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, it captures anyone with a masters of business administration, and more widely than that, anyone who spends her whole day on her chuff attending all-hands conference calls, engaging in hand-to-hand combat over email, preparing Excel spreadsheets for opcos and PowerPoint decks for steercos.

The most soul-destroying of the professional-managerial class are those who do not belong to any profession, as that word is traditionally understood: so, to take an example at random, a human resources executive. When I say, “soul-destroying”, I don’t necessarily mean his soul will be the one destroyed: it is far more likely to be yours.

So, broadly, one of the joyless minions of multinationalism. If you are reading this, you have either browsed here 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