Doesn't Anybody Want to Be a Plain Vice President Anymore?

Disney is looking for a chief magic official for its amusement parks.

Couples Resorts employs a chief romance officer.

BankAtlantic has a manager of a department entitled “Office of Wow!”

What’s going on with corporate titles? Doesn’t anybody want to be a plain vice president, anymore?

“We laugh about it all the time,” says Mick Lasher, who heads the executive search firm Lasher Associates in Weston. “It’s just ludicrous. We’ve gone so far to be team-oriented. We’re so afraid to put meaningful titles on people.”

Job titles can be creative as long as they fit a job and are clear, experts say. But employees with less traditional titles risk losing credibility in looking for that next job. Unusual titles also may be missing “key words” recruiters and potential employers search for in resumes online.

Some nouveau job titles are not understandable to the lay person, says Kim Kerrigan, president of Corporate Classrooms, a Fort Lauderdale-based employee training firm. He uses the example of the traditional “vice president of engineering” compared with a New Age title of “tech support engineer level II.”

“I would wonder what that is,” Kerrigan says. “A title should reflect what you do and what your major responsibility is.”

But some South Florida executives defend their inventive titles.

Greg Dalmotte, BankAtlantic’s manager of the Office of Wow, says he faced skepticism initially, but now employees are on board with his department. “We’re responsible for driving employee engagement, creating an environment where people like coming to work.”

The Office of Wow provides employee training, recognizes workers for reaching milestones, and holds special events at the Fort Lauderdale-based bank. Managers reward employees with “wow” bucks, which allow them to buy DVD players, Coach handbags and other items.

Dalmotte, formerly in sales, takes his engagement role seriously. For a Deal or No Deal event at the bank, he shaved his head to become “Wowie Mandel,” imitating TV show host Howie Mandel.

Creative titles even have invaded human resources.

Burger King’sPete Smith, chief human resources director, recently hired Robert Perkins to be the Miami-based fast-food chain’s vice president of inclusion and talent management.

“Inclusion,” Smith says, refers to more than old-fashioned diversity. “It’s about embracing how we get our work done. It also has a global aspect.”

Perkins’ role fits Burger King’s strategy, Smith says, because “our customers are every race, creed, sex, and culture in 70-plus countries.”

Unusual titles may be most prevalent in the hospitality industry.

Kerrigan points to W Hotels, soon to open a property on Fort Lauderdale beach, which uses innovative titles for hotel service people. “If you want room service or a button sewed, you call the ‘whatever, whenever agent.’”

Meanwhile, Disney is advertising for a chief magic official, an hourly job traveling to Disney parks to create magical experiences.

“The ideal candidate must never be grumpy … have good manners, but also be able to pillage and plunder with pirates when necessary. Also required, pockets full of pixie dust … and most importantly, a belief in all things magical,” according to the job description posted on DreamCMO.com.

It’s a real job, Disney representatives say, for at least a year.

Randy Russell, chief romance officer for Couples Resorts, which operates its Jamaica resorts from an office in Miramar, came up with his own job title. The goal was to set Couples apart from other Caribbean resorts, he says, and “it has transferred to how we treat our guests in the hotel.”

Source: South Florida Sun Sentinel

Well, my preferred job title was always “Boss Lady”, as opposed to the guys that wore the HMFIC caps. I suppose that showed a horrible lack of imagination, and I should have worn a “Wonder Woman” T-shirt. Carrying the magic lasso, though, probably would have gotten me investigated as a racist.