人事

• Pinyin: rén shì
• Hanzi breakdown: 人 = 人 (person); 事 = 亅 + 口 + 彐 (hand holding a brush — originally: an official record; now: affair/matter)

Meaning

Personnel affairs; human resources management; staffing decisions and appointments within an organisation. Also: worldly matters and the ways of human society.

人事部门 (HR department), 人事变动 (personnel change), 人事档案 (personal file), 人事任命 (appointment). In classical/literary usage: 不懂人事 (naive about worldly ways), 人事全非 (everything has changed). Formal and bureaucratic in modern usage.

Examples

1. 公司本次架构调整涉及多个核心部门的人事变动，包括数名副总裁的职位调整与轮岗安排。 This round of organizational restructuring involves personnel changes across multiple core departments, including role changes and rotations for several vice presidents.
2. 人事档案记录了员工从入职到离职的完整职业轨迹，是组织评估和任命的重要参考依据。 Personnel files record an employee’s full career path from hiring to departure and are an important reference for organizational evaluations and appointments.
3. 老人躺在病床上神志不清，已不省人事，家属们守候在侧，神情凝重而悲戚。 The elderly man lay in the hospital bed unconscious; his family kept watch by his side, their faces heavy with grief.

Usage Guide

Context: business, government, HR, organisation

Tone: neutral

Do Say

• 据悉，此次集团高层人事调整是董事会经过长达数月的内部讨论后做出的战略性决策，旨在推动企业向数字化转型加速迈进。(It is reported that this adjustment to the group's senior personnel was a strategic decision made by the board after months of internal deliberation, aimed at accelerating the company's digital transformation.)
• 该部门人事档案的管理工作须严格遵照保密规定执行，任何未经授权的查阅或泄露均将依规处理。(The management of personnel files in this department must be carried out in strict accordance with confidentiality regulations; any unauthorised access or disclosure will be dealt with accordingly.)

Don't Say

• 我不知道人事 — use 我不懂人情世故 for not understanding social norms, or 我对公司人事不了解 for being unfamiliar with company staffing; the meaning of 人事 shifts significantly by context

Origin & History

人 (person) + 事 (affairs/matter) — the affairs pertaining to people and their roles in an organisation

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal