Schumpeter
熊彼特
Too many chiefs
首席官泛滥
Inflation in job titles is approaching Weimar levels
职衔的膨胀正在接近魏玛时代
Jun 24th 2010
KIM JONG IL, the North Korean dictator, is not normally a trendsetter. But in one area he is clearly leading the pack: job-title inflation. Mr Kim has 1,200 official titles, including, roughly translated, guardian deity of the planet, ever-victorious general, lodestar of the 21st century, supreme commander at the forefront of the struggle against imperialism and the United States, eternal bosom of hot love and greatest man who ever lived.
北朝鲜的独裁者金正日在服装样式上并不是一个引领时尚的人。但要论起职衔膨胀来，引领这股潮流的非他莫属。金正日的正式头衔有1200个，这些头衔大致可以译成"地球的守护神"、"常胜将军"、"21世纪的北斗星"、"反美反帝最前线的最高司令官"、"永怀热爱"和"有史以来最伟大的人"等等。
When it comes to job titles, we live in an age of rampant inflation. Everybody you come across seems to be a chief or president of some variety. Title inflation is producing its own vocabulary: "uptitling" and "title-fluffing". It is also producing technological aids. One website provides a simple formula: just take your job title, mix in a few grand words, such as "global", "interface" and "customer", and hey presto.
我们生活在一个职衔膨胀无法抑制的时代。你遇到的每一个人似乎都可能是某某"首席官"或总裁。职衔膨胀现象正在产生一些专有词汇，如"职衔提升"（uptitling）和"职衔浮夸"（title-fluffing）等。为此还引出了技术咨询行当。一个网站提供了一个简单的公式，只需在你的职衔里混进几个冠冕堂皇的单词，如"全球"、"接口"和"顾客"等，就像变戏法似的立马就出现一个能唬人的新职衔。
The rot starts at the top. Not that long ago companies had just two or three "chief" whatnots. Now they have dozens, collectively called the "c-suite". A few have more than one chief executive officer; CB Richard Ellis, a property-services firm, has four. A growing number have chiefs for almost everything from knowledge to diversity. Southwest Airlines has a chief Twitter officer. Coca-Cola and Marriott have chief blogging officers. Kodak has one of those too, along with a chief listening officer.
俗话说"上梁不正下梁歪"，这股风气还是从上层开始刮起的。不久以前各公司挂"首席"头衔的也就那么两、三个人。而现在挂有"首席官"头衔的人有好几十，可把他们统称为"首席官一族"了。有的公司首席执行官就不止一个。世邦魏理仕（CB Richard Ellis）是一家物业服务公司，它有4个首席执行官。拥有"首席"头衔的人越来越多，其名目五花八门，甚至令人匪夷所思。西南航空公司（Southwest Airlines ）就有一位首席推特官（chief Twitter officer）。可口可乐和万豪（Marriott）都有多位首席博客官。柯达也有一位类似的首席官，而且还有一位首席收听官（chief listening officer）。
Even so, chiefs are relatively rare compared with presidents and their various declensions (vice-, assistant-, etc). Almost everybody in banking from the receptionist upwards is a president of some sort. The number of members of LinkedIn, a professional network, with the title vice-president grew 426% faster than the membership of the site as a whole in 2005-09. The inflation rate for presidents was 312% and for chiefs a mere 275%.
即便如此，首席官较之于总裁或挂有总裁二字的头衔（如副总裁，总裁助理等）相比还是稀罕之物。在银行从接待员以上的几乎所有人都是某某总。LinkedIn是一家专业网站，在2005-2009年间，其会员中有副总裁头衔者数量的增长比普通会员快了426％。总裁头衔的膨胀率是312％，而首席官头衔的膨胀率仅为275％。
Title-fluffing is as rampant among the indians as among the chiefs. America's International Association of Administrative Professionals―formerly the National Secretaries Association―reports that it has more than 500 job-titles under its umbrella, ranging from front-office co-ordinator to electronic-document specialist. Paper boys are "media distribution officers". Binmen are "recycling officers". Lavatory cleaners are "sanitation consultants". Sandwich-makers at Subway have the phrase "sandwich artist" emblazoned on their lapels. Even the normally linguistically pure French have got in on the act: cleaning ladies are becoming "techniciennes de surface" (surface technicians).
