Philosophers and Businessmen.

We often hear the news media refer to someone as a 'businessman' but what exactly is a businessman? We also hear the media refer to philosophers but what is a philosopher and what do THEY do?

Not so long ago, I was listening to an irrelevant news piece on NPR (Publicly funded radio to the Brits). The basic tenet of the story was simple but NPR felt it needed some 'experts' to comment on it. There were two of these learned pundits. One was a professor of technology but the other was introduced to the radio audience as a philosopher. Not professor of philosophy but an actual philosopher. I got to thinking "How did he get that job?" and what type of organisation needs a Philosopher?

How do you get a job as a philosopher? I did look on Monster and Careers.com but couldn't find a single advert for a philosopher. As this was announced as his job then what did he do all day? Who did his appraisal? How do you set criteria for goals for a philosopher?

Right Jenkins as company philosopher we need you to determine 5 new philosophies this year"
"Oh be real! You know we only managed two last year, how am I supposed to come with 3 extra"
OR
"I see. Of course all that is new is in fact old and as philosophy doesn't exist you cannot count them and therefore I may very well done the five by now"
OR
"Let me ask you if a manager sets a goal but no-one bothers to try is it still a goal?"

Enough of Philosophy though there is another job title that I keep hearing on the news media. It is 'businessman'. When a plane crashes some of the dead inevitably hold the job title ‘businessman’. During reports on crime bit-part characters seem to have that job title too. However, I fly a lot (I try to avoid the crime thing) and no one has ever introduced himself or herself to me as a 'businessman'. Indeed what does a businessman do? Presumably business. But a plumber does business and he is referred to as a plumber. A chef dos business but he is a chef. So I got to thinking anyone who worked in an office is a businessman but then I realised in our office we have IT support people, engineers, administrative assistants, managers, salespeople and some marketing people. No one has the job title 'businessman’.

Finally I worked out why no one is called a businessman! Because they are all either dying, victims of crime or in prison. So if you are ever boarding a flight and overhear someone introduce themselves as a businessman RUN.





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Bazza



BTW I believe the job title is just a lazy dumbed down media term but that is a different rant.

Examples:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7039637.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/northamptonshire/7006206.stm
http://www.epistemelinks.com/Main/MainJob.aspx