(Published October 19, 2009)
"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet," argued Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet. True, but would that rose get hired if it marketed itself as "Generic Flowering Plant"? I think not! It's natural for employees to want their job title to reflect their individuality.
In a recent survey by Pearl Meyer & Partners, 95% of respondents said that job titles were important, whether for conveying corporate hierarchy or for recognizing valued employees when funds are limited.
But here's where I think it gets really interesting: According to the survey, most companies assign formal job titles but also allow the use of an alternative title. Managers typically customize these alternative job titles to reflect an individual's responsibilities and preferences. HR may not even be aware of these alternative titles, as they often require approval only from the employee's manager and the head of department.
Of course, this practice must cause some confusion when the employee eventually decides to leave and a prospective employer calls HR to at least confirm "the basics" — i.e., the employee's job title, salary, and duration of employment. "Senior Content Specialist?" you might ask in confusion. "No, Mr. Jones was employed for five years here as a Copywriter, period." Poor Jonesy might find himself out of the running for that new job, not because he lied about his job title, but because his alternative moniker was never documented anywhere by his manager. Oops.
You might also be surprised to see some of the job titles showing up on employees' business cards. As a cost-cutting measure, many employers have stopped automatically providing all employees with their own business cards…but that doesn't mean employees aren't taking it upon themselves to create their own cards, often with the company logo, using whatever fancy title they feel like using.
You should also be aware that it has become common practice for employees to tweak existing job titles or create new titles to use on their social networking pages on sites like LinkedIn. The point behind these types of changes is usually not to mislead but, rather, to clarify. My own LinkedIn profile describes me as a "Writer, Editor, Blogger at Alexander Hamilton Institute," which is certainly not my official job title, but I believe that, for the purpose of social networking, it more accurately reflects what I do. (If I'd only wanted to puff myself up, I'd have just crowned myself "Queen Eileen" — it has a nice ring, doesn't it?)
In short, I think some flexibility is called for in assigning and using job titles. But smart employees will let their employers know what's what, to avoid confusion and misunderstandings about their intentions!
Eileen Mager
Writer
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