Nora Johnson: And they lived politically correct ever after

When a UK weight-loss company recruited a paid couch potato to eat high-fat foods and its weight-loss products, it advertised for a “product testing associate”. In the good old days, a spade was a spade. Now job titles are a minefield of euphemism and gobbledegook.

Often a fancy title simply hides low wages, and a job’s importance is usually inversely proportional to the length of its title. A “Colour Distribution Technician” IS…a painter and decorator!

But shouldn’t we judge these people by what they DO at work, not by their convoluted, quasi-English titles? (“Regional Sub-Manager for Innovation-Based Strategies”, anyone?) Or legitimate job titles masking the incompetence of the superfluous individuals concerned whether they’re non-executive directors or assistant deputy CEOs? If someone does a good job, who cares if they’re styled “Czar for the Homeless” or “Pontiff of the PLC”?

As a crime writer, I try to keep my suspects’ occupations as realistic as possible. Who wants to read about a “Process Operative”? (Spy? Counterspy? MI5 Asset? No, this is actually a job at a chicken processing factory, packing products and moulding Chicken Kievs.) 

STOP PRESS! My Death in Windermere audiobook will be released shortly!

Nora Johnson’s critically acclaimed psychological crime thrillers (www.nora-johnson.net) all available online including eBooks (€0.99;£0.99), Apple Books, audiobooks, paperbacks at Amazon etc. Profits to Cudeca cancer charity.

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