We’re used to inflation (except we have very little now). When we talk of inflation, we mean someone putting up the cost of living. But there’s inflation elsewhere. What about academic inflation? You need a degree to do a job once given to an A-level student. GCSE grades have been rising for years. And professional inflation? Dentists are no longer plain mister, but doctor.
And bus operators appoint managing directors where once there was a plain old general manager. So, here’s title inflation. Hants & Dorset, for example, had a general manager covering 14 garages plus Provincial’s Hoeford depot.
In terms of inflation, take Plymouth Citybus. It’s got Wilts & Dorset’s operations director Andrew Wickham as MD. A managing director sounds very grand for a single garage fleet of around 180 buses, something the size of a large garage within a large operator, really. Congratulations to him, even if at least one person showed some surprise at his appointment (and shared my surprise at the remarks made by Go Ahead chief executive about W&D). If it was closer to the rest of Go Ahead’s south coast activity, no doubt they’d’ve appointed a (general?) manager, under Poole.
Pre-1986, when firmly a local government *department*, you had some fascinating job titles. At Plymouth City Transport, Peter Sephton was... transport general manager; the man who succeeded him, Brian Fisher, was... principal assistant transport manager; and the fleet engineer was titled... assistant manager (engineering). At least you know where you stand with the term managing director. And it reflects both the post-privatisation status of bus operations and the fact that these are now businesses rather than just services.
Saturday, 5 December 2009
Inflation
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5 comments:
Is it just me or has this blog in recent weeks if not actually developing some slight personal bitchiness, is at least facilitating comments of similar bitchiness?
Oh crumbs! This wasn’t designed to be "bitchy", it was designed to reflect on changes over the last 20 years in job titles and, in the process, to draw attention to something I was surprised few people cottoned on to: Go Ahead CE’s comments in the Plymouth press on Wilts & Dorset...
Hmmm, facilitating bitchiness - the Go Ahead CE clearly doesn't need anyone to 'facilitate' anything in that respect!
I was surprised by the remarks, but since I have been away from the W&D area for some time, I don't feel qualified to comment. Ludeman may be correct in what he said, but saying it in public is still a 'faux pas' - not exactly likely to 'motivate the troops'. From my perspective, most of Go Ahead's other operations are in more densely populated urban or suburban areas, significantly different to W&D's operating area. The profitability of routes in more rural areas is inevitably less, and may not be sufficient to meet the requirements of a PLC like Go Ahead - but then, perhaps they shouldn't have bought it in the first place. On the other hand, the West Midlands is a more urban area, and GA didn't seem to be able to hack it there either, as one of your other commenters remarked. Does that sound too bitchy? Na ja, as they say round here!
When you refer to job titles in the industry, there are a wide range of titles that appear now, that never did some years ago and vice versa. I remember my early days at Yellow Buses, when Ian Cunningham was MD, formerly General Manager, and other positions were Assistant Manager (Traffic), Assistant Manager (Engineering); Assistant Manager (Admin), Chief Cashier, Chief Inspector, Deputy Chief Inspector and my favourite was Rolling Stock Superintendent! In more latter times, we have Operations Managers, Depot Managers, Traffic Managers, Service Delivery Managers - sometimes they are all the same job, but different titles!
I was once a Division Schedules Controller...now I'm a Commercial Officer...so long as I have a pen and a clipboard who cares?
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