Title change

Anonymous

November 7,2023 at 12:37AM UTC

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Title change

I work for an organization of about 50 people, and currently serve as a Director, which is the role I was hired on for. I do not manage a team, but lead a lot of projects and initiatives.

It was shared by our HR team through and all staff email that all employees who do not manage people will automatically be retitled as Specialist, but our salaries would not change.

I’m quite upset about this decision for several reasons:

They never discussed this with me, I found out via email.
External organizations may see specialist and not take my requests as seriously because we live in a titled society.
It will appear as a demotion, and I’m worried it will look negative if I ever search for a new job. I already took one title demotion moving from VP to Director for this job.

I wonder if I’m over reacting, or if I should say something to our senior leadership or HR about this change. Would love advice and feedback from anyone who has experienced a similar situation.

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AnonymousNovember 7,2023 at 1:12AM UTC
It's for tax purposes or the like. I don't work in HR so can't speak of it specifically but I know this has to do with money on their side from a previous small company I worked at did the same thing.
AnonymousNovember 7,2023 at 1:56AM UTC
Make sure you list Director on your resume.
Then if a company checks they will find that you were hired as a Director level hire. What happens later can be explain as a company wide initiative.
AnonymousNovember 8,2023 at 2:47PM UTC
This happened to me as well. No changes to any other terms, just title I use the director title on my resume with (individual contributor) after. So far, there has been no problem - no one has even asked about it.
I worried about this for a long time - try not to go there. These reorganizations, especially those that affect individual contributors with executive titles happen all the time. When you think about it, it shows a complete lack of understanding about individual contributors and our abilities to influence entire organizations that do not work for us. But someone thought there is savings, or a shareholder perception, that is worth losing those affected.
For me, it all worked out. When I went into the position as director, the market wasn’t great, and the company wasn’t up to my usual standards either, but I needed a job. When I countered their offer, they offered me my choice of an additional $3k to my salary or inclusion in the bonus program. As I only planned on staying a year or two, I gambled on the bonus program, fully thinking that I’d see nothing. Covid hit, they changed the structure, and instead of rewarding all employees that stayed that first year, they decided to give only those in the bonus program 100% of their bonus eligibility if they had a satisfactory rating. I did, and I went to a new position shortly after, with my full 20% bonus. Ridiculous that they didn’t compensate the front line employees that still had to go to the office daily - they didn’t even get raises that year, but as I mentioned, they weren’t known for being a good company.
Look for something better and use the title for which you were hired.
AnonymousNovember 9,2023 at 1:43PM UTC
It does stink what they did.
Just look at pay ranges for a specialist and then compare it to a Director. They have tried to position their employees into a title that will limit their job looking ability, AI resume screening is defined by the hiring company and they could have it set to only pass through those resumes with Director and eliminate those who do not have that title. They could have also done this to preventing poaching by head hunters and other businesses.
Our company is going through something similar right now, if you have less than 5 people reporting to you, you and your associates will be absorbed into another area and the word Director/Manager in your title will be replaced with Analyst 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 or something else.
Just remember a resume is nothing more than a summary of what you have accomplished. You can leave Director on the Resume or you can even call yourself a VP, Senior Associate Director for that matter - it is not a legal document that can be used against you for falsifying your application. The application is the legal document. This is where you have to be honest about your info. There you can list your title as Director- Specialist. It covers the two titles you have had at the current company. They could assume you were a specialist and then became a Director. Just remember the application is the legal document they can let you go for falsifying.
I currently have a job title that means absolutely nothing in the real world. So for Linkedin and my resume, I use the title that the marketplace will understand.
AnonymousNovember 9,2023 at 4:57PM UTC
This is a trend I have seen in the industry typically due to aligning to market titles. You can ask your employee relations team for more detail.
AnonymousNovember 9,2023 at 6:55PM UTC
I would have a direct conversation with the HR/top leadership in your organization. Reinforce that you are fine as an internal move to change the title but that to the outside world should you make a career move it will seem like a 2x demotion and that is not going to work for you. Let them know that you are still very committed to the company and the position you are in but hope that they understand what you are speaking about and respect that you will not change your outside of the business title because of these things. If this does not work for them think long and hard about your career trajectory, where you are with them and the rest of your industry and make a tough decision if it continues to be the right place for you.
AnonymousNovember 15,2023 at 3:57PM UTC
We had an entire department that was demoted in name during a re-org. When a new Senior Manager came in, they also demoted duties based on their understanding because of titles. The title also completely changed how our business contemporaries view what we do. Unfortunately, titles matter. I'd have a conversation if you can. Trying to explain in future interviews what your duties/titles were/meant is extremely difficult. I, unfortunately, know how difficult that is.