Why does word think staff can be pluralised to staffs?

[Simon-L]

Whenever I'm typing up a document and put in a statement like:
Staff are always encouraged to do the right thing.

Why is it that Word always wants me to change it to one of two things:
1. Staffs are always encouraged to do the right thing, or;
2. Staff is always encouraged to do the right thing.

Both suggested sentences are wrong and my original sentence is correct.
I've noticed this (and similar) problems with the grammar checker for a long
time, has no-one pointed this out before or is it a really tricky rule to
program?

 

[pbkry2r]

Technically, "staff" is a singular noun, if we're talking American English.
The suggested Word spell-check changes are correct. "Staff" is a group, which
is a singular thing, even though it's composed of many people. However,
singulars that should be plurals are very often misused, and that misuse has
become standard English in casual use. All the newspapers I've worked for,
and the publishing house where I now work, use it as a singular noun. So I'd
write "staff is" or "staff members are." British and other English uses may
differ. If you're writing for an organization that prefers "staff are," then
use that.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

In addition, a staff doesn't have to be people. It can be a walking staff or
a musical staff (though I think the plural of that is "staves").

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Simon-L]

So it's like sheep?
Sheep is or Sheep are, it's singular and plural.

I'm in Australia, so the suggested changes are wrong (and yes, I do have
dictionary set to Aus).

Do you know if MS pay any attention to these forums or is there a way to get
in touch with the Spelling & Grammar people to get this fixed up for all
English speaking countries other than US & Canada?

 

[Peter T. Daniels]

In the US we say "_The_ staff is ...."

So it's like sheep?
Sheep is or Sheep are, it's singular and plural.

I'm in Australia, so the suggested changes are wrong (and yes, I do have
dictionary set to Aus).

Do you know if MS pay any attention to these forums or is there a way to get
in touch with the Spelling & Grammar people to get this fixed up for all
English speaking countries other than US & Canada?

 

[Simon-L]

So if you were talking about the 50 people that work in an office, would you
say "The staff is in the tea room"?
Because the correct way of saying this is "The staff are in the tea room".

one thing/person/animal = is
more than one thing/person/animal = are

 

[Peter T. Daniels]

That's the way it's said in England. It's not the way it's said here.

Besides, we don't have "tea rooms."

one thing/person/animal = is
more than one thing/person/animal = are

And the staff is one thing. So is the government, and so are sports
teams that aren't named as collections of players -- baseball teams:
the Cubs are, the Yankees are; but in other sports, pro teams are
taking singular names (the Heat, the Fire -- sorry, I don't know what
sports or cities they represent) construed with a singular verb,
unlike your "Manchester United are."