, cooperator, which under the righ circumstances may be synonymous with co-worker.

RE: co-worker

col·league  (klg) n.
A fellow member of a profession, staff, or academic faculty; an associate. See Synonyms at partner.

co·work·er or co-work·er  (kwûrkr)n.
One who works with another; a fellow worker.

Etymology
From co- + work + -er.

Latin Prefix
co- together, with
cogere, Quirinus (co-viri-nus), cohaerere, coire, colligere

Noun Singular work Plural works
 

work (plural works)

(uncountable) Labour, employment, occupation, job.
I go to work everyday.
(uncountable) Effort expended on a particular task.
Holding a brick over your head is hard work.
It took a lot of work to make this Wiktionary entry of the word "work"
(uncountable) (physics) A measure of energy expended in moving an object; most commonly, force*distance. No work is done if the object does not move.
Work is done against friction to drag a bag along the ground.
(uncountable) (Thermodynamics) A nonthermal First Law energy in transit between one form or repository and another. Also, a means of accomplishing such transit [1].
(countable) A literary, artistic, or intellectual production.
It is a work of art.
(countable) A person of importance.
You are a piece of work.
(uncountable) The place where one is employed.
He hasn’t come home yet, he’s still at work.
(countable) A fortification.
William the Conqueror fortified many castles, throwing up new ramparts, bastions and all manner of works.

Suffix
-er (productive)

Forming nouns from nouns and adjectives with the sense of ‘person or thing connected or involved with, belonging to, having’
New Yorker, astrologer, cricketer, six-footer, three-wheeler
Forming nouns from verbs with the sense of ‘person or thing which does’
reader, cooker, computer, runner-up, do-gooder

Wes C.
------------------------------
No trees were killed in the sending of this message, but a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.

RE: co-worker

Co-Worker is a degree of seperation,ie your friend stole my drill/not my friend my co-worker.

RE: co-worker

"Coworker" is not a Dilbertism.  Dilbert did popularize (but did not invent) the deliberate mishyphenation "cow-orker" and probably led to the increased use of "co-worker" instead of "coworker".

Not all colleagues are co-workers.  A colleague can be someone involved in the same profession (American Heritage dictionary).  Not all co-workers are colleagues; I wouldn't really think of someone who works in a completely different department, who I never see, as a colleague.  I don't really think of the admin staff as colleagues.  

People that I work together with for some common purpose, regardless of employer, are my colleagues.  Someone who just works in my company is a co-worker, and I don't have another equivalent word I could use instead, were I to try to appease those who scream "PC" at every unfamiliar term they encounter.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies:  FAQ731-376

RE: co-worker

According to the unreliable wiki, and the slightly less unreliable google, cow-orker surfaced on talk.bizarre in 1990 or thereabouts, and gently rippled out into the world from there.

Co-worker is such an obvious and unremarkable compound word that I have had no luck nailing it down.

Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

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