基层员工对华丽职衔的渴求毫不逊于那些首席官们。美国国际管理专业协会（也就是原来的全国秘书协会）报告说，在它的大旗下有500多种职衔，从行政事务协调专员到电子文档专员等等，无所不有。报童可以称为"媒体配送官"。垃圾回收工是"回收官"。厕所清洁工是"卫生顾问"。在地铁入口现做现卖三明治的大师傅也在翻领上印有"三明治艺术家"的字样。甚至讲究语言纯净的法国人也加入到这个行列中，清洁女工变成了"techniciennes de surface"（表面技术人员）。
What is going on here? The most immediate explanation is the economic downturn: bosses are doling out ever fancier titles as a substitute for pay raises and bonuses. But there are also structural reasons for the trend. The most basic is the growing complexity of businesses. Many not only have presidents and vice-presidents for this or that product line, but also presidents and vice-presidents for various regions. Put the two together and you have a recipe for ever-longer business cards: vice-president for photocopiers Asia-Pacific, for example.
这到底是怎么了？造成这种现象的最直接原因应该就是经济衰退了。老板们没有钱给员工涨工资、发奖金，就给员工们一些非常华丽的职衔，使他们获得某种满足。但这种趋势也有结构性的原因。最主要的原因是企业的日益复杂化。许多公司不仅有负责各项产品的总裁和副总裁，而且还任命了负责各地区的总裁和副总裁。把这两者加在一起，名片上的头衔就愈来愈长。例如，亚太地区复印机副总裁。
The cult of flexibility is also inflationary. The fashion for flattening hierarchies has had the paradoxical effect of multiplying meaningless job titles. Workers crave important-sounding titles to give them the illusion of ascending the ranks. Managers who no longer have anyone to manage are fobbed off with inflated titles, much as superannuated politicians are made Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster or Lord President of the Council. Everybody, from the executive suite downward, wants to fluff up their résumé as a hedge against being sacked.
对灵活性的推崇也助推了职衔的膨胀。各企业纷纷效仿的扁平化管理本意是要减少管理层次，但结果事与愿违，反而多出了许多无意义的职衔。员工们渴望获得冠冕堂皇的头衔，这使他们产生了一种得到升迁的幻觉。手下已经没有一位员工的光杆经理们只要给他们的头衔再大一点就能被搪塞过去，就像给过气的政治家们一个兰开斯特公爵郡大臣（Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster）或枢密院议长（Lord President of the Council）这样的荣誉头衔一样。在官场上走下坡路的每个人在被解职后出于自我保护都会摆出一幅依然大权在握的架势。
Firms also use fancy job titles to signal that they are au fait with the latest fashion. The fad for greenery is producing legions of chief sustainability officers and green ambassadors. BP's travails will undoubtedly have the same effect: we can expect a bull market in chief safety officers and chief apology officers.
各公司还利用花哨的职衔表明它们能够紧跟时尚。对"绿色"的追风导致了首席可持续发展官和绿色大使的涌现。英国石油公司目前的痛苦经历无疑也会带来首席安全官和首席道歉官进入牛市的效果。
The American technology sector has been a champion of title inflation. It has created all sorts of newfangled jobs that have to be given names, and it is also full of linguistically challenged geeks who have a taste for "humorous" titles. Steve Jobs calls himself "chief know it all". Jerry Yang and David Filo, the founders of Yahoo!, call themselves "chief Yahoos". Thousands of IT types dub themselves things like (chief) scrum master, guru, evangelist or, a particular favourite at the moment, ninja.
在美国，技术部门始终引领头衔膨胀的先军。千奇百怪的新技术岗位当然需要配上个动听的名称，即使对那些喜好"幽默"头衔的极客们来说，这也充满了语言学上的挑战。史蒂夫•乔布斯（Steve Jobs）称自己为"首席无所不知"。雅虎的创始人杨致远（Jerry Yang）和大卫•费罗(David Filo)竟然将自己称为"首席雅虎"！成千上万的IT人士喜欢将自己称为（首席）敏捷开发师、（首席）古鲁、（首席）布道官等等，现在是特别流行（首席）忍者这个头衔。
But leadership in title inflation, as in so much else, is passing to the developing world, particularly India and China. Both countries have a longstanding obsession with hierarchy (fancy job titles can be the key to getting a bride as well as the admiration of your friends). They also have tight labour markets. The result is an explosion of titles. Companies have taken to creating baffling jobs such as "outbound specialist". They have also taken to staging public celebrations of promotions from, say, assistant deputy director to principal assistant deputy director.
