"Internal Evangelist."

[elfs]

George Carlin has a famous rant about what is known as the euphemism treadmill, in which he talks about how "shell shock" eventually became "post traumatic stress disorder," an expression with so many syllables that it sucks all of the emergency out of the original expression. "Used cars" became "previously owned vehicles" and "theater" morphed into "performing arts center."

I ran into one of these this week, when I spoke with a woman who had contacted me directly looking to hire me away from my current employer. She said she was part of a small company and it didn't have many employees. It didn't even have an HR. She was an "internal evangelist" she said, whose job it was to "evangelize" to her developers the necessity of getting the product out on time.

She wasn't there to "lead." She was there to evangelize. Rather than standing up and saying, "This is what we're going to achieve as a company, this is the time frame in which we're going to achieve it, and you each must take responsibility for some part of that achievement," she "evangelizes." She preaches the gospel of on-time delivery. She doesn't set deadline and then expect people to meet them.

"Internal evangelist" is weasel language that hides the hiring and firing power of management. It blurs the role of producers to produce, since the recipients of evangelizing are usually doing little more than listening, often uncritically. "Evangelizing your workflow" promises a faith-based attitude toward getting working code out the door, erases the role of leaders and workers, and ultimately weakens the whole point of having and running a business.

Comments

[adam-0oo.livejournal.com]

When people tell me their jobs and it sounds super vague and has too many words, i always assume they are covering up that they are a drug dealer.

[sirfox.livejournal.com]

you mean an independent pharmaceutical distribution customer service professional?

[pakraticus.livejournal.com]

I could, with good conscience work for a drug dealer. Known product, simple marketing strategy.
It's the advertising, marketing, and finance companies that scare the ever loving crap out of me.

[doodlesthegreat.livejournal.com]

I've worked at banks & insurance companies. At this point, the only places I would be less likely to ever work for are child pornographers.