Employee title

[Halgeir Wold]

Hi folks....
I work for a company with international clients and visitors. For the n'th time in my 38 year career with this company, there is a profile change again, involving logos etc etc , and this time also the name of the main company.

We are a rather diverse bunch of people, about 60 in total, ranging from no particular education except general high school to BSC's, MSc's and a few PhD's.....
Some of our employee titles are OK in norwegian, but sounds downright silly in english, be it US or british. Hoping you folks might have some better suggestions... In general, a lot of us have rather a good selection of different hats for diffrent situations......

We have group of carpenters, painters, mechanics etc, with trade certificates. Some do work of a typical janitor, but all do assist or perform special tasks when necesseary. Which common name would be suitable for this group of people?

W also have a small hotel at our premises, but the cleaners ( some also certified) also assist in other work, - reception, in our canteen on occations when there's lots of people on the premises., - and so on and so forth........

I am responsible for electric power installations, communications systems and a fair selection of more or less strange electronic equipment, and a staff of four, BSc by education. By traditional standards, I'd be senior engineer, but because of budgets, economics and planning, as well as work management and organisation, they call me 'manager', - and there's two more of us with different responsibilities....
At 61, I don't really care as long as the paycheck is acceptable.... but anyone have any better suggestions...???

TIA

[Steven Odut]

We have group of carpenters, painters, mechanics etc, with trade certificates. Some do work of a typical janitor, but all do assist or perform special tasks when necesseary. Which common name would be suitable for this group of people?

We have a similar company. If you can have multiple titles, I might try something like: "Trade Specialty - General Grouping", such as "Carpenter - Electrical Power Installations", "Mechanic - Strange Electrical Equipment Division", or "Support Staff - Electrical Power Installations".

A generic term for skilled labour is "tradesman" although this is gender specific. We often use the term "trade labour", but the title has a slight negative connotation as it does not reflect the skilled nature of the trade.

In the hotel you could use "Hotel Support Staff" or "Hotel Operations Group"

We also went through a reorganization and our skilled labour ended up with lengthy and awkward job titles, such as "Master Electrician and XYZ Plant Operations Support, XYZ Technology Systems Inc., a Company of ABC Huge German Conglomerate GmbH".

[Peter Wilcox]

We have group of carpenters, painters, mechanics etc, with trade certificates. Some do work of a typical janitor, but all do assist or perform special tasks when necesseary. Which common name would be suitable for this group of people?

Maintenance engineers.

W also have a small hotel at our premises, but the cleaners ( some also certified) also assist in other work, - reception, in our canteen on occations when there's lots of people on the premises., - and so on and so forth........

Sanitary engineers.

I am responsible for electric power installations, communications systems and a fair selection of more or less strange electronic equipment, and a staff of four, BSc by education. By traditional standards, I'd be senior engineer, but because of budgets, economics and planning, as well as work management and organisation, they call me 'manager', - and there's two more of us with different responsibilities....
At 61, I don't really care as long as the paycheck is acceptable.... but anyone have any better suggestions...???

TIA

Managing engineer.

[David Bingham]

A friend started a cleaning company called Tennessee Industrial Maintenance Engineers. It wasn't long before he got a call from the state commerce department board of engineering examiners wanting to know his qualifications for calling himself an engineer and informing him that he was required to pass the professional engineering exam and pay the requisite fees before he could promote himself as an engineer. He said, "It's a cleaning company. Have you no sense of humor?" He was told, "No" in no uncertain terms and was eventually forced to change his company name.

[Barry Daniels]

I am a PE and have my opinion about this matter. Someone calling themselves an engineer is no different than calling yourself a doctor when you are not. This can be misleading to the public leading to confusion and a situation where the person calling themselves doctor or engineer looks somewhat like a fraud. And since doctors and engineers are there to protect the health and safety of the public there must be rules and consequences if they are not followed. Otherwise the protection breaks down.

[David Bingham]

I don't disagree. I wouldn't want someone unqualified designing a bridge any more than I'd want an operation from an unlicensed doctor. However, Tennessee seems to take this to the extreme and doesn't apply it evenly. If you call your business Carpet Engineer or one of our companies' developers who has an computer engineering degree and worked in the field for years hands out a company business card with his title listed as engineer then they come down like a stone. However, Carpet Doctor is perfectly acceptable and my uncle with an honorary doctorate can hand out all the business cards he likes calling himself a doctor and no one bats an eye.

[Aaron Helt]

Come on. A title and a practice are two different things.
A little common sense tells us a Customer Relations Engineer or similar is not an
Engineer.