就像很多其它方面一样，头衔膨胀的领导地位也正转让给发展中国家，特别是印度和中国。这两个国家长期以来都困扰于等级制度，能否拥有一个花哨的职衔甚至攸关能否娶到新娘和赢得朋友的钦佩。他们也有劳动力短缺的问题。这些原因加在一起导致了头衔的爆炸。各公司纷纷推出令人匪夷所思的岗位，如"境外专员"等。各公司还采取分步实施全员大晋升的策略，比如说将所有的副主任助理都晋升为首席副主任助理，让所有员工皆大欢喜。
Inflated benefits, understated drawbacks
职衔膨胀带来的益处被高估，弊端未予重视
Does any of this matter? Title inflation clearly does violence to the language. But isn't that par for the course in the corporate world? And isn't it a small price to pay for corporate harmony? The snag is that the familiar problems of monetary inflation apply to job-title inflation as well. The benefits of giving people a fancy new title are usually short-lived. The harm is long-lasting. People become cynical about their monikers (particularly when they are given in lieu of pay rises). Organisations become more Ruritanian. The job market becomes more opaque. How do you work out the going rate for "vision controller of multiplatform and portfolio" (the BBC)? Or a "manager of futuring and innovation-based strategies" (the American Cancer Society)?
职衔膨胀难道就一无是处吗？职衔膨胀对语言显然是一种摧残，但在企业界这还不是意料之中的事吗？为了企业的和谐，付出这样一点代价难道还不值得吗？问题在于如何将我们熟悉的对付通货膨胀的办法用在对付职衔膨胀上。给员工一个花哨的新职衔所得到的好处通常时间不会太长。但危害却长期存在。人们对他们的名头开始产生怀疑（特别是在只给头衔而不加薪的情况下）。组织则更像是一个鲁里坦尼亚王国。就业市场变得更加难以琢磨。你如何推算英国广播公司的"跨平台与服务组合寻梦控制官"（vision controller of multiplatform and portfolio）或美国癌症协会的"以创新为基础的战略和前景经理"（vision controller of multiplatform and portfolio）现在的市场行情哪？
And, far from providing people with more security, fancy titles can often make them more expendable. Companies might hesitate before sacking an IT adviser. But what about a chief scrum master? The essence of inflation, after all, is that it devalues everything that it touches.
而且戴上一顶花哨的头衔不但不能使现有岗位更加牢靠，反而增加了失去这份工作的危险。公司在解雇一名IT顾问前可能会犹豫一番。但如果是要解聘一个首席敏捷开发师恐拍眼睛都不会眨一下。总之，头衔膨胀实际上是将其所及的岗位都贬值了
熊彼特
Too many chiefs
首席官泛滥
Inflation in job titles is approaching Weimar levels
职衔的膨胀正在接近魏玛时代
Jun 24th 2010
KIM JONG IL, the North Korean dictator, is not normally a trendsetter. But in one area he is clearly leading the pack: job-title inflation. Mr Kim has 1,200 official titles, including, roughly translated, guardian deity of the planet, ever-victorious general, lodestar of the 21st century, supreme commander at the forefront of the struggle against imperialism and the United States, eternal bosom of hot love and greatest man who ever lived.
北朝鲜的独裁者金正日在服装样式上并不是一个引领时尚的人。但要论起职衔膨胀来，引领这股潮流的非他莫属。金正日的正式头衔有1200个，这些头衔大致可以译成"地球的守护神"、"常胜将军"、"21世纪的北斗星"、"反美反帝最前线的最高司令官"、"永怀热爱"和"有史以来最伟大的人"等等。
When it comes to job titles, we live in an age of rampant inflation. Everybody you come across seems to be a chief or president of some variety. Title inflation is producing its own vocabulary: "uptitling" and "title-fluffing". It is also producing technological aids. One website provides a simple formula: just take your job title, mix in a few grand words, such as "global", "interface" and "customer", and hey presto.
我们生活在一个职衔膨胀无法抑制的时代。你遇到的每一个人似乎都可能是某某"首席官"或总裁。职衔膨胀现象正在产生一些专有词汇，如"职衔提升"（uptitling）和"职衔浮夸"（title-fluffing）等。为此还引出了技术咨询行当。一个网站提供了一个简单的公式，只需在你的职衔里混进几个冠冕堂皇的单词，如"全球"、"接口"和"顾客"等，就像变戏法似的立马就出现一个能唬人的新职衔。
The rot starts at the top. Not that long ago companies had just two or three "chief" whatnots. Now they have dozens, collectively called the "c-suite". A few have more than one chief executive officer; CB Richard Ellis, a property-services firm, has four. A growing number have chiefs for almost everything from knowledge to diversity. Southwest Airlines has a chief Twitter officer. Coca-Cola and Marriott have chief blogging officers. Kodak has one of those too, along with a chief listening officer.
