How do I really know what my job title is?

Question

I’ve worked at a company for a very long time now. I was hired in position “A”, unfortunately when Covid hit, I was furloughed for a while.

My boss brought me back from furlough and told me I could come back as position “B” but with the same responsibilities, as it’s the same position/role/department but he was calling it something different.

Fast forward to today, I see that I’m still listed as position “A” in our employee payment system and on my employee dashboard. He even now refers to me as position “A” and I left my email signature as position “A” the entire time.

The only place position “B” even appears is in my Microsoft outlook profile.

So how do I know what my job title is officially?

I’m asking because I don’t want to fill this out incorrectly on a job application. I also want to keep my position “A” title on my resume and not have to make a new space for another position name that’s the same exact thing.

I guess I could list it like position A/position B. But again it’s the same exact responsibilities/role/department.

Thoughts?

Answer 1

If your boss is calling you position "A" and the company's payroll system and employee dashboard lists you as position "A", I think it's fair to say that from the company's point of view, your title is position "A".

If you wanted position "B" to be your title (say, it was a better title), you could go to your boss and say something like "during COVID, you promised my title would change, but I recently noticed it has not changed in the payroll system -- can we change the title so it reflects our conversation?" That could turn into a difficult conversation, depending on your boss and the politics, whether or not you have documented evidence of this conversation, and how well you can explain why you are only bringing this issue up now (presumably a lengthy time after the original conversation) without revealing your hand about your job search.

But if you don't even want the title of position "B", then it seems pretty clear to me that you should just let it go, and list yourself as position "A" on your resume.