Inflation in job titles is approaching Weimar levels

In an example of the Peter Principle crossed with the Inverse Square Law, as the number of titles and slackers holding those titles has been squared, competency society-wide has been reduced by half.

Give me back the United States of my boyhood, when small businesses run by wiley scrappers filled Main Streets bursting at the seams, and every corner had a fabrication or repair shop wherein could be found a master at work who had pulled himself up by his own bootstraps, and family farms produced talented, hard-working girls and boys as adept at the art of feeding the world as they were at construction, heavy machinery operation, storming beaches or running efficient corporations.

Where these lines crossed each other-- the one that describes the rise in job-description-inflated/bloated salaries with the line that describes the destruction of diversity, competency, character, and work ethic in favor of a wage-slave service sector-- is the point past which the United States especially, but other so-called western democracies in general, passed the event horizon of this current period of steep decline where oil wells can be drilled but not stopped, wars can be fought in perpetuity but not won, corporations can make the obscene profits to which their stockholders have become addicted only by economic cannibalization, and society-- along with the physical infrastructure necessary to maintain it-- is collapsing around our collective heads.

And meanwhile, that most overpaid, over-titled, most-imcompetent, grovelling class of all-- the politicians-- instead of actually doing the fiddling themselves while Rome burns, prefer to dance like royal fools to the increasingly maniacal tunes played by their gluttonous, corporate lords.

A global household cleaning products giant has a "Global Category Manager & Global Category Director of Dishwashing"

Lavatory cleaners seem to have been going backwards.

"Sanitation consultants"?

In my day they were Privy Councillors.

Simply brilliant! John Doe, CER (Chief Economist Reader)

You end the article: "The essence of inflation, after all, is that it devalues everything that it touches".

I'll go a step further: not just devalues but defiles everything it touches.

This is a true reflection of how phoney, egotistical & narcissistic, we as a society, have pathetically morphed into. We have embraced & unashamedly glorified a culture of brazen deceit & superficiality, sacrificing honesty & openness at the alter of self-aggrandisement & greed.

Brings to mind a poignantly apt definition of "Specialists": They are people who know more & more about less & less, till they know everything about nothing!

That's the kinda fake & flawed, superficial world we live in today.

Sad..

Completely agree with james hussar

This is all so "Dilbertesque"

Jose, SVPCUC (Senior Vice President for Cepticism and Unnecessary Comments)

Inspirational....I think I'll call the next analyst I hire "Jedi"

I just graduated from MBA and this was the same thing I discussed with my friends since our batch started to get placed.. everyone was a manager and vice president.. if not, then 'senior' was added to the title.. how companies simply love to create that special position for you to accommodate interest of everyone..

very well written!

Jay Leno recently did a bit ridiculing a graduation ceremony from kindergarten. I see such a thing as intimately related to the inflation in job titles. Both involve a growing need in people to be constantly reminded how good they are, rather than just being rewarded by the feeling they get after having done something with commendable effort and competence. It is a trend towards ones esteem coming from the outside rather than the inside.

Awesome article. Those fancy meaningless titles have always annoyed me. I want get into the game also! P. Thomas, ICO (Ironic Critic Officer)

In India, is there such a thing as Chief Indian?

I like the title of a job recently advertised for an Australian advertising company "Head of Getting Shit Done".

South West Trains has "Income Protection Officers".

We used to call them "conductors"

It's a long-running trend: "Chief Assistant to the Assistant Chief", from Flanders & Swann around 1955.

Apart from Presidents & Directors we are also suffering an excess of Leaders...........

Mangement-speak is guilty of corrupting the english language in order to promote the self-importance of the latest management consultant guru. It is to the poor reflection of a management and their company it feels the need to follow.

A company has Directors & Management.

An army has Leaders.

A Government has a President.

Uplifting! Tres Maries, E-RAO (Economist - Read All Over)

Great article.

I wonder if Kim Jong Il (the greatest man who ever lived) ever met Saparmurat Niyazov the Turkmenbashi who was also pretty awesome.

Great read! Now you understand what Executive Recruiters deal with on a daily basis!
CBSD (Chief Bull S*** Detector)

Outstanding! PMarques, PIA (Principal Information Absorber)

That's pretty funny! Some companies/organizations require these titles as part of their legal structure,
and somebody has to fill them. There may be a motivational/aspirational aspect:
You are perhaps being directed/expected to shoulder more responsibility as time goes by.