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Bartleby: The scourge of job-title inflation

巴托比：头衔通胀的祸患

The director of first impressions will see you now

第一印象专员现在可以见你了

There are bigger costs than comedy and confusion.

不只是引人发笑和令人困惑，头衔通胀还会带来更大的代价。

Handing a heftier title to one person can easily cause resentment among others on a team.

给一个人更高的头衔很容易引起团队中其他人的不满。

And inflated titles can have adverse effects on hiring processes.

夸大的头衔也可能会对招聘过程产生不利影响。

An analysis of tech recruitment in America by Datapeople, a software firm, found that the proportion of women in applicant pools drops as jobs become more senior.

软件公司Datapeople对美国科技企业招聘的一项分析发现，头衔越高级，应聘者中的女性比例就越低。

Puffed-up titles may put good candidates off.

夸大的头衔可能会让优秀的应聘者望而却步。

Title inflation is most associated with specific jobs.

头衔通胀大多发生在特定工作身上。

But there exists a less-remarked type of naming inflation, which seeks to rebrand entire categories of people.

但还有一种不太引人注意的命名通胀，这种通胀试图重新命名整个类别的人。

There is, for example, a perfectly good term for buyers of things: “customers”.

例如，形容购买物品的人时，有一个非常好的术语：“顾客”。

But lots of companies are not satisfied with taking people’s cash.

但很多公司并不满足于只赚取人们的现金。

They want to have a meaningful relationship.

他们还想要和人们建立有意义的关系。

Keen to avoid sounding too transactional, some businesses use the inflated title of “guests” instead.

为了避免听起来太像在做交易，一些企业会用夸张的“客人”头衔来代替。

But language that might make sense at a Disney resort sounds very odd if you are in a queue for the checkout at Target; people are trying to leave as efficiently as possible, not settling in for the time of their lives.

但是，有些话在迪士尼度假区可能说得通，在塔吉特排队付钱时说就会非常奇怪；毕竟人们是想尽快结完账走人，而不是在这里过日子。

“Member” is another bogus word.

“会员”是另一个伪词。

No one is wondering whether their application to pay Amazon an annual fee for free shipping is going to be turned down.

没有人会担心他们向亚马逊支付年费来抵免运费的申请是否会被拒绝。

The worst offences in this category are the labels that employers give to their staff.

这种头衔通胀中最令人反感的是雇主给员工贴上的标签。

Calling people “colleagues” or “team members” instead of “staff” or “employees” is a common tactic.

用“同事”或“团队成员”来替代“员工”或“雇员”是一种常见的策略。

People who work in Walmart stores are known as “associates”.

在沃尔玛门店工作的人被称为“合伙人”。

Baristas at Starbucks are called “partners” because, the firm’s website explains, “We are all partners in shared success.”

星巴克的咖啡师被称为“合伙伙伴”，因为该公司的网站解释说，“我们都是共享成功的合伙伙伴”。

Tech firms are wedded to cutesy names for their employees.

科技公司喜欢给员工取矫揉造作的名字。

When Facebook rebranded itself as Meta, it announced that its workers would henceforth be known as “Metamates”.

脸书将自己更名为Meta后，宣布从今以后它的员工将被称为“Meta朋友”。

The intent behind this kind of language is again clear: to create a sense of shared endeavour and to disguise the cold reality of corporate hierarchies.

这种头衔背后的意图再次显而易见：创造一种共同努力的感觉，掩盖企业等级制度的冰冷现实。

But this facade is much easier to maintain when things are going well.

但只有当一切进展顺利时，这种虚假的表象才更容易维护。

Meta is now firing more than 11,000 of its mates, which seems a tad unfriendly.

Meta现在解雇了1.1万多名“朋友”，这似乎有点不友好。

Starbucks doesn’t want its partners to form a union with anyone but itself.

星巴克不希望其合作伙伴与除自己以外的任何人结成联盟。

A bit of title inflation is excusable.

一点头衔通胀是情有可原的。

But just like the real thing, it can easily get out of control.

但就像真品一样，它很容易失控。

来源：经济学人