The “Four Public Servants”

Public sector is an interesting sector that has so much influence on governments. Employees in the sector usually referred to as public servants have very strong bargaining power and form an important group that every government would hope never to wrong as any slip by government may result in agitations. It is a group that is so pampered because of what they can do to governments. They can build or destroy governments.

Unlike their counterparts in the private sector who are bound by the business mindedness of their CEOs and the quest to sustain their business to act on lay down rules and regulations and to deliver, very little is demanded from the public servants. Productivity in the private sector without doubt is better compared to the public sector yet the public servant is more powerful with regards to how much influence they have on any economy.

But have you wondered why performance at the sector is always a source of concern to many people including governments? From my little lenses, I have noticed some mind boggling characters that are worth deliberating on.

Six years in the business circles as a private businessman since bowing out of public service revealed these characters following my regular transactions with government agencies. Being the front liners in the sector it is obvious that the day to day transactions are spearheaded by public servants.

 Interestingly enough, the attitudes exhibited by these public sector workers as I observed through my little lenses have compelled me to categorize them in four interesting groups.

First, the "Light-weight" public servants who only attend to you or your documents unless they receive or are promised monitory reward for the job they do despite their monthly pay. Another group is the “Laissez –faire” public servants. They are not innovative and show little or no concern towards clients. Social media is their ultimate companion, more important than the one in front of them trying to get some assistance. Their physical presence at work is all they need to guarantee their monthly salary. To them it is just their right as citizens of the land to be employed to guarantee them money for their livelihood. And dare you question their contribution to the growth of the organization and everyone would know you as next to the devil.

This group is closely followed by the “All nosy unproductive” public servants. For this group, they are always very busy from one office to the other, guess what? Discussing trivial matters including the hair style of other colleagues, the new celebrity in town or how ugly one influential public figure is. Productivity is the least of their worries. They never remember anything about the institution but can give vivid account of the attire every worker wore to the office every week for a whole year. They are specialized in nick naming others for their principle stands  since Principle has a different meaning in their dictionaries.

The fourth and final group is the “All business” public servants: Without doubt, this group is filled with the spirit of patriotism and growth that their dedication to work is in most cases difficult to understand. They are smart and do not need to be reminded of your reason for being in their department if only they ever attended to you. There is that sense of urgency in their response to duty, and trust them to get to you if they are busy and promised to attend to your documents later. The rapid penetration of mobile phones even makes it easier these days. The all business public servant is results oriented and even get depressed if they fail to achieve targets; they will not stop apologizing for failures or disappointments. 

Having being exposed to all these categories of public servants which of them would you want to meet in your line of duty? Your guess is as good as mine.