Being humane in dealing with the people working in the organization should be at the top of the list
What are the qualities of a good, capable administrator? Management schools will list several, but in my view, treating the people working in the organization humanely should be at the top of the list. A fair, transparent and humane administration will ultimately score above everything else. I learned this lesson early in my long career in the civil service, and regard it as one of the most important characteristics of managers, even in today’s technology-driven approach to management.
I was a newly minted civil servant in the late 1960s, when I was posted as second-in-command in a large, politically charged field office thrown into turbulent waters to learn swimming went. After the Chinese invasion, there was a sense of insecurity in the whole country. The economy was in dire straits and inflation was climbing; And the salaries in the public sector were woefully inadequate. The climate was conducive for self-seeking political interests to take advantage of the discontent among low-paid workers; And their influence was visible among employee unions and unions alike. Strikes of different colors were the rule rather than the exception. In fact, the day I took office, there was a “pen-down strike” and union workers were wandering here and there to stop anyone from going to work. The officers were his class enemies.
Although I began my new official life in a hostile environment, the mantra I was trained to follow religiously was to be fair and transparent as the rule books allowed. Meanwhile, each day turned into a day of restlessness, with staff representatives doing their best to dominate aspects of the administrative conversation. One of his tried and tested strategies was to raise personal slogans against superior officers with a view to demoralizing the weak.
It was a creative act to raise loud slogans and bring them to maximum effect. There were some vocal staff who specialized in the arts. The slogans will be rhythmic, personal and funny, except for the ears of the victims! The best way to deal with such sloganeering was to ignore them; Even better, if one can enjoy them for their lyrical effect! Among those who indulged in dogma was a tall, thin and angry-looking young man, almost the same age as me, who figuratively spews venom on class enemies.
So, it came as a surprise to me when, on an innocuous day, an angry young man came into my room and placed an invitation card on my desk. I was a little surprised that he bypassed his class prejudices and came to invite me for his wedding. I found it unusual. Still, I thanked him and forgot everything. I still don’t know why I had to go to the address given on his wedding day. It was a holiday, and probably, I had nothing special to do. Being new in place, I saw it as an inactive drive. But when I reached his house, what I saw made me feel sorry for him. They had a very small thatched hut that announced the peak of their apparently poor financial circumstances.
It seemed that the groom was completely surprised to see me coming, quite unexpected; And to his embarrassment some of his union mates were also present. I wondered if they would act as a representative of the ruling class, to invite me to the wedding. In any case, my friendly gesture didn’t matter and his skill in raising slogans against me continued unabated.
A few months later, an opportunity arose to consider hiring a person closely related to the newly wed worker as a low-paid employee in the office. Some of my employees cautioned against hiring offers, drawing attention to their fuss-price; But in my view, denying the job would have been unjust.
That was a turning point. Former agitators and class enemies became a valuable source of information on important occasions. The sloganeering expert on his own has already started giving valuable information on his agitation plans to prepare the office to face adversity. I still don’t know if it was really ethical to receive such inputs; But the fact remains that it helped the administrative machinery to survive in a hostile environment.
A career in civil service will offer many challenges as well as opportunities: to serve the people, be helpful and work for the general good of the society. But there is nothing more effective than treating each individual within the organization as well as outside with fairness and compassion and firmly to overcome obstacles that will throw up opportunities. After all, as the bard put it, “mercy is twice blessed: it blesses the one who gives and the one who takes!”