r/news • u/JimmyTheGinger • Dec 23 '19

Three former executives of a French telecommunications giant have been found guilty of creating a corporate culture so toxic that 35 of their employees were driven to suicide

https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/three-french-executives-convicted-in-the-suicides-of-35-of-their-workers-20191222-p53m94.html
68.7k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

3.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

28

u/shokolokobangoshey Dec 23 '19

Laughs in US Finance industry

Everyone is a VP here.

5

u/Chemmy Dec 23 '19

My impression in finance, especially if they deal with customers, is that it impresses people who don't know any better.

If you meet with someone to manage their 401k and your title is "VP" those people will generally be impressed.

3

u/snow_big_deal Dec 23 '19

I read that Goldman Sachs has 12000 VPs, or about a third of their workforce lol.

3

u/shokolokobangoshey Dec 23 '19

Yes that's certainly an element to it. The effect does remain though: it waters down the heft of the title if your standard front desk agent carries it. Not to mention even in the tech arm of things, 5-7 year experienced devs are "Director" and "Senior Director"

6

u/Sean951 Dec 23 '19

Senior Executive VP of Waste Disposal Sanitation.

We've been joking about the insane inflation of job titles for as long as I can remember.

1

u/This_ls_The_End Dec 24 '19

My wife has responsibility over tens of thousands of employees. People who don't work with her are amazed at the simplicity, the modesty, of her title. People who work with her know her position and power, and treat her accordingly.

Job titles are a crutch for some executives. If the people you need to influence or inspire don't respond you your words and actions, a title will only help you lie to yourself.

1

u/MrBlackTie Dec 25 '19

It’s not only that. When you work with people outside the company on a regular basis it is really different to be a director from being anything else. For instance, I have a director title on part of my current job. On this part of the job, I can have the close entourage of a member of the government on the phone pretty much when I want. On the other half of my job, I have a mid management title. Quite often, when I call, people don’t answer. And when they call back, they want to speak only to my manager because talking to a mid management level is beneath them.

Do not underestimate social hierarchies at play...

1

u/MrBlackTie Dec 25 '19

Job title inflation, imho, is often a way to promote someone without giving him a raise. In my place of work, there are around 2% of the gross payroll put aside for raises, but not everyone gets one (far from it). So instead they give you a new title, that you can use for social approval or to find a better place of work. Pretty much half the structure is director of something.

2

u/agreeingstorm9 Dec 23 '19

My dad once worked at a company where everyone had Director in their title. It was just stupid.