That just reminded me of something I hated about a large consulting firm I used to work for. When doing the “laddering” (aka ranking people for promotions and raises), we had to justify why people deserved to be ranked higher than everyone else.
The people in that meeting were soooo full of shit. You’d have people claiming that their brand new analyst fresh out of college was managing a team of 100 people. Meanwhile I’m like “my new guy wrote some good test scripts and didn’t say anything dumb in front of the client.” Just couldn’t compete with all that BS.
In some industries you can be a supervisor with 100 reports. Job titles are so asynchronized even in similar types of companies that they’re virtually meaningless without company specific context.
Very very much a thing in Finance, with tiers of VP too (Assistant VP, VP, Senior VP). Even for people doing internal support, it makes the internal “customer” feel good.
It was a learning experience when I was told not to prioritize anyone below SVP.
It’s often also used as a compensation aid when someone has maxed out their pay band or title but there isn’t a management slot open or they don’t want to do management. My team doesn’t have titles for team leads, but all our “unofficial” ones have at least an “Assistant” VP title.
That and it feels good to some employees to get that title even if it doesn’t come with any extra benefits or better pay. A cheap way for companies to not properly compensate their employees but keep some employees. Though from an employee standpoint, seems the only people who stay are those with inflated egos who boss everyone else around.
Some people like being able to tell their friends they’re a vice president even if there’s nothing behind it. Also helps pad their resume until this becomes common knowledge and no one takes a Goldman Sachs employee resume seriously.
It is so customers can feel good about working with a VP for their personalized service.
Hierarchy theater.
Always remember to ask a VP “how many people report to you?” If they say none, then they aren’t a VP just sparkling wage slave.
I had 100 people reporting to me as a VP in a global bank. It’s still nothing. It’s all about relative size.
100 people in a company of 1000? Real VP.
100 people out of 100k? Middle manager.
That just reminded me of something I hated about a large consulting firm I used to work for. When doing the “laddering” (aka ranking people for promotions and raises), we had to justify why people deserved to be ranked higher than everyone else.
The people in that meeting were soooo full of shit. You’d have people claiming that their brand new analyst fresh out of college was managing a team of 100 people. Meanwhile I’m like “my new guy wrote some good test scripts and didn’t say anything dumb in front of the client.” Just couldn’t compete with all that BS.
In some industries you can be a supervisor with 100 reports. Job titles are so asynchronized even in similar types of companies that they’re virtually meaningless without company specific context.
How do you manage having 100 reports? It sounds like a ton of work. I don’t know what working in a bank is like though.
Layers. I managed managers of managers of people
They aren’t direct reports, probably 2nd or 3rd line manager.
In my company (not a bank) each manager has around 5 direct reports, but up to 15 is not unheard of, depending on the duties.
😂
Very very much a thing in Finance, with tiers of VP too (Assistant VP, VP, Senior VP). Even for people doing internal support, it makes the internal “customer” feel good.
It was a learning experience when I was told not to prioritize anyone below SVP.
It’s often also used as a compensation aid when someone has maxed out their pay band or title but there isn’t a management slot open or they don’t want to do management. My team doesn’t have titles for team leads, but all our “unofficial” ones have at least an “Assistant” VP title.
“Assistant VP” or “Assistant to the VP”? lol
That and it feels good to some employees to get that title even if it doesn’t come with any extra benefits or better pay. A cheap way for companies to not properly compensate their employees but keep some employees. Though from an employee standpoint, seems the only people who stay are those with inflated egos who boss everyone else around.
Some people like being able to tell their friends they’re a vice president even if there’s nothing behind it. Also helps pad their resume until this becomes common knowledge and no one takes a Goldman Sachs employee resume seriously.
It also looks better on a resumé, which can lead to a better paying job than they’d get otherwise.
It really is, just like ambassador, VP of sales when they are just sales people, or assistant to the assistant manager.
Assistant TO the regional manager…