俗话说"上梁不正下梁歪"，这股风气还是从上层开始刮起的。不久以前各公司挂"首席"头衔的也就那么两、三个人。而现在挂有"首席官"头衔的人有好几十，可把他们统称为"首席官一族"了。有的公司首席执行官就不止一个。世邦魏理仕（CB Richard Ellis）是一家物业服务公司，它有4个首席执行官。拥有"首席"头衔的人越来越多，其名目五花八门，甚至令人匪夷所思。西南航空公司（Southwest Airlines ）就有一位首席推特官（chief Twitter officer）。可口可乐和万豪（Marriott）都有多位首席博客官。柯达也有一位类似的首席官，而且还有一位首席收听官（chief listening officer）。
Even so, chiefs are relatively rare compared with presidents and their various declensions (vice-, assistant-, etc). Almost everybody in banking from the receptionist upwards is a president of some sort. The number of members of LinkedIn, a professional network, with the title vice-president grew 426% faster than the membership of the site as a whole in 2005-09. The inflation rate for presidents was 312% and for chiefs a mere 275%.
即便如此，首席官较之于总裁或挂有总裁二字的头衔（如副总裁，总裁助理等）相比还是稀罕之物。在银行从接待员以上的几乎所有人都是某某总。LinkedIn是一家专业网站，在2005-2009年间，其会员中有副总裁头衔者数量的增长比普通会员快了426％。总裁头衔的膨胀率是312％，而首席官头衔的膨胀率仅为275％。
Title-fluffing is as rampant among the indians as among the chiefs. America's International Association of Administrative Professionals―formerly the National Secretaries Association―reports that it has more than 500 job-titles under its umbrella, ranging from front-office co-ordinator to electronic-document specialist. Paper boys are "media distribution officers". Binmen are "recycling officers". Lavatory cleaners are "sanitation consultants". Sandwich-makers at Subway have the phrase "sandwich artist" emblazoned on their lapels. Even the normally linguistically pure French have got in on the act: cleaning ladies are becoming "techniciennes de surface" (surface technicians).
基层员工对华丽职衔的渴求毫不逊于那些首席官们。美国国际管理专业协会（也就是原来的全国秘书协会）报告说，在它的大旗下有500多种职衔，从行政事务协调专员到电子文档专员等等，无所不有。报童可以称为"媒体配送官"。垃圾回收工是"回收官"。厕所清洁工是"卫生顾问"。在地铁入口现做现卖三明治的大师傅也在翻领上印有"三明治艺术家"的字样。甚至讲究语言纯净的法国人也加入到这个行列中，清洁女工变成了"techniciennes de surface"（表面技术人员）。
What is going on here? The most immediate explanation is the economic downturn: bosses are doling out ever fancier titles as a substitute for pay raises and bonuses. But there are also structural reasons for the trend. The most basic is the growing complexity of businesses. Many not only have presidents and vice-presidents for this or that product line, but also presidents and vice-presidents for various regions. Put the two together and you have a recipe for ever-longer business cards: vice-president for photocopiers Asia-Pacific, for example.
这到底是怎么了？造成这种现象的最直接原因应该就是经济衰退了。老板们没有钱给员工涨工资、发奖金，就给员工们一些非常华丽的职衔，使他们获得某种满足。但这种趋势也有结构性的原因。最主要的原因是企业的日益复杂化。许多公司不仅有负责各项产品的总裁和副总裁，而且还任命了负责各地区的总裁和副总裁。把这两者加在一起，名片上的头衔就愈来愈长。例如，亚太地区复印机副总裁。
The cult of flexibility is also inflationary. The fashion for flattening hierarchies has had the paradoxical effect of multiplying meaningless job titles. Workers crave important-sounding titles to give them the illusion of ascending the ranks. Managers who no longer have anyone to manage are fobbed off with inflated titles, much as superannuated politicians are made Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster or Lord President of the Council. Everybody, from the executive suite downward, wants to fluff up their résumé as a hedge against being sacked.
对灵活性的推崇也助推了职衔的膨胀。各企业纷纷效仿的扁平化管理本意是要减少管理层次，但结果事与愿违，反而多出了许多无意义的职衔。员工们渴望获得冠冕堂皇的头衔，这使他们产生了一种得到升迁的幻觉。手下已经没有一位员工的光杆经理们只要给他们的头衔再大一点就能被搪塞过去，就像给过气的政治家们一个兰开斯特公爵郡大臣（Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster）或枢密院议长（Lord President of the Council）这样的荣誉头衔一样。在官场上走下坡路的每个人在被解职后出于自我保护都会摆出一幅依然大权在握的架势。
Firms also use fancy job titles to signal that they are au fait with the latest fashion. The fad for greenery is producing legions of chief sustainability officers and green ambassadors. BP's travails will undoubtedly have the same effect: we can expect a bull market in chief safety officers and chief apology officers.
