Calling yourself a CEO AIBU?

[Namechange144]

Sorry I’ve name changed for this.

Went to a new local cafe yesterday with a friend I’d not seen since before Covid. She quit her corporate job at the start of lockdown and started a gym - think group classes and some personal training sessions. Not a gym you’d go to independently exercise.

We got speaking to the cafe owner about the cafe and other things and he asked us what we both did, friend said ‘I’m a CEO’, I looked slightly surprised and said ‘a CEO?’ in what I guess was a slightly questioning tone. She then responded ‘Yes it’s a chief executive officer’ , I obviously knew what it stood for but I didn’t say anything else and the convo moved on.

AIBU to think you shouldn’t really refer to yourself as a CEO unless you are one in the traditional sense? Am I behind the times here, can you be a CEO of exercise classes? Surely you’d just say I’m a PT and have my own gym.
Friend is really nice so I feel like a bit of a bitch but I can’t help but think it’s a bit of a weird thing to say and wondered if it was just me that found this a bit odd.

This is totally different and absolutely fine.

VP is a normal job title in the US, they aren’t boasting just being factual

If they are also the CEO, CTO and CFO then it's a bit over the top. Harmless though.
But if someone self-employed has set up a company for tax purposes aren't they a 'director'?

Why is that hilarious?
Medical doctors receive the title of doctor as a courtesy. They dont have a doctorate.

People with a PhD have completed a doctorate, earned the title and they are doctors. They absolutely should use it.

Good on her taking the risk. It's her company, she can call herself whatever she likes. It can be hard, lonely work being self-employed so if it makes her feel good, why not?

I don’t know anyone with a doctorate (DH included) who uses it in everyday life like this.

So what does he say when asked what he does for work? Or what his job title is?

This is how I feel every time I see the head at our secondary has signed himself CEO.

It's very funny how job titles have developed to imply more seniority. The job I did when I first left school was Manager's Clerk. The same job still exists, although is arguabley less difficult because of all the automation odlf decisions, but now it's called Portfolio Manager. In that organisation all the jobs are called at least manager now. The ones who really are managers are called director or executive.

I wonder what the new name for CEO will be now it doesn't mean what we think it means anymore?

This is hilarious.

She was clearly trying to sound important. Perhaps she felt a bit insecure and was trying to act like she was more important than the person she was speaking to? Was the cafe owner male or female? Wonder if she was interested in the person and trying to show off?

Either way, the owner of the cafe would've thought "what a twat" because no one refers to themselves in that way!

E-commerce specialist

Well, I think it's a bit of a silly way to answer a question about what you do because it doesn't actually answer the question, but I think she has the right to call herself CEO if she wants to if she's running a business.

The CEO of a retail organisation is a CEO but if chatting with a friend and making small talk in a cafe, when asked, would be more likely to say something like, "I work in retail" or, perhaps, "I run a retail operation". YOu'd only introduce yourself as a CEO in the context of a work meeting surely?

This is a really catty thread

It's completely different. 'Doctor' is the correct title for someone who has a doctorate. Professionally, personally and academically 'Dr' is their title just like 'Professor' becomes their correct title if they have a professorship. It's a formal title that would be listed as a title along with Miss, Mrs, Ms, Mr and so on. Although it's correct for someone with a PhD to be called Dr Smith, if Dr Smith was asked what they did for a living, they wouldn't say 'I'm a doctor' because it's not their job. I work with a bloke who has a PhD in a mathematical field and his title is 'Dr' but his job is 'statistician' or 'data analyst' or whatever his role is.

The accepted definition of a CEO isn't a person who owns a business of which they are the sole worker. A CEO would generally be someone who is responsible for running a business or organisation and reports to a Chair and/or a board of non-executive directors, and has people working under them. In most cases the CEO is actually employee, not the owner.

Ironically, by saying 'I'm a CEO' the OP's friend has kind of suggested that she is employed to head up a business, rather than making it clear that she actually owns and runs that business, so I suspect she has actually made herself sound less entrepreneurial and independent than she really is, not more.

Earning a PhD gives the person the right to call themselves 'doctor'. It's sort of a protected title. I can't call myself Dr DPotter as I don't have a PhD or a medical degree.

Doctor is not sort of a protected title. Its not a,protected title at all. Anyone can call themselves doctor as long as not doing it for fraudulent purposes. So fill your boots Dr Potter.

That said, she can call herself whatever she wants, and the fact that she's chosen a somewhat inaccurate title doesn't take anything away from her achievement of starting and running her own business. She's right to be proud of that.

Pretty normal to use Dr if you have a PhD. Not to insist on it or use it unnecessarily but if you’re picking from a drop down list why wouldn’t you pick your actual title rather than pretending not to have it?

CEO sounds daft from your friend. “I run my own gym business” would have been better. Reminds me of all the OLD profiles that say “company director” as if it means much without knowing the company. I’m a company director of a company turning over about £500 a year, get me 😂

People do this all the time now if self employed. They use CEO and very commonly director. I know someone who says hes a director of a company... he is a window cleaner but does have 2 vans and a collegue.

At least director in that case is factually accurate

CEO less so

Pretty sure she means to laymen
he’ll be one of those people who you ask what he does and he responds with where he works instead of his job title

If she has a small business then she is a director of it. That's fairly unambiguous, surely? If you look the company up on Companies House she'll be listed as a director.

Like PP said, a CEO reports into a Board of Directors. She probably just doesn't know that though, she probably just thinks that CEO means head of the business. I don't think she is necessarily being boastful.

But that is their title
they aren’t putting MD at the end
they are a doctor

She's the whole C suite 😉

Yeh if he has a business it doesn't matter how small it is, he is the director of it. It's a literal requirement for registering a business that you have at least one director.

It's a trend it seems. My electrician gave me his card, he was "Founder and CEO"

It still makes more sense to say "I'm a window cleaner" than "I'm a company director" when telling someone what you do though