Bringing dignity to labour

Dubai: Modern times demand modern job descriptions. A quick look through job advertisements reveals that today, everything seems to have become more dignified.

It is not just the term "facility manager" for a person who used to be called a caretaker, janitor or a custodian. There are more new expressions designed to restore some dignity for people who are normally under-appreciated for the service they provide to the community.

For example, what used to be an excavator today is highly sought after as a "soil movement engineer". People who work as window cleaners can be proud of the new job description: "vision clearance engineers." And a cook today should be addressed as "nourishment production assistant", no matter if he or she works in a canteen or a five-star restaurant. A person who helps people enter chairlift seats deserves the title of "ropeway manager", and somebody who removes our daily garbage is nothing less than a "waste removal engineer."

The job description for a house cleaner has been transformed into "environment improvement technician" or, even more flattering, into "specialist for floor hygiene." A receptionist at a hotel nowadays should be called "master of welcome", of course.

What comes next? A clerk whose job is to pick up the phone might be promoted to "master of verbal communications," and a gas station attendant would certainly be proud of being called a "petroleum transfer engineer". A dishwasher would easily accept the job title of "dish cleaning executive".

Such titles come at no expense to management and make employees happy. This is why we suggest greeting a toilet attendant as a "metabolism control manager" or at least as "chief sanitary advisor". The person deserves it.