Here’s yet another take on the futility of job titles:
(Click for full size)
(Thx Gareth).
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More death to job titles
A while back I wrote a post about killing off job titles. I think they’re a waste of time and contribute nothing to our productivity, creativity or happiness at work. In fact, job titles can be the source of a lot of disputes and bickering in the workplace.
Matt Cardwell of Quicken Loans (a home loan lender based in the US) read this and liked it so much that he decided to issue a fatwa on job titles in his department. Here he explains why:
We never used to have titles on the Marketing Team at Quicken Loans because we always prided ourselves as having a marked anti-corporate and non-hierarchical culture. Actually, we did have titles, but everyone was called a “Marketing Manager.” So it was kind of a forced equality and no one EVER even talked about titles. But as the team grew from a few dozen people to over fifty, HR decided we needed some “consistency”, especially for purposes of external salary comping. So against our better judgment we relented and started creating a bunch of silly titles like: Marketing Coordinator, Marketing Program Manager, Project Manager, Jr. Project Manager, Sr. Project Manager, etc.
Well, it only took about 12 months for our brilliant decision to come back and bite us in the ass. Needless to say, it created all kinds of unnecessary noise within the team as people started to grumble about why a person who had only been here for 12 months just got promoted to Sr. Project Manager when another person who had been here for three years was still a Project Manager. I got so fed up with the divisiveness of it all that I just decided to banish titles altogether yesterday morning. So I went looking for some inspiration and Googled “job titles” or something to that effect and found your blog post from December. It was EXACTLY what I was looking for. So I dropped it into an email, added my two cents and started a revolt. Initially it was just within my 20 person eCommerce Marketing team, but it snowballed over the course of the afternoon to include most of the broader marketing team.
That is music to my ears and in response to Matt’s challenge, people got very creative. Here are some of the new titles:
- Royal Storyteller & Propaganda Minister
- Supreme Challenger of the Status Quo & Wicked Web Site Innovator
- Mastermind of Possibilities, Visual Linguist, and Czar of the High Fiber Revolution
- Flasher
- Conceptologist
- Pixelardo da Vinci
You can see more titles in my previous post on this.
How did Matt inspire people to do this? Here’s the email he sent out:
Okay, team, so I want each one of you to take 15 minutes today to really think hard about what YOU DO and what MAKES YOU HAPPY at work and create a title for yourself that expresses who you are and your impact on the business and your team mates. Forget about what Salary.com or some HR person said your title is or should be. Forget about what you get paid, how many years of experience you have, or what other people’s “titles” are in comparison to you. Tell us WHAT YOU DO and make that your new “title”.
As of this morning, traditional titles on the Website Marketing Team are DEAD. D-E-A-D. Somehow over the past year people have become WAY too caught up in who has what title. So we’re going to end the madness today.
If this scares you, makes you feel like we’ve taken something away or makes you wonder how your resume will look without that title-that-really- never-does-justice-to-you-and-your-talents-anyway, ask yourself when was the last time someone called you by your title? When was the last time Todd Lunsford or Bill Emerson or Dan Gilbert called you by your title? Worried about how this might impact future compensation? Don’t. Numbers and money follow, they do not lead. Kick ass at whatever you do, and the wealth will eventually flow to you. I’ve seen it happen again and again in my career … and especially here.
If you are concerned about someone not recognizing how important you are because you no longer have a standard title, then here’s your chance to create a title for yourself that will convey exactly how important you are. And because you are creating it, it will be all yours. No one else will have that title. Think of the conversations your new title will start with complete strangers. Think of the opportunities it can create for you in terms of expressing who you are, not what someone CALLS you.
“But what if I don’t like my description in three months …” you ask? What if what I do CHANGES? Well, then you can change your description. It’s that simple. No one ever stays the same … we are all growing … so let your “title” do the same when it’s time.
Here’s your chance. You have until the end of the day to let us all know who you are. Have fun, be creative, be humorous, but above all, be real and true. Remember, this will be on your e-mail signature, so please be aware of that.
I can’t wait to see what all of you come up with.
DEATH TO TITLES!
Matt
Matt Cardwell
Idea Salesman, Energy Focuser and People Unleasher
eCommerce Marketing Team
Quicken Loans
My title challenges your title to a duel. I predict a draw. – MeI had to know more, so I emailed Matt with a few follow-up questions, and here’s an update from him on the fatwa on job titles:
You had a couple of questions around the titles Fatwa from your previous e-mail. One question was about whether we had abolished titles company-wide. So far only the Web Marketing Team and the Idea Lab (our creative team – basically an in-house agency for our advertising production) took up my challenge. Not surprisingly, the team that actually got the title “promotions” that started this whole thing opted not to join us in our little revolution. I threw the challenge out to them, but I haven’t really seen anyone take up the torch.
I do know that our CMO, Todd Lunsford was extremely supportive of the no-title revolution. As I mentioned, we really only started using titles recently for comping purposes. But even there, they are generally not very useful for the more specialized people on my team (usability pros, search engine optimizers, etc), because until very recently, Salary.com didn’t make distinctions between interactive marketers (which are in high demand) and traditional marketers. As an organization, we’ve been pretty ambivalent about titles. Most of our Sr. Leadership Team and many of our team members simply have no title on their email signature, or just identify themselves with their team. For example: Joe Smith, Web Marketing Team
So I think this will still spread … we won a couple battles, but we still have a war going on. It will come. And I’ll keep preaching.
