It is so customers can feel good about working with a VP for their personalized service.
Hierarchy theater.
Always remember to ask a VP “how many people report to you?” If they say none, then they aren’t a VP just sparkling wage slave.
I had 100 people reporting to me as a VP in a global bank. It’s still nothing. It’s all about relative size.
100 people in a company of 1000? Real VP.
100 people out of 100k? Middle manager.
How do you manage having 100 reports? It sounds like a ton of work. I don’t know what working in a bank is like though.
Layers. I managed managers of managers of people
In some industries you can be a supervisor with 100 reports. Job titles are so asynchronized even in similar types of companies that they’re virtually meaningless without company specific context.
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Very very much a thing in Finance, with tiers of VP too (Assistant VP, VP, Senior VP). Even for people doing internal support, it makes the internal “customer” feel good.
It was a learning experience when I was told not to prioritize anyone below SVP.
It’s often also used as a compensation aid when someone has maxed out their pay band or title but there isn’t a management slot open or they don’t want to do management. My team doesn’t have titles for team leads, but all our “unofficial” ones have at least an “Assistant” VP title.
“Assistant VP” or “Assistant to the VP”? lol
I will just leave this little nugget of applicable wisdom from Napoleon Bonaparte:
A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.
The scene in American Psycho where they compare biz cards comes to mind…
Especially because a lot of these VP titles are what we call ‘business card promotions’, most common in the sales area.
At my old company all of our business development guys had VP on their business card, but they were just managers like me for all intents and purposes, including pay.
I’m surprised the practice persists though. It’s not like everyone isn’t sort of in on the joke at this point.
It’s a carry over from all the bank mergers from the 80s (and probably earlier). You never want to cut someone’s title, so when dinky 10-branch bank gets bought by JP Morgan, the VP just stays a VP even though you can’t possibly make them the second-most-powerful person at JP Morgan. With enough mergers you get a critical mass and you have to create a structure where all the current VPs and everyone around their stature get the title but it officially loses any meaning.
Tldr I blame the Savings and Loan crisis
That’s why I’m American Psycho they’re all vice Presidents, and why they all lose track of who is who.
That’s why I’m American Psycho they’re all vice Presidents, and why they all lose track of who is who.
Wait, you’re THE American Psycho?
Paul Allen has mistaken me for this d*ckhead Marcus Halberstram. It seems logical because Marcus also works at P&P and in fact does the same exact thing I do and he also has a penchant for Valentino suits and Oliver Peoples glasses. Marcus and I even go to the same barber, although I have a slightly better haircut.
