Undersecretary

[Steve]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "zanooda2" <zanooda2 at ...> wrote:
>
> OK, I need to ask one more translation-related question before everybody starts writing about the movie :-). Can anyone explain better than the dictionary what Umbridge's job is :-)? It is called "Senior Undersecretary to the Minister". I looked up "undersecretary", but "senior" confuses me a little. Can there be a "junior undersecretary" then? What exactly is Umbridge's position, especially from the British point of view? I believe Geoff is on vacation, but maybe someone else knows this. 
> 
> 
> zanooda
>

As to the 'Senior' and 'Junior' aspect, yes, there can be 'junior' Undersecretaries, but I don't think the are called 'Junior' 
Undersecretaries. 

In many companies there are 'Senior' managers, 'Senior' executives,
Senior Vice Presidents, where 'Senior' is part of their title. But lower executive are usually not referred to as 'Junior' executives
other than in casual informal conversation.

So, in short, there are Senior Vice Presidents and Vice Presidents.
The Vice Presidents are junior in rank but not in title. 

The 'Senior' title usually implies that you are in charge of, or
rank over standard executives.

So, Unbridges rank as Senior Undersecretary, implies that she is 
the highest ranking Undersecretary and is in charge of all the
other Undersecretaries.

So, the other Undersecretaries, if there are any, would be 'junior'
to Unbridge, but would probably not hold the title 'Junior', 
they would simply be Undersecretaries. But again, to make a 
distinction, they might be referred to as 'juniors' in casual
conversation. 

So, the 'Senior' title simply establishes that Umbridge ranks
higher than standard generic Undersecretaries.

I used to work for the state university, and once a year the
employees would be asked to submit a form explaining how their
job role had expanded, and why it was justified to give them
a yearly raise in pay.

So, what they had to do was describe the same old job in more
and more pompous language to make themselves sound more important
and therefore worth more money.

If you did a good job, when you received your evaluation, you
would have a more pompous job title and a corresponding increase
in pay. You start out as a janitor and end up as a custodial
engineer, but you still sweep the floors.

I think the same may be true of Umbridge. It wasn't enough that
she and everyone knows that she was in charge of all the 
Undersecretaries, she had to have a job title to prove it.

Or, she may be the one and only Undersecretary, but she felt
she needed a more glorious job title. 

But, none the less, 'Senior' is a common title in business and
government. But those beneath the 'Senior' don't necessarily 
hold the title of 'Junior'.

Occasionally, in law firms, you have Senior partners who are
more or less the founding members, and Junior partners who
has recently joined the firm and have established themselves,
but not to the level where they have contributed enough to 
be considered full founding members. I think that is the only
place, that I can think of, where both 'Junior' and 'Senior'
titles are used. 

In most cased, the 'Senior' title simply means 'Head'. Umbridge
is the head or chief or most senior ranking Undersecretary.

Just a few thoughts.

Steve/bboyminn