Let’s begin by examining the
definition of the word “engineer.”
According to Wikipedia,
“Engineers design materials, structures, and systems, blah blah blah…”
So, when someone wants to sound
clever they very much enjoy altering descriptions of job titles.
As a poor college student who
refused to graduate with college loan debt – please pay attention, all you
college pukes who are whining about your own massive loans – I worked several
jobs. One job was as a garbage man.
The words “garbage man” evokes a
mental image of dirt-covered guys wearing gloves, tossing cans of trash into
the back of a garbage truck, all while tying-up traffic.
But those oh-so-clever-sorts who
desperately wanted to appear more educated than they really were would
invariably correct me by telling me my job was not as a garbage man, rather it
was as a “sanitation engineer.”
They were wrong.
My job did not involve materials
design, structure design, or system design.
I simply threw unwanted smelly, juicy stuff into the back of a garbage
truck. Amen.
Then, upon graduation from
college, I got a job in an office. There
were not only offices, hallways, and conference rooms, but also bathrooms. Every so often, a fellow employee or patron
would feel nervous about encountering a janitor doing janitor business.
 |
| Janitorial accessories |
Janitor business includes mopping
toilets, floors, dusting, vacuuming, washing windows, emptying trash cans, and
being polite to the uppity staff members who were still trying to pay off their
student loans.
I’m familiar with janitor duties
as I also worked as one to augment my income in elementary school. But, I digress.
And, one of these folks would
verbally cough up the words, “Here’s the sanitation engineer!” when a janitor
arrived to tidy up our space.
Once again, this verbose douchebag
was proven wrong. No re-engineered trash
cans, magical toilets, or robotic dusting systems were developed because of the
hard-working, honest janitors with whom I worked.
It seems as though people are
uncomfortable around others who get dirty hands while performing their jobs,
and those uncomfortable sorts try to make the dirty-hand person feel better
about themselves.
Now, we need to turn the tables
on the management types and more correctly label the bosses as butt-kissers,
yes men, yes women, blood-suckers, little Nazis, and daddy’s boy.
In any case, just because you
wear a tie does not mean you need to make yourself appear more stupid than you
really are by conjuring up new job titles.
You’re welcome.
