The way I see it, too much emphasis cannot be placed on the importance of good work ethics and I want this week to especially refer to those of us who work in the CIVIL SERVICE.
First of all, let us establish right early, a working definition for CIVIL SERVANT.
My good friend GOOGLE gave me the following:
- Civil definition, of, relating to, or consisting of citizens: civil life; civil society.
- civil| Definitionof civil in English by Oxford Dictionaries
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/civilDefinition of civil – relating to ordinary citizens and their concerns, as distinct from military or ecclesiastical matters, courteous and polite.
For the purposes of this class, I want to stress on the COURTEOUS and POLITE part.
And how about SERVANT?
NOUN
- a person employed by another, especially to perform domestic duties.
2.a person in the service of another.
For the purposes of this class, I prefer to use the reference to the ‘domestic duties’ part and even though I was not so bright in school, I can now reason that a CIVIL SERVANT is a person performing domestic duties to the general public, who is courteous and polite.
Well I newa!
Do we have a lot of CIVIL SERVANTS today?
First of all, a lot of them do not consider themselves to be SERVANTS of the people and secondarily, a lot of them are far from CIVIL!
I had occasion to interact with two sets of CIVIL SERVANTS during the course of this week. One set on St. Kitts and the other on Nevis and I was far from impressed.
For the purposes of this class, the authorities will not be named.
The first set came into my space, which I occupied at the time, with about another forty persons and the first thing was that they made no attempt to say good morning. They set their faces like granite and some of them had their faces set as mean looking as the dog they were tagging along with.
Then in Nevis. You would expect better treatment at home right?
Sorry to disappoint you.
I had to go to the space of these CIVIL SERVANTS and I started with a polite ‘good afternoon.’
The response was not encouraging.
Then I queried as to the established protocol: Where to go? To whom? And so on and so forth.
Those directions were given in a not so pleasant and off -handish manner, like when you bothering people?
I figured that they would have a lot of people to deal with, especially at this time of year and may just be a little frustrated.
Eventually, I got to the last person who I had to deal with. My ‘good afternoon’ was met with a blank stare and then the young lady gave me the amount that I was required to pay.
I did not have enough so I told her that I would have to come back.
As I got to my vehicle, I realized that I had a $20.00 US as well. I returned and asked her if the $20.00 US would be enough to cover the cost, if I added it to what I had originally.
She did some quick calculations and told me that I would still need 85 cents.
I took out a $5.00 EC note and gave it to her. She went to the back and returned after a little while.
She stood there just staring at me. I looked at her quizzically, then she placed a hand on her hip and with some style and a stern voice declared:
‘Mister, you aint hear you need 85 cents more?’
I looked at her in amazement and responded quite calmly: ‘You told me that I needed 85 cents more and I gave you a five dollar note—look under the money in your hand.’
She looked and then grinned sheepishly and said: ‘My bad!’
Now how is that for an apology for absolute arrogance towards a customer?
Well I newa!
Now dear reader, you figure out what you would have done in a situation like that.
The CIVIL SERVANT must also be exemplary in dress and observation of time codes.
I think I mentioned before, how one day I went to a particular government office to deal with some business and I went there at 8.45 and absolutely none of the workers were present as yet.
At about 8.50, one of them strolled in and when I queried about the bit of business, she told me that another lady was the one I had to talk to.
I waited for at least another 15 minutes before my ‘saviour’ arrived.
She dealt with me in a nice enough manner and told me to return later for the paperwork.
I returned at about 3.10 pm and saw the same young lady coming down the stairs. She hurriedly signaled me upstairs and said I could check with (she gave the name), as she had left my documents with that person.
Just to make conversation I asked: ‘So you going out to come back?’
Her response almost made me fall off the railing. She said: ‘I am going to do my hair!’
Now here is a young lady who came late and was leaving early to do her hair and she is a CIVIL SERVANT!
So, my admonition to you dear reader, whether you are a CIVIL SERVANT of DOMESTIC SERVANT, try your utmost to give your bosses quality work and quality time on a daily basis.
Dress appropriately as well and be polite and courteous to all of the customers with whom you have to interact.
Mind you, young ladies, I am not advocating that you grin and smile with every Tom , Dick and Harry who comes into your space, because there are some crazy people out there, who may misunderstand a courteous smile, for something else, but you can be polite but DISTANT if you want to be.
Be the best worker that you can be and don’t let it ever be said that you are nothing more than an impolite SLOUCH.
The God in heaven, who will be our ultimate judge, requires that from us.
That’s the way I see it. How do you see it?