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.

Its cheaper than pay rises. If I could offer all my managers and junior managers job titles of "senior manager" and "director" I'd save money on payroll. It astonishes me still but it is that important to some people (and consequently renders most titles meaningless)

@Johnnysgirl Suggesting that you are a medical doctor would be misleading, of course, but I live close to a university and several neighbors are lecturers. Their titles are “Dr. Smith, Dr. Brown,” because they have PhD’s. If I Google them, they’re listed as “Dr. Smith, Research Professor,” for example.

IRL, they introduce themselves as Mary Smith and John Brown. But they use Dr. in their professional lives and I imagine their post is addressed to “Dr. Smith.”

it's hilarious, YANBU. She'll probably cringe in a few years...
I 'know' of someone who is the CEO of a global company, they wouldn't even refer to themselves with that title

that if they say 'I'm a CEO' you can say 'Wow, I'm so proud of her'
Even when she's exaggerated the situation out of all reason?!

Most people are proud of actual achievements, not imaginary ones 🤷🏻‍♀️

If they have PhD's there's nothing misleading whatsoever in using the title that goes with it

That’s the interesting part, isn’t it. Really high fliers are often very modest about their achievements. Years ago, I had no idea that a friend’s husband was considered a world authority in his field. I knew he was a medical doctor, I didn’t realize that he was often the keynote speaker at international medical conferences. He was so unassuming!

If you think your 'friend' is a liar or someone who 'exaggerates out of all reason' why be friends with her? In that situation it's not the person who says 'I'm a CEO' who's in the wrong, it's the person standing beside them claiming to be a friend while judging them and thinking negative things about them.

An actual genuine friend doesn't care, just feels happy for the person they love. It is possible to be like that, rather than looking for ways to judge people or think less of them.

@Johnnysgirl Sorry, I’m getting confused about who said what at this point, I misread your post. 😂

It's a nonsensical thing to do whether those around you roll their eyes inwardly or outwardly, tbh.
I'm not sure savaging the op for thinking it's downright weird isn't missing the point somewhat.

It is becoming a bit tangled, for sure 😁

But she isn’t a CEO…I totally disagree with you. It’s like me sitting there telling people I’m a surgeon in front of her, and then expecting her to be proud of me?
She runs a great fitness studio, she’s not a CEO.

People are so full of themselves. I’ve become tired of people and find the company of my pets more interesting.

I'm not 'savaging' anyone @Johnnysgirl . I'm saying that a good friend doesn't find ways to find fault with the people they love and they don't go online looking for backup for that fault-finding.

If your friend was hideous dancer and you heard her say 'I'm a pretty good dancer' to someone, how would you respond? A loving person would smile and think 'I'm glad she thinks she's good' - they would never want her to know that she's not good, they would want the best for her and hope she always has this positive feeling about herself. A nasty, mean friend would mock her behind her back.

Threads like this make me really thankful for the wonderful people I have in my life who are genuinely kind.

Are you seriously saying introducing yourself as a doctor when you aren't is not intentionally misleading?

Yes, I seriously am. First of all, if it's not a protected word, there can be no specific understanding of what a Dr is, only a presumption. If someone signed a letter Dr, you'd have no idea what that meant. If I introduced myself as doctor, how is it misleading if it's not mentioned again?

Fraudelent is a red herring anyway; not all questionable, dodgy behaviour is actionable. Doesn't mean it's justified. Or legitimate.

I don't think it's a red herring. You can't use doctor if it's for legally fraudulent reasons, I guess under the 2006 Fraud Act (?). But as Dr isn't a protected word, unlike nurse is, you can use it legitimately. And maybe the person who uses it thinks it is justified.

It's not equivalent to you telling people you're a surgeon and you know that.

What does it matter to you if she says 'I'm a CEO'? What are you hoping to gain from getting your negativity towards her confirmed? Does she know you're rubbishing her online behind her back?

I've got a PhD and given the amount of sexist comments I got while working towards it, and the sexism I continue to receive if I don't use my title at work, I'll bloody introduce myself as Dr to the milkman thank you very much.

Some people thrive on appearing important or “best”. When my children were young they were involved in a competitive pursuit. If there was only one child entered in a category, the child would perform but obviously there were no competitors. One parent posted YouTube videos claiming “First Place!!”
😳

Maybe it's the case that you don't really like her? Or you have another reason to feel negatively towards her?

I'm an internet media relations consultant.
For my cat.

Well, I’d say you’re a CEO!

Oh, come on! Thinking you're a good singer or dancer is a totally subjective viewpoint 😂
Announcing you're a CEO, doctor, published author, lion tamer, are 6'2" when you're actually 5'6", is completely different.
They are all concrete, provable facts. Or disprovable, when it's obvious you're telling porkies...
I'm amazed you can't understand the difference.

🤣🤣🤣

I have a lot of respect for humble individuals like this - I bet he's a kind person

Anyone is entitled to call themselves CEO of a company if they want, so it's not the same as stating an incorrect height. But even if someone does say they're taller/shorter than they are, so what? I mean, maybe you'd be worried about them if you think they're confused or something, but again a good friend wouldn't be judgey or snigger behind their back or anything.

You seem to be missing my point which is not whether what the friend said is true or verifiable or accurate or whatever, but that a good friend doesn't sneer at their friends, not matter what they say.

If you think it's fine to poke fun, or make out someone is pretentious or whatever, fill your boots. I'm sure it works for you.

If someone signed a letter Dr, you'd have no idea what that meant
Stop trying to strip the word of all meaning because it's not actually illegal to use it to describe yourself when you've no entitlement to do so 😂😂😂
Nobody would be remotely confused as to what you signing yourself doctor actually meant. It's a fairly non ambiguous term.

I work in a British company which uses the American system of vice presidents, associates, analysts etc...... We laugh about it all the time because of the pomposity of it. CEO to me denotes the person at the top of the tree of a very large organisation. Think ftse250. But it's a battle lost as everyone now uses it. I've even seen it used for divisional heads in a ftse250 company. So there were multiple CEOs within the one company. 🤔