Meaning & use
field staff
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountablebusiness
The employees of an organization who work away from the main office, usually visiting places or customers directly.
Grammar: Used as a group word, like 'police': it has no plural form, and you can say 'a member of the field staff' for one person.
Patterns
- the field staff of something
- field staff working in/for something
- a member of the field staff
The charity's field staff visit villages that have no clinic.
Head office asked the field staff to report on local sales.
Field staff often spend more time traveling than sitting at a desk.
noununcountablebusiness
The group of reporters and camera operators a news organization sends out to gather stories on location.
Grammar: Also a group word; 'the field staff' takes a plural verb in British English and often a singular verb in American English.
Patterns
- the field staff of a newspaper
- send out field staff
The paper's field staff reached the flooded town before anyone else.
Field staff were pulled out of the area when the fighting started.
Common combinations
- field staff member
- Every field staff member carries a radio.
- field staff training
- New field staff training lasts two weeks.
- recruit field staff
- The agency is recruiting field staff for its rural programs.
- join the field staff
- She left the office job to join the field staff.
- field staff report
- The field staff report is due at the end of each month.
Synonyms and how they differ
- personnel
- A broader, more formal word for all the people who work for an organization, not only those away from the office.
- workforce
- Refers to all the workers as a body, usually without the idea of working outside the main office.
- representatives
- Fits when the staff speak or act for the company in the places they visit, but it does not cover drivers or technicians.
Opposites
Word family
- fieldworker noun
- One person who does practical work in the field, especially in research or aid.
- fieldwork noun
- The activity of going out to collect information or do practical work rather than staying in an office or lab.
Commonly confused: field staff or staff?
field staff vs staff
On its own, 'staff' means all employees, including those in the main office; 'field staff' is only the part that works outside it.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'field staff' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Field staff' is a group word with no plural, so 'The field staff is visiting...' is correct. 'Field staffs' wrongly adds a plural, 'a field staff' cannot mean one person, and a field staff member would not normally be based in the main office.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “field staff”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.