“Bookkeeping,” says my boss. He’s referring to my job title and telling me that in front of customers I should pretend I have a better one. On the surface this could be advantageous to me—permission to appear more senior than I am. However, I think the advantage is to my boss. Him not having to promote me and getting to pretend he has, making customers think he’s managing higher level employees than he is.
“All that title stuff is just HR bookkeeping, all in the background. Publicly, you should say you’re a manager. You manage the program, don’t you?”
I keep my face blank.
“I hope you agree.”
I give no indication that I do.
My boss moves on. “Anyways…”
If you let these middle management types ramble to themselves, they will happily fill every god-forsaken minute of every unnecessary meeting. It’s their skill. Truly. One that I wish not to imitate.
Bookkeeping. It’s the primary reason I’m here. Namely, the direct deposit that hits my bank account every other Friday. Bookkeeping should never be trivialized.