A person who works for another person or organization in return for pay. Employees usually have specific duties and rights under an employment agreement.
From 'employ' plus the French-derived suffix '-ee,' which marks the person who receives an action. It parallels words like 'payee' and 'trainee.' The term separates the worker (employee) from the hirer (employer).
That little '-ee' in 'employee' marks you as the one something is done to—you are the one 'employed' by someone else. The same pattern shows up in 'interviewee,' 'trainee,' and 'payee.' English quietly encodes power relationships in tiny endings.
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