Or it makes them less likely to be poached, because potential poachers will discover they don't measure up to expectations after a phone screening. At this poin

Or it makes them less likely to be poached, because potential poachers will discover they don't measure up to expectations after a phone screening. At this point we're all pretty used to sussing out title inflation at step 1. Or maybe someone will perceive it in a completely different way. At an individual level, big moments in people's lives (like changing jobs) are shaped by the edge cases that lead to actions, not macro average behavior. Making personnel decisions based on worst case hypotheticals only seems to increase the chance your employees will have a hard time imagining long term career growth by sticking with you. Deflating titles seems about as viable as forbidding conferences. Except where titles impact compensation, all of this is completely independent of actual competence.