Job Titles
I am going to do the old guy thing; I remember a time when you got a job and had a job title that meant something.
When you spoke to a director you knew they had authority in the company, administrators were the gateway to anyone important, IT staff knew how a computer worked and accountants were different from bookkeepers.
Now there are managers that don’t manage anything, administrators that administer a phone and leaders who have to do the same thing as the people they are leading, accountants that manage only a ledger, IT staff that don’t know a NIC from a KNACK.
Why?, well I have a theory. In our attempt to be better than then next guy, the emphasis got away from what you do and toward what they call you. “Yeah I will clean toilets but I want to be called a custodial engineer because my buddy cleans toilets and he’s called a facility supervisor so my job must be better since my indicates I am an engineer.”
The HR supervisor hears this and says to himself “Hey if his buddy is a supervisor that cleans toilets and my job is so much better than his I want to be called at least a director.” When the HR director gets this request he doesn’t say ”stop being an idiot” instead he books a meeting with the executive and says “I am responsible for 4 HR managers and 2 resource administrators (a.k.a. file clerks) therefore I must be a director.” The directors agree then alter their titles to VP’s “since we manage more people.” As a result the VP’s become division presidents.
Several weeks later the president’s toilet backs up and when he calls for a janitor and is informed that they don’t have any but the custodial engineer will be right there to clean up. He then retires knowing full well that the company is going to fold within a year since he has nothing but idiots running things.
You can tell that a company is still efficient when the first person you meet is a receptionist not an executive assistant, the person cleaning is a janitor and everyone in the company is doing work that sounds remotely like the job title they have.
Urban Druid
When you spoke to a director you knew they had authority in the company, administrators were the gateway to anyone important, IT staff knew how a computer worked and accountants were different from bookkeepers.
Now there are managers that don’t manage anything, administrators that administer a phone and leaders who have to do the same thing as the people they are leading, accountants that manage only a ledger, IT staff that don’t know a NIC from a KNACK.
Why?, well I have a theory. In our attempt to be better than then next guy, the emphasis got away from what you do and toward what they call you. “Yeah I will clean toilets but I want to be called a custodial engineer because my buddy cleans toilets and he’s called a facility supervisor so my job must be better since my indicates I am an engineer.”
The HR supervisor hears this and says to himself “Hey if his buddy is a supervisor that cleans toilets and my job is so much better than his I want to be called at least a director.” When the HR director gets this request he doesn’t say ”stop being an idiot” instead he books a meeting with the executive and says “I am responsible for 4 HR managers and 2 resource administrators (a.k.a. file clerks) therefore I must be a director.” The directors agree then alter their titles to VP’s “since we manage more people.” As a result the VP’s become division presidents.
Several weeks later the president’s toilet backs up and when he calls for a janitor and is informed that they don’t have any but the custodial engineer will be right there to clean up. He then retires knowing full well that the company is going to fold within a year since he has nothing but idiots running things.
You can tell that a company is still efficient when the first person you meet is a receptionist not an executive assistant, the person cleaning is a janitor and everyone in the company is doing work that sounds remotely like the job title they have.
Urban Druid
posted by Anonymous at 11:00 PM
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