diff --git a/source/company/team/structure/index.html.md b/source/company/team/structure/index.html.md index 906483be2d47a0f582f84dbf639066c10ddb6114..455bd87bcc357c60769af894c7bf891421c9d55e 100644 --- a/source/company/team/structure/index.html.md +++ b/source/company/team/structure/index.html.md @@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ In product (product management, engineering, alliances) a senior leader has a se * **Functions:** the area under one executive. _e.g._ the Engineering function * **Departments:** lead by Directors and comprise multiple teams _e.g._ the Infrastructure department within the Engineering function * Optionally, some departments are so large they are comprised of multiple **sections** _e.g._ The Dev section is within the Development Department -* **Teams:** constitute departments and are made of a line manager and their direct reports _e.g._ the Security operations team within the Security Department +* **Teams:** are made of a line manager and their direct reports _e.g._ the Security operations team within the Security Department Finance also has a notion called "departments" for financial planning purposes. But these do not align with our organizational departments. For instance the finance department "product development" rolls up both the PM and Engineering functions. But it excludes the Support department, which is part of the engineering function, but a different budget. This name collision should probably be resolved in the future. @@ -135,15 +135,17 @@ It is really important that we see the community around GitLab as something that When you refer to the community excluding the people working for the company please use: wider community. If refer to both people at the company and outside of it use community or GitLab team-members. -### Team and team-members +### Tanukis -Team is reserved for the smallest group. -It is defined by a manager and their reports. -It does not refer to a [group](#groups) or [a department](/handbook/engineering/development/). +We call people working at GitLab Inc. Tanuki. +Tanuki is the plural form for more than one tanuki. +Our Tanuki (Japanese for raccoon dog) logo symbolizes this with a smart animal that works in a group to achieve a common goal. +In modern Japanese culture the Tanuki gives you [superpowers](https://www.mariowiki.com/Tanooki_Mario). -Confusingly we also refer to all the people working for the company as team-members. -Normally you would refer to this as employees but our team-members also include a lot of contractors. -Do not refer to team-members as GitLabbers, Labbers, or Gitters since this refers to the whole community. -One option is to replace team-members with Incers since we work for GitLab Inc. -Another option would be to call our GitLab Inc. team-members _Tanuki_ after our logo since the logo is proprietary to GitLab the company. "_Tanuki_" is the plural form for more than one _tanuki_. +We use Tanuki instead of alternatives we considered: +1. Team or team-members which is reserved for manager and their IC reports. +1. Employees sinc we have many ccontractors working for GitLab Inc. +1. GitLabbers, Labbers, or Gitters since this should include the [wider community](/handbook/communication/#writing-style-guidelines). +1. Incers since it sounds dull we work for GitLab Inc. +1. Staff is what is on [our user profile if we work for GitLab Inc.](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/merge_requests/29480/diffs) but is also an [engineering level](/job-families/engineering/backend-engineer/#staff-backend-engineer).