Understanding the Roles of the IT Generalist and Specialist
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If I ran my own company, I'd get rid of job titles altogether. Are they necessary? They massage egos, cause resentment, restrict flexibility and decrease the willingness to collaborate with colleagues or work in a more project orientated fashion. My job title is Systems Manager, I don't even know what that means!
Note: I haven't really thought this policy through.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Carnival-Boy said:
Interesting what you said about managers having to manage people to be a manager. That's maybe a US thing. It's not the case in the UK - a manager manages but what he manages doesn't have to be people, it could be other things.
What all are called managers then? Like are janitors "waste managers?"
There are specific, normally mocking, job titles that use manager now in the US but everyone knows what they mean and there is zero pretense. Like "office manager" is now a joke term for "secretary." It's actually a lesser title because it denotes someone putting on pretenses when they really just fetch coffee. Someone with the actual title of secretary is likely more senior.
This isn't always the case though. I small and perhaps medium physician offices, an Office Manager is like the CEO, runs the day to day operations of the office.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
If I ran my own company, I'd get rid of job titles altogether. Are they necessary? They massage egos, cause resentment, restrict flexibility and decrease the willingness to collaborate with colleagues or work in a more project orientated fashion. My job title is Systems Manager, I don't even know what that means!
Note: I haven't really thought this policy through.
Well at NTG we don't eliminate them but we do reduce them significantly. Management has titles, a few titles are required by law in the US. Not the specific titles, but similar ones (CEO, President, etc.) But the non-managers all have the same title.
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@Dashrender said:
This isn't always the case though. I small and perhaps medium physician offices, an Office Manager is like the CEO, runs the day to day operations of the office.
Still considered a secretary, though. Just someone at a secretary level and skill doing everything by physicians aren't often very bright.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
This isn't always the case though. I small and perhaps medium physician offices, an Office Manager is like the CEO, runs the day to day operations of the office.
Still considered a secretary, though. Just someone at a secretary level and skill doing everything by physicians aren't often very bright.
uhh.. hmm.. My office manager is definitely no secretary. She does run the day to day for the entire office. She may not be Michael Dell, but she's definitely not some slub who just answers the phone and files papers for everyone else.
What is the person in charge of the Dr offices out there called, title wise? And I hope it's not Dr, that would be a waste of a medical degree.
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@Dashrender said:
uhh.. hmm.. My office manager is definitely no secretary. She does run the day to day for the entire office. She may not be Michael Dell, but she's definitely not some slub who just answers the phone and files papers for everyone else.
Well a secretary does a lot more than that. I think that you are downplaying the secretary title. They may not be the top end jobs but they are often pretty decent. Especially with the secretary or executive assistant title rather than the office manager title. OM is the lowest of those from what I have seen.
Have you seen the movie "The Proposal" with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds? He is her secretary (executive assistant) and uses that to move up to editor.
@Minion-Queen was NTG's president's executive assistant before taking over as president herself.
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@Dashrender said:
What is the person in charge of the Dr offices out there called, title wise? And I hope it's not Dr, that would be a waste of a medical degree.
Office Manager is not a good title. Not for anyone (secretary or actual manager.) It's just a weird title. If used completely as the words imply, it would mean managing an office of people. Which is what you are describing. But the title is completely co-opted to mean entry level secretary. So I'd be shocked that anyone at mid or higher level secretary would accept a position with that title.
A doctor would almost never run an office, it makes use of none of their skills and rarely do doctors have the necessary skills.
Most physicians offices are actually, from what I have seen, run by office managers (secretaries.) They are senior to the receptionists and counter people, but not above a normal secretary. It's mostly filing, scheduling and the like. The stuff that secretaries do.
So office manager might be the right term. What do they do outside of secretarial duties? Do they handle payroll, finance, etc. beyond the basics of maintaining the receptionists?
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In our case (and other offices around here I've been to) they handle everything - They are HR (most small clinics can't afford separate staff), the person ultimately responsible for compliance (think HIPAA), depending on size, they are the first line of IT support, etc, etc.
In our case, her other duties (managing company direction, budgets, the GL, advertising, etc) she has spun of many jobs to other people beneath her, like basic accounting, IT, managing personal within specific departments (those people in charge are called supervisors, though they are really more like team leads - i.e. no real authority, but they do make schedules).
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@Dashrender said:
In our case (and other offices around here I've been to) they handle everything - They are HR (most small clinics can't afford separate staff), the person ultimately responsible for compliance (think HIPAA), depending on size, they are the first line of IT support, etc, etc.
In our case, her other duties (managing company direction, budgets, the GL, advertising, etc) she has spun of many jobs to other people beneath her, like basic accounting, IT, managing personal within specific departments (those people in charge are called supervisors, though they are really more like team leads - i.e. no real authority, but they do make schedules).
Here's a good example of why job titles are confusing and subjective, and one needs to be careful not to use a title outside of its accepted meaning. Obviously your "office manager" is far more than her title would suggest. Perhaps Managing Director is more appropriate? or Director of Operations, even.
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@Dominica said:
@Dashrender said:
In our case (and other offices around here I've been to) they handle everything - They are HR (most small clinics can't afford separate staff), the person ultimately responsible for compliance (think HIPAA), depending on size, they are the first line of IT support, etc, etc.
In our case, her other duties (managing company direction, budgets, the GL, advertising, etc) she has spun of many jobs to other people beneath her, like basic accounting, IT, managing personal within specific departments (those people in charge are called supervisors, though they are really more like team leads - i.e. no real authority, but they do make schedules).
Here's a good example of why job titles are confusing and subjective, and one needs to be careful not to use a title outside of its accepted meaning. Obviously your "office manager" is far more than her title would suggest. Perhaps Managing Director is more appropriate? or Director of Operations, even.
Or even Operations Manager.
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OK Hubtech and I bounced it around.
The in small to midsized medical practices the terms Office manager and Practice Manager are used interchangeably. Although, for a resume they'd probably use Practice Manager.
OK I've beaten this horse enough
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@Dashrender said:
OK Hubtech and I bounced it around.
The in small to midsized medical practices the terms Office manager and Practice Manager are used interchangeably. Although, for a resume they'd probably use Practice Manager.
OK I've beaten this horse enough
Practice Manager definitely sounds better. That's a person running the medical practice. Office manager is the person running just the office itself (the receptionists, housekeeping, etc.)
My old title with NTG was Practice Lead.
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