What is it with titles?

Better yet, what is it with Filipinos and titles?

There are people out there who put so much weight on the use a particular title when people refer to them. You know what I mean, Doctor, Attorney, Engineer, Architect...

It sometimes comes to the point that to NOT use the title is taken as an insult.

I mean no offense to people who've rightly earned these titles. I respect them and I understand they've reached a certain level of professional achievement not many people attain because the entry barrier is very difficult.

But there is professional pride and there is being pompous.

Take, for example, this little exchange:

We have a project that requires the involvement of a video director. So we scoured our networks for possible candidates. One such candidate was a friend of ours back in school. Being familiar with him, we're on a first name basis.

He has an assistant who fields inquiries about his availability and rates. The conversation with assistant went this way (For the sake of protecting the subject, I'm changing the director's name to Archie.):

Us : Available ba si Archie next week?
Assistant: I-che-check ko pa yung schedule nya.
Us : Ok, paki-text ka na lang sa 'min pag free si Archie.
Assistant :Pwede next time, please call him Direct [sic] Archie.

Two things:
# 1: Since WHEN was Direct (Direk) an honorific title?
# 2: Did you have to INSIST on the title when referring to him?

(Let me just make it clear that it was NOT our friend who insisted on the use of the title, but his assistant. I want to give our friend the benefit of the doubt that he did not specifically ask for that title. But at the very least, he should be aware of the kind of representation he's getting from his assistant.)

To be fair, I do use the title 'Direk' but only within the context of a shoot. That's because in a shoot, there are people who may not know who's who until the actual day of the shoot. It's not uncommon for people to not know who the key players are. To help recognize who's in charge, production people use the title 'Direk' to identify the director.

But to insist on the use of such titles in normal, everyday conversation that has nothing to do with professional work, for me, REEKS narcissism, egoism and ironically, low self-esteem.

Why? This kind of person bases self-worth on the titles people confer on him. This kind of person will take it as a personal insult if you so much as forget to attach the title to his name. More often than not, he will say "I've worked hard for that title. I think I deserve people calling me that."

I have a title for people like that....

...and I'm sure they won't like it one bit.


To round off this rant, my parting thoughts:

A professional title is not an entitlement of prestige. It is an assignment of accountability so that when something effs up, people know who's responsible.
To be wholly responsible and accountable for what you do - THAT commands real respect.