Professional-managerial class

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The professional-managerial class is a social class within the capitalist machine that, by controlling and overseeing production through superior management skills, is neither proletarian nor bourgeois, but squarely middle management.

Narrowly, it encompasses those whose title includes the word “chief” — a chief executive officer, chief financial officer chief operating officer, chief legal officer, chief risk officer, chief technology officer, chief marketing officer — and there are, and will in the future be, many more. More widely, anyone with a masters of business administration, and more widely than that, anyone who spends their whole day on her chuff attending conference calls, answering emails, and preparing PowerPoint decks and excel spreadsheets. The most soul-destroying of the professional-managerial class are those not actually in a profession, as traditionally understood: so, to take an example at random, human resources executives. When I say, “soul-destroying”, I don’t necessarily mean their souls: it is more likely to be yours.

One of the joyless minions of multinationalism. If you are reading this, you have either browsed here totally by accident whilst looking for porn — if so, Toto, you are a hell of a long way from Kansas — or you are part of the professional-managerial class. For your sake, we hope it’s the porn.

See also

• Bullshit jobs
• Stakeholder capitalism
• Human resources