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In an article I am reading from Bloomberg Businessweek, there is a use of "staffs". I thought staff is a collective noun and has no plural. The full sentence reads

Companies such as Uber Technologies Inc. and DoorDash Inc. have established or expanded programs allowing employers to distribute meal credits to their staffs."

Shall I interpret "staffs" as different groups of staffers, just like "foods" mean different types of food, and in this context meaning one staff (group of employees) for each of the aforementioned employers (Uber, DoorDash)?

ALife
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    When it's owned, staff means the people employed by whatever entity controls the staff. The author means to consider Uber's and Doordash's staffs each, hence plural. – John Lawler Jan 22 '21 at 03:20
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    I think it would be valid to use "staff" here, because it's obviously each distributing to their own staff, but "staffs" is also fine, if unnecessary. – Stuart F Jan 22 '21 at 10:34
  • Just be aware that if one is talking about sheet music, the staff (the five lines upon which the notes are written) do have a plural, for instance, staves. – Otter Jan 22 '21 at 17:41
  • You're probably confusing collective nouns with non-count-noun usages. You can have three prides of lions, four troupes of scouts, five strings of horses, even six murders of crows. With similar phrases involving nouns in pseudopartitives, you can likewise have seven boxes of chocolates, a dozen cans of cola. // If you look up 'staff' you will find that while it has a non-count usage (The staff were evacuated at once) (= 'the members of staff'), there are count usages. 'The three staffs involved, that of ABDC, that of Macropage, and that of Orinococo, will all receive pay rises next month.' – Edwin Ashworth Jan 22 '21 at 19:23

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"Companies" is the subject. There are two companies named as examples (Uber Technologies and DoorDash), each having its own staff. (Presumably they don't share the same collection of workers.) Therefore, the plural "staffs" is correct.

RobJarvis
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In a sentence like 'His company's staff is exceptional.", you should use the usual pluralization of 'staff'.

But in this case, the author is mentioning two companies, Uber Technolocgies and DoorDash, and so both the companies' staff form the pluralization of 'staffs'.

Remember, you should only use 'staffs' when you want to mention the staffs of two individual objects/people/places. Otherwise, a simple 'staff' will be enough.

For more, see Quora page.

  • You meant "you should not use the usual pluralization of 'staff'." in your first sentence, right? – ALife Jan 23 '21 at 00:41