[Barry Daniels]

Most state boards of engineers are very protective of the term engineer. Common sense is not a consideration.

[Ryan Mazzocco]

Most state boards of engineers are very protective of the term engineer. Common sense is not a consideration.

I have to agree though. My personal feeling is that no one should be called an engineer unless they operate a steam engine.

[Aaron Helt]

A jury would laugh them out of court. They do not own the term engineer, only the practice.

[David Bingham]

I wouldn't count on that. They don't own the term but they do regulate and the practice. I can't speak for other states, but if you are a licensed or registered professional in this one then you are also subject to a little thing called the Professional Privilege Tax and they take that part seriously indeed although I'm not sure how railroad engineers fit into the scheme of things.

[Steven Odut]

A jury would laugh them out of court. They do not own the term engineer, only the practice.

In many jurisdictions the law says otherwise...only persons registered as professional engineers may use the term engineer to describe themselves or their services. The government then delegates the authority to enforce the law to the regulated professional body.

A jury must decide the case based on the law as explained to them by the judge and by the evidence presented in court. The judge will explain that the law states that only registered professional engineers may call themselves engineers and that if the jury find that the company has used the term engineer, and they are not in fact registered professional engineers, then they must find the company guilty (and vice versa). The jury can choose to ignore the judge's explanation of the law, but that would be rare.

I'm a professional engineer and I've also served on a jury

[Barry Daniels]

In Texas the rules are quite similar and the state board is fairly agressive in its enforcement. However, the rule does have a few exceptions, such as if you work for a company that does not offer engineering services to the public (such as a large manufacturing facility), then your title can contain the word engineer. So the intent of the rule appears to be protection of the public from unqualified people advertising themselves as an engineer.

[Simon Magennis]

I have seen a huge proliferation of vice-presidents (vp) recently. Pretty much a VP for everything. Not only that but there are assistant VPs, senior VPs too. So just make everyone a VP, senior, junior or assistant. The person with the least seniority could be an assistant junior VP for environmental compliance (ie. brings out the trash once in a while).

[Clay Schaeffer]

What ever title you give to your employees it should reflect the most responsible level of work they do. The person who sweeps the floor and also greases the machinery would probably rather be called a Maintenance Specialist than a Janitor.
In retail, I've noticed that people who deal with customers, but also stock shelves and perform other tasks, are often called "Associates". This sounds better than "stock boy" or "counter person" and admits that they perform other functions at varied skill levels.
Those who direct the work activities of others usually are called Managers, often with additional descriptors to say exactly what they manage.

[Barry Daniels]

But it is a slippery slope to everyone being titled Master Stocking Engineer and then titles become meaningless and a joke.

[Halgeir Wold]

Hi guys.....
I think this is somewhat cultural dependant. Worker titles have long traditions in Norway, for those that have a trade and skills to match.
The norwegian term 'fagarbeider', which more or less translates to 'skilled worker', implies that you have a certain education and a certificate to go with it, like electricians, framers, carpenters, plumbers and so on. In these trades, the term *Mester' in scandinavian languages also means that you have further education, usually also in administration, and is certified to take on apprentices for education, which by us is a very formal situation with certain demands and obligations.

I do agree that titles can be both downright silly and misleading, but traditionally, they do serve a purpose, if used correctly.
As for my original question, we solved it by calling them 'technicians', which in norwegian usually means a slightly higher level of teoretical education.
Simple and easy, - I left for our administration to solve the problem for the rest........
Thanks anyway......

[Clay Schaeffer]

"But it is a slippery slope to everyone being titled Master Stocking Engineer and then titles become meaningless and a joke"

Yes, even without everyone being called "Master Stocking Engineer" that title is a joke.

[Jim McConkey]

Engineering, in particular, is caught in between times. Traditionally there was no official designation and licensing, unlike other skilled trades. The Professional Engineer certification came out not too long before I was in college, as an attempt to make a "profession" where there was none before. Engineers with a PE and those without got the exact same training. The PE caught on in some fields, particularly Civil Engineering, where you basically cannot get a job today without one, but not at all in others. I never bothered with the exam because absolutely no employer in my field cares. Having a PE would not get me a better job, more money, or anything else useful. As an engineering professional with a long track record, I do not agree with people without rigorous engineering training calling themselves engineers, but I also very much resent PEs telling me they are somehow better than me and telling me I cannot call myself an engineer just because they paid a lot of money to take a test. I can run circles around most of them professionally.

[Clay Schaeffer]

"O! be some other name: What's in a name? that which we call a rose. By any other name would smell as sweet;"

Some will argue otherwise.