Important sounding but frivolous job titles in UAE

Who doesn’t want a high-rank job title? If we could, we would, definitely put ourselves in the C-bracket.

it isn’t just the employees who want these job titles. Sometimes, even the companies they work for do not shy away from doling out important-sounding job titles to their employees.

The catch, however, is that they are not backed either by what the role should entail or the money and stature that should follow.

Have one look at the titles going around, and you’d realise that nobody wants the title of a ‘salesman’ anymore. They’re either ‘sales associates’ or ‘marketing partners’ or ‘business development executives’, among others.

Giving an employee a creative job title such as ‘Director of Selling’ instead of ‘Sales Head’ will not change anything if the job duties do not satisfy the criteria that are associated with such roles.

“These are what I call mere honorary titles. The company can put anything before your name just to make you feel good about it. The initial phase will be that of happiness but it will soon turn into frustration when you realise the limitations of the role. It just makes you seem foolish as the reality sinks in,” said Angie Menezes, a PR director based in Media City.

Menezes has the title of a PR director and she makes quite an impression when she talks to people outside her office. “Clients seem happy when they have to deal with a Director and not an Executive. The truth is that I’m just a ‘me’ team, other than the copywriter who writes press releases besides doing some other odd jobs,” she laments.

Menezes is just one such case but you won’t have to look too far to see people with very important-sounding but limited job roles.

“I’m also Head of Beverages,” says the receptionist at a Bur Dubai-based travel agency. That’s because I also serve tea and coffee to our boss’ guests,” she quips.

“Not all titles are frivolous, but they do tend to be a bit of base at times,” Ash Athawale, Recruitment Manager at Reed Specialist Recruitment, told Emirates 24|7.

He lists some very important-sounding job roles in the country but with limited scope.

Athawale believes the title ‘Head’ is often played around with quite a lot. “Logically, a Head is really responsible for a strategic business unit but when the role reports to a manager, is it really a ‘Head’?”

Second on his list is ‘Chief People Officer’.

“This equates to Vice-President of Human Resources. Having ‘People’ in the title doesn’t really make one more people-oriented or otherwise,” shrugs Athawale.

Playing with words isn’t a difficult thing to do. “Similarly, the term ‘Officer’ in a context outside the armed forces sounds odd but is very prevalent here in the UAE,” he says.

It’s the same case with the title Manager. “The title ‘Manager’ without a team to ‘manage’ is also redundant but is awarded to keep employees happy,” he adds.

Picking his favourite one, Athawale elaborates: “A great one that isn’t really frivolous that I have seen in the United States was ‘Director of First Impressions’ for a receptionist. How cool is that?” he asks.

And, it’s not just the companies in the UAE that play with job titles.

According to Hemant Malhotra, Business Optimisation expert in Financial Services, based in the UK, many companies award titles with little meaning to the role.

He highlights one case of Customer Experience Head. “I read the job description and it was all about reporting to the heads and managing internal stakeholder with no mention of customer.

“Then there was the case of Global Business Head – when the business was local to London, not even the UK and with no plans of expansion.

“My best one was Transformation Lead. I thought it was to manage significant change portfolio across the bank but a little probing and I found out they were looking for someone who has extensive experience in the same industry, especially in the same division. Transformation is always outside in so why not get people from different industry?” he added.

Got some of your own? In comments below, tell us about the most frivolous job titles you might’ve come across.

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