Office talk

May 25, 2010

<b>What lies beneath the flowery job titles</b><br>EVE is a lady who turns heads when she enters church. Mesmerised by her looks, I could not help but ask what her profession was. “I am a front desk officer,” she said. Noticing a blank expression on my face, she said: “It is similar to a rec

BY Joyce Nyakato

What lies beneath the flowery job titles
EVE is a lady who turns heads when she enters church. Mesmerised by her looks, I could not help but ask what her profession was. “I am a front desk officer,” she said. Noticing a blank expression on my face, she said: “It is similar to a receptionist’s work.”

Many job titles have changed over time. People are spokespersons instead of sposkesmen or spokeswomen; public relations officers are now communication officers.

But why do titles for some jobs keep changing?
Florence Matovu, AIKAN human resource consultant, attributes the changes in titles to changes in roles and responsibilities.

“A good job title summarises all the responsibilities of the position in simple words,” she says.She adds that stenographers, typists or secretaries have changed to administrative assistants because of the change of machinery and expansion of roles.

“If roles grow, the person is more than a secretary,” she says, adding that companies are trying to cut costs by hiring a single person to execute diverse roles. Matovu also points out that other titles have changed to remove the stereotypes created towards holders of some jobs.

“In some cases, jobs originally perceived as women’s or men’s have been renamed to attract different gender,” she adds. Sharon Jordan, co-author of Love Them Lose Them: Getting Good People to Stay, says: “Employees now have more choices, more power and by offering fancier job titles, you can stoke ego and coax talent through the door.”

In a bid to provide status, the company professionalises some positions to make the holders of the often-shunned jobs to feel good about their work. “My first job title was cleaner but two years later, my boss introduced me to the workers as their new sanitation assistant,” Sarah Mbabazi says with an air of satisfaction. Although the title came with no extra privileges, Mbabazi enjoys the new job becauses she feels respected.

Matovu, however, says organisations should be careful when choosing job titles. “An inflated job title can become a liability to the holder and the company,” she says.

A fresh graduate with a desire to move up in a chosen career may feel that acquiring a title that will look good on the resume is worth accepting, but they are demoralised when they discover the big title does not tally with what they have to do in the company.

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