各公司还利用花哨的职衔表明它们能够紧跟时尚。对"绿色"的追风导致了首席可持续发展官和绿色大使的涌现。英国石油公司目前的痛苦经历无疑也会带来首席安全官和首席道歉官进入牛市的效果。
The American technology sector has been a champion of title inflation. It has created all sorts of newfangled jobs that have to be given names, and it is also full of linguistically challenged geeks who have a taste for "humorous" titles. Steve Jobs calls himself "chief know it all". Jerry Yang and David Filo, the founders of Yahoo!, call themselves "chief Yahoos". Thousands of IT types dub themselves things like (chief) scrum master, guru, evangelist or, a particular favourite at the moment, ninja.
在美国，技术部门始终引领头衔膨胀的先军。千奇百怪的新技术岗位当然需要配上个动听的名称，即使对那些喜好"幽默"头衔的极客们来说，这也充满了语言学上的挑战。史蒂夫•乔布斯（Steve Jobs）称自己为"首席无所不知"。雅虎的创始人杨致远（Jerry Yang）和大卫•费罗(David Filo)竟然将自己称为"首席雅虎"！成千上万的IT人士喜欢将自己称为（首席）敏捷开发师、（首席）古鲁、（首席）布道官等等，现在是特别流行（首席）忍者这个头衔。
But leadership in title inflation, as in so much else, is passing to the developing world, particularly India and China. Both countries have a longstanding obsession with hierarchy (fancy job titles can be the key to getting a bride as well as the admiration of your friends). They also have tight labour markets. The result is an explosion of titles. Companies have taken to creating baffling jobs such as "outbound specialist". They have also taken to staging public celebrations of promotions from, say, assistant deputy director to principal assistant deputy director.
就像很多其它方面一样，头衔膨胀的领导地位也正转让给发展中国家，特别是印度和中国。这两个国家长期以来都困扰于等级制度，能否拥有一个花哨的职衔甚至攸关能否娶到新娘和赢得朋友的钦佩。他们也有劳动力短缺的问题。这些原因加在一起导致了头衔的爆炸。各公司纷纷推出令人匪夷所思的岗位，如"境外专员"等。各公司还采取分步实施全员大晋升的策略，比如说将所有的副主任助理都晋升为首席副主任助理，让所有员工皆大欢喜。
Inflated benefits, understated drawbacks
职衔膨胀带来的益处被高估，弊端未予重视
Does any of this matter? Title inflation clearly does violence to the language. But isn't that par for the course in the corporate world? And isn't it a small price to pay for corporate harmony? The snag is that the familiar problems of monetary inflation apply to job-title inflation as well. The benefits of giving people a fancy new title are usually short-lived. The harm is long-lasting. People become cynical about their monikers (particularly when they are given in lieu of pay rises). Organisations become more Ruritanian. The job market becomes more opaque. How do you work out the going rate for "vision controller of multiplatform and portfolio" (the BBC)? Or a "manager of futuring and innovation-based strategies" (the American Cancer Society)?
职衔膨胀难道就一无是处吗？职衔膨胀对语言显然是一种摧残，但在企业界这还不是意料之中的事吗？为了企业的和谐，付出这样一点代价难道还不值得吗？问题在于如何将我们熟悉的对付通货膨胀的办法用在对付职衔膨胀上。给员工一个花哨的新职衔所得到的好处通常时间不会太长。但危害却长期存在。人们对他们的名头开始产生怀疑（特别是在只给头衔而不加薪的情况下）。组织则更像是一个鲁里坦尼亚王国。就业市场变得更加难以琢磨。你如何推算英国广播公司的"跨平台与服务组合寻梦控制官"（vision controller of multiplatform and portfolio）或美国癌症协会的"以创新为基础的战略和前景经理"（vision controller of multiplatform and portfolio）现在的市场行情哪？
And, far from providing people with more security, fancy titles can often make them more expendable. Companies might hesitate before sacking an IT adviser. But what about a chief scrum master? The essence of inflation, after all, is that it devalues everything that it touches.
而且戴上一顶花哨的头衔不但不能使现有岗位更加牢靠，反而增加了失去这份工作的危险。公司在解雇一名IT顾问前可能会犹豫一番。但如果是要解聘一个首席敏捷开发师恐拍眼睛都不会眨一下。总之，头衔膨胀实际上是将其所及的岗位都贬值了
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