I recently changed job titles from GIS Specialist Master to IT Engineer Principal though I haven’t changed what I do or who I work for. I don’t particularly like the new title and I propose Technocrat in its place.
Master was the top level of the GIS Specialist scale topping entry level, journey, and senior. To me this evokes medieval European craft guilds* or more thrilling to me, Jedi masters† from Star Wars. Both things Resonate in my cultural history as a white American of northern European decent. Of course master has a much more troubling meaning in American and world history. As equity and social justice came to wider prominence, it became clear that things needed to change, and my comfort with the title master was one of those things. As I began to have colleagues from younger generations, their discomfort with the title was obvious.
As part of the wave of equity and social justice, my employer developed a new set of titles for the various classes and ranks of workers as part of their classification and compensation study that also generalized away my GIS classification. The thinking is expressed well by Karla Monterrosa quoted first in Wired magazine*, then in th On Stage Blog.†
The CEO of Code 2040, a nonprofit organization focused on equity and inclusion in technology, Karla Monterrosa speaks on this, saying, “the response on this has been like, ‘Oh this isn’t about racism, just technical terms,’ without the emotional intelligence to see that those terms as technical terms has racial-traumatizing impacts on people.”
* On Stage Blog - Matthew Teague Miller & Gabriella Saxon
Given this understanding of the detriments of using the title master a new title had to be chosen. In my case principal was the choice. To me principal is most associated with the head administrator of a school. I also associate it with a partner or owner of a law firm. See senses one and seven for principal (noun).* In both of these cases the principal is the top authority in their organization. When principal engineer was first adopted as an IT title outside of my organization, it was reserved for positions matching that level of authority, prestige, and income. Which is not the case for me. I am in an a group with 24 IT Engineers and one third of them have the principal title. I believe title inflation causes confusion as to the level of my authority among people not familiar with the title hierarchy of IT Engineers used by my organization. I don’t feel like a principal. To add insult to imagery, principal is unforgivingly boring, lacking the flair of my previous title.
I began my career as GIS Technician and progressed to GIS analyst. Now, after working in municipal government primarily as a GIS analyst for over 30 years, I find bureaucrat is how first describe myself to strangers. Thinking about alternatives to my principal title leads me to consider describing myself as a technocrat.* That is a comic over statement of my level of authority and expertise. Unlike principal which is misleading but plausible, technocrat is implausible and suggests being chosen for style over accuracy. There is a nugget of truthiness† there. I am directly involved in the implementation of land use regulations. My years of experience and technical understanding are required to ensure the regulations are applied as intended by the lawmakers. I of course do not have the final say in how the regulations are applied, but I am responsible for supplying those who do with all the relevant details to enable them to make the correct choice. Most importantly technocrat has the flair that principal lacks.
If I can be given the grandiose title of principal, then I don’t see why I shouldn’t have the more evocative title technocrat. It feels more on target for my role, mixing the technical essence of my current principal engineer title, and the dull bureaucratic tasks that fill more and more of my day. I will be moving forward, agitating for the move from IT Engineer Principal, to simply Technocrat.
Paul McCombs
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