What’s the most popular job title in the UK today? Well judging by the job titles that I found on a recent attendees list for a Digital Cream London event 2011 it’s “Head Of…” Never before have I seen such an impressive list of “Heads”

• Head of E-commerce, Awear
• Head of E-commerce, AXA Insurance Direct/Swiftcover.com
• Head of eBusiness, AXA PPP healthcare
• Head of E-commerce COE, Bank of America
• Head of Marketing Communications, Barclaycard
• Head of Brand and Cross Marketing IT, BAT
• Head of Global Marketing Planning, BBC Worldwide

This list goes on and on and on. [See Below]  So what’s the fascination with being the “Head of..” something. I began to think about about this from a psychology and even physiological level.  My first bit of research lead me to wikipedia which states that in anatomy, the head and particularly the face are the main distinguishing feature between different people, due to their easily discernible features such as hair and eye color, nose, eye and mouth shapes, wrinkles, etc. Human faces are easily differentiable to us due to our brains’ predispositions toward discriminating human facial forms. When observing a relatively unfamiliar species, all faces seem to be nearly identical, and human infants are biologically programmed to recognize subtle differences in anthropic facial features.

People who are more intelligent than normal are sometimes depicted in cartoons as having bigger heads, as a way of indicating that they have a larger brain; in science fiction, an extraterrestrial having a big head is often symbolic of high intelligence. Outside of this symbolic depiction, however, advances in neurobiology have shown that the functional diversity of the brain means that a difference in overall brain size is not a reliable indicator of how much, if any, difference in overall intelligence exists between two humans.

The head is a source for many metaphors and metonymies in human language, including referring to things which are often located near the human head ( “the head of the bed”), things which are physically similar to the way an animal’s (or human’s) head is arranged spatially vis-à-vis its body (“the head of the table”), even if this is so metaphorically (“the head of the class/FBI”), and things which represent some characteristic we associate with the head, such as intelligence (“there are a lot of good heads in this company”). These examples are all from English, but only some are possible expressions in other languages (depending on the language). (See Lakoff and Johnson 1980, 1999)

The ancient Greeks had a method for evaluating sexual attractiveness based on the Golden Ratio, part of which included measurements of the head. Having read this, it kind of makes sense. That said, the next time you ask someone what they do. beaware that the response you get is most likely going to be “head of …”

• Head of Editorial, Boots.com
• Head of Emerging Technologies, British Gas
• Head of UK Marketing, Brother UK
• Head of Marketing, BSI
• Head of eCommerce Services, Bupa
• Head of Online and E-commerce, Bupa
• Head of Brand & Marketing, Cahoot
• Head of E-commerce, Camelot
• Head of Digital, Cancer Research
• Head of Website Marketing, Capital One
• Head of Online Marketing, Carphone Warehouse
• Business Analytics & Optimisation Manager, Channel 4 Television
• Senior SEO Manager (Europe), Cheapflights Media
• Head of Corporate Marketing, CIPD

There’s more…

• Head of Advertising, Confused.com
• Head of Digital Media, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
• Head of E-commerce, DM London
• Head of Digital Media, Dyson Ltd
• Head of E-commerce, Dyson Ltd
• Head of Marketing, easyBus
• Head of Marketing, easyJet Holidays
• Head of Marketing and Communications, ESCP Europe Business School
• Head of Channel Strategy, Development & Delivery, Everything Everywhere (T-Mobile)
• Head of Customer Acquisition, Financial Times
• Head of Digital, General Healthcare
• Head of CRM, Global Radio
• Head of Digital Technology, Groupe Aeroplan
• Head of E-commerce, Hawkin’s Bazaar & Letterbox.co.uk
• Head of Online, Hiscox
• Head of E-commerce, Holidaybreak PLC
• Head of Online, Hotter Shoes
• Head of Online Marketing, HSBC Private Bank
• Head of User Experience, IG Group
• Head of Digital Marketing, ING Direct
• Head of Digital, Investec Private Bank
• Head of Database Marketing, IPC Media
• Head of SEO, Southbank, IPC Media
• Head of Marketing & E-commerce, Lombok
• Head of E-commerce, Lovehoney
• Head of SEO, lowcostholidays.com
• Head of Marketing, lowcostholidays.com
• Head of Direct, Lyle & Scott Ltd
• Head of Digital & Individual Giving, Merlin
• Head of E-commerce, Molton Brown
• Head of Marketing, moneysavingexpert.com
• Head of Integrated Marketing Communications EMEA, Motorola Solutions
• Head of E-commerce, Nectar, Groupe Aeroplan
• Head of Digital Marketing, OUP
• Head of Digital Communications, Oxfam
• Head of Digital, Pretty Green
• Head of Client Digital Marketing, RBS
• Head of Digital, RBS
• Head of Online & Digital, RBS
• Head of Digital, Riverford Organics
• Head of Search, Shop Direct Home Shopping Ltd
• Head of Multi-Channel Retailing, Sony Europe
• Head of E-commerce, Speedo International
• Head of Online User Experience, Telefonica O2 UK Ltd
• Head of E-commerce, The Caravan Club
• Head of Search, The Post Office
• Head of Digital Marketing, Trinity Mirror
• Head of eBusiness (acting), Virgin Atlantic Airways
• Head of Marketing, Virgin Atlantic, vtravelled.com
• Head of Online Marketing, Virgin Media
• Head of Media, Visit London
• Head of Digital Projects, VisitScotland
• Head of Digital Marketing, Which?
• Head of Data & CRM, Which? Ltd

Phew…

A new study has found that the phrase “bored to death” may be true for some people. A study of 7,000 government employees between the ages of 35 to 55 found that those who reported being chronically bored at work were more likely to die than those who were not always bored. But researchers say that boredom itself isn’t the problem. Instead, it seems bored people are more likely to engage in health-damaging behaviors such as alcohol, drug use, or overeating.

Read full story: healthcentral.com