jargon

This story from a local government officer demonstrates just how convoluted some of those delivering “transformation” in Local Government have become in terms of the titles they give themselves.

A dear old friend, now retired, used to posit the very true view that “management theory was all well and good until some fool decided to make it an academic discipline” and Tom Peter’s once famously said something along the lines of  if you want to understand management read Jane Eyre. Lest we forget in these heady times of electoral and organizational spin its actually all about real people!!! The article begins:

What does a corporate policy officer do? When I first realised I didn’t have a clear answer to that question, I also realised how opaque and unfathomable many job titles are in the public sector.

I struggle to encapsulate what I do in an accessible way, and I’m not alone – an assistant director I used to work with told me her mother thought she did “something in admin”.

So here’s my attempt to demystify my current role, along with four other zingers I’ve come across over the years.

1. Senior policy officer, corporate policy

Currently, my full job title is senior corporate policy officer for localism and engagement. Yes, it’s hard to fathom, and no, it’s nothing to do with corporate law or the police (people have asked).

The corporate policy team, according to official guidance, responds effectively to national and local policy challenges and coordinates strategic policy thinking and planning, taking forward the localism agenda, strategic consultation and engagement and strategic partnership working. But perhaps that doesn’t make things much clearer.

2. Improvement officer, organisational

Previously I was in organisational development. Even when you understand the jargon it can mean different things. Indeed, the council I worked for at the time had two organisational development teams that did completely different jobs.  At least the job title itself was pretty self-explanatory – improvement officer. Whatever I was working on, from performance to risk management, it was always about finding ways to improve services.

3. Assistant improvement programme manager

This was my first job title in local government. I used to car share with a traffic warden (sorry, civil enforcement officer) and on our very long commute I struggled to explain my role to him, mainly because I didn’t quite understand it myself.

4. Enterprise architect

A friend of mine had this job title and, unfortunately, he didn’t work on a Star Trek set – in fact, his role was much more straightforward than this technical title implies.

The job of an enterprise architect is to align IT development with business needs.

5. Change agent

This immediately makes me think of shadowy figures in The Matrix or Men in Black, who may or may not be up to something sinister but who definitely own a flashy memory-eraser pen. I wanted to be one until I realised all it involved was the unenviable task of trying to smooth things over in the wake of staff cuts and reorganisations.