Bin man or Environmental Maintenance Officer?
I have written about inflationary job titles and inflationary language before but it just gets worse and worse. And perhaps I’m sitting in a glass house throwing stones because I call myself CEO and Writer-in-chief but now the BBC has given us a delightful list of ridiculous titles, including:
- Director of first impressions (= Receptionist)
- Environmental maintenance officer (= Bin man)
- Eviction technicians (= Bouncers)
What are your favourite job titles? Leave a comment with your suggestions.
Sure, Idi Amin Dada was vicious tyrannical mass murderer, but he had a certain flair with titles. Here’s his:
His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea, and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular
Not to mention his claim to be “The Last King of Scotland”!
Of the two, yours is the more likely.
You can take our laptops but you can never take our creativity!
In France, street sweepers and other professional cleaners of mostly-flat objects have been known since the 1970s as “techniciens de surface”, i.e. surface technicians, or surface specialists.
Of course any name in French is exempt. It automatically sounds cool!