It was September 2001 and I was very disheartened with my public service work. I was tired of the snide remarks about lazy bureaucrats, privileged pensions and useless unions. I knew I had done fine work all my life but when you are told something over and over ...
I was seriously thinking about going into the private sector where everything was efficient, everyone was paid a lot and going to work every morning was a thrill.
I was teaching a workshop in Quebec on the friday morning when the towers started to fall ...
Sometime later I wrote this piece for Macleans Magazine ... Lately I thought I might revisit my thoughts from two decades ago about feeling hidden ...
Over to You Opinion
Macleans
January 14, 2002
I am a public servant. In the 30 years of my career, there have been more times than I would care to admit when I was not very comfortable saying that out loud, much less in print. However, like everyone lately, my world has been rocked. The embassy bombings, the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City and the Sept. 11 images of public servants—police officers and firefighters—running towards the horror instead of away from it will stay with us forever. I have had to recognize that many terrorists target governments and, as we know, public servants are the front line of governance.
For years, public servants struggled with a “poor cousin” image in the workplace. It was insinuated that the brightest and the best would always go into the private sector. The rest of us, for many different reasons, made the decision to spend our lives teaching your kids, hooking up your intravenous, protecting your border, checking the maintenance record on the aircraft taking you to Cancún and responding to 911 calls. Oh, we have heard your snickers over the years.
We have heard your comments about road crews leaning on their shovels, striking nurses, mindless clerks processing paper, lazy teachers and cops in doughnut shops. And this was the tame stuff. I believe it’s time to rethink our views on public service. First of all, understand that we do the things no one else really wants to do and that there is no real money in it. Try to buy police services from a street vendor. What price would the market pay to find an illegal immigrant? Ask a major private-sector company to write a new fair-trade policy. Try to shop around for a good deal on a passport.
The private-enterprise capitalist system is fine by me. It is adept at doing those things it is supposed to do, but it cant do it all. When it comes to writing good policy on parole violations, we don’t freelance the contract, we ask a public servant with a weighty academic background, a wealth of experience and an ear to the street to compose it. When we need protection, high standards in our goods, food and water, we again True, we are notorious for our red tape, but we are working really hard look to the public servant. Whoa, let’s stop right there. On that water thing. You’re right. We have Walkerton and North Battleford to consider. I grew up in North Battleford and, as a working government guy, I was appalled that, for decades, city workers there drew drinking water a kilometre downstream from the spot they dumped the sewage. Let’s be honest. Public servants make mistakes. Big ones, little ones and some really stupid ones. But so does the private sector. Our trouble, as public servants, is that our mistakes can cause a lot more grief.
It is true, we are notorious for our red tape, our obsession with paper and our slowness. But we are working really hard. We can and will be just as fast, as effective and as quality-minded as the private sector, even more. We have many masters, however, and sometimes when we try to cut the red tape we get beat up for what is then called a lack of accountability. It’s always hard for us to know whom we really serve—politicians or citizens. But I believe we can serve both and do it with accountability and effectiveness.
So what have we got here? Well, we have jobs that have no market value. We are under constant public scrutiny. We get paid what citizens, not the market, think we are worth and we provide always essential but often hidden services. And most of us really like our work. We love your kids, we feel for you in the intensive-care unit, we want to find the bad guys and we are driven to develop policy that reflects Canadian values.
Public servants may now feel even more like a target for evil, but they will go to work every day. They will be here for us, the first to run into the trouble and to lead in the rebuilding. The war on terrorism will not be fought in the market, it will be defended at the border, in policy-making decisions on privacy and in the day by day readiness of emergency workers. And that is why I serve the public, with pride.
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As this brave new world continues to unfold and our workplace, organization and civic cultures continue to evolve, we may do well to explore the leadership and engagement practice side of our thinking and learning. If you would like to learn more about these practical tools and practices in the book, drop me a line ... if you have a deeper interest, I can send you the book for a subscriber's rate of $15.00 which includes postage. 
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