This is fantastic! I’m adding Quicken Loans to my list of “Companies that get it.” And I’m not alone – they recently placed second in Fortune Magazine’s Best Company to Work list, one behind Google.
Your take
What’s your take? Is your workplace ready to issue its own fatwa on job titles? Or do you see some value in having a “real” title on your business card? Please write a comment, I’d really like to know.
Related posts
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HP and I are making the UK happy!
Today I’m in Stratford-upon-Avon (birthplace of William Shakespeare) helping Hewlett-Packard promote their Happy People campaign to their UK channel partners.
I wrote about this campaign previously. The cool thing about it is that they’re using happiness at work to promote their products – and of course that they hired me for it :o)
As part of the campaign, they made this sweet little flash presentation:
Neat, huh?
And remember, if you work in the UK, there’s still a chance for your company to win a workshop with me. More information here:
- The campaign website with tips on how to make yourself and your workplace happy
- Take a staff satisfaction survey
- Join the contest for small UK-based companies
Full disclosure: HP are paying me to participate in media activities related to this project and to do the workshops for the winning companies.
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An inspiring story
Here’s another great little video from youtube: My friend Stephen Hopson who is deaf from birth and a pilot and a professional speaker talks about a life changing moment.
Also, catch Stephen’s excellent blog at Adversity University (and isn’t that a great name).
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Eu-phoric and other -phorics
Johnnie Moore and Rob Paterson have come up with a podcast interview format they call phoric in which the interviewee picks three youtube videos to set a theme for the conversation.
I immediately jumped at the chance to participate, and here are my three clips:
The opening from Love Actually.
A fantastic Coca-Cola ad.
Randy Pausch’s last lecture.Try and guess what my theme is :o)
You can hear the resulting conversation here – there’s a short 10-minute version and an extended director’s cut.
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Feliz en tu trabajo – my book is out in Spanish
Yaaaaaay: My first book is now out in Spanish!!!! You can read it free online, or buy it on paper for 27 euros or as a pdf ebook for 17 euros.You can read all about it at www.felizentutrabajo.com.
The title in Spanish is “La hora feliz es de 9 a 5 – Cómo adorar tu trabajo y tu vida y arrasar en tu empresa” and it was translated by María Rodríguez de Vera of Contentspanish.
But wait – there’s more: My book is also coming out in Danish in March which is really exciting and I’ve been talking to a Chinese publisher about a version in simplified Chinese AND to an Iranian about translating it to Farsi!
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Spotted on my travels
From a shop in Copenhagen:
I spotted this one in the airport on my way to Austria:
And finally, this is what taxis look like in Sölden:
In Austria, they have frog taxis – Taxi Quaxi!
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Back from Austria
I’m back from snowboarding in Sölden Austria and it absolutely rocked. I was very curious how my new Ride Snowboard + Burton boots would work out and they were excellent. I have never ridden so fast. In fact, I managed to seriously scare myself a couple of times :o)
While I was gone Steve Roesler of the All Things Workplace blog did some excellent posts on change and happiness which I really enjoyed reading. My favorite has got to be the one on the backlash against happiness. Good grief!That post also inspired some great comments, especially Kevin Carson’s on the unethical use of Fish and similar tools in the hospital where he works and Scott Nutter’s notion that it’s not about being happy but happier.
It’s interesting to notice that Steve’s style is more open and inquiring, where my blog posts tend to be more argumentative and “here’s what I think!”-like.
So thank you Steve for giving the blog a great peek into a very important topic and for introducing some great conversations.
To thank Steve for his help, I sent him a small present: a copy of my very favorite book on change. This is one book that changed me.
And if you want another look at what I was up to in Austria, here’s a POV video of me snowboarding some fresh powder, ending with a major crash :o) Man, I love falling in powder!
The video was taken with my new helmet-mounted video camera. Yes, I looove gadgets :o)
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Vacation + guest blogger
Next week I’ll be absent from the blog – and present on some Austrian ski slopes trying out my new Ride snowboard. Can I get a Yaaaay!While I’m gone, Steve Roesler of the All Things Workplace blog has promised to guest blog here. Over on his own blog, Steve’s been running a long series on change (he’s up to post 39 so far) and he’s promised to blog here about “Happiness, Satisfaction, and Change.” Thanks, Steve!
I currently see three major things that make people unhappy at work in companies all over the world: bad management, too much work and large organizational change, so I look forward to seeing Steve’s thoughts on happiness and change. He’ll be introducing himself further in a post Friday.
Meanwhile, I’ll be doing lots and lots of this:
Wheeeee!!!
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Quote: George Bernard Shaw
This has got to be one of the most inspiring things ever written:This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.
And also the only real tragedy in life is the being used by personally minded men for purposes which you recognize to be base.
All the rest is at worst mere misfortune or mortality: this alone is misery, slavery, hell on earth; and the revolt against it is the only force that offers a man’s work to the poor artist, whom our personally minded rich people would so willingly employ as pandar, buffoon, beauty monger, sentimentalizer and the like.”
Oh man – that has got to be one of the most inspiring, uplifting things ever written.
The passage about “being used by personally minded men for purposes which you recognize to be base”… if that’s not unhappiness at work I don’t know what is, and yet that’s exactly how many people feel about work.
I’m with Shaw on this one – we must revolt against it and be artists of our own lives.
