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The curse of job titles

(China Daily)
Updated: 2011-01-10 13:41

The social research center of China Youth Daily conducted a survey on job titles recently, in which 96.9 percent of the respondents were found to be aware of the importance of posts. The importance that people attach to the job titles they hold is a social phenomenon that reflects the power of the bureaucratic system, says an article in Guangzhou Daily. Excerpts:

The post a person holds in a bureaucracy not only signifies his/her rank in the system, but also influences his/her behavior and social standing. The bureaucratic mechanism has influenced the business world too, and given birth to new job titles and increased the number of fanciful posts.

Many employers use fancy job titles to make their employees feel important and happy. Surprisingly, their business partners and even rivals are doing the same.

For instance, in a joint project, if a senior sales manager of one party is in charge, the other business partner has to assign someone occupying a similar or equivalent rank to liaise with him/her.

As for individuals, their job titles add to their prestige and help them better accommodate to social life.

Hence, quite a few people fake their titles to seek favors and/or make extra money. If such people are not punished, the abuse of job titles will increase at an alarming pace and harm social integrity.