The confusion arises when there’s a clamour for titles without a set hierarchy on how to progress through an organisation. However, that is nothing compared to job title inflation, where increasingly senior titles are bestowed upon workers, sometimes in lieu of pay rises (and don’t get me started on the problem with promotions).
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This is not a new phenomenon, with a 2012 study by a British think tank, the Resolution Foundation, concluding there was a large increase in workers who maintained a middle-ranking wage but were given senior-sounding job titles like ‘manager’.
But it’s now more noticeable. You’re likely to see job title inflation all over LinkedIn, where a worker with a few years’ experience might change their profile to ‘Junior Global Vice President of Operations’, or a technical employee might morph into a ‘Growth Hacker’ before your very eyes.
While it’s easy enough to scroll straight past it, if you’re part of an organisation that has more variations than ice cream flavours, the best thing to do is simplify your options where you can, reducing dozens of permutations towards more manageable names. A rule of thumb should be that if a 10-year-old can’t clearly understand your job title, you need to keep trying.
If we don’t address confusing descriptions and job title inflation before it continues increasing, we risk building workplaces where no one has clarity on who’s doing what.
We don’t want a world where career progression is measured by a garbled collection of words on your email signature instead of by the work that you actually do.
Tim Duggan is author of Work Backwards: The Revolutionary Method to Work Smarter and Live Better. He writes a regular newsletter at timduggan.substack.com
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