Public Service Trimming

It was breaking news to me when I heard that the Civil Service has begun on a 3-year exercise (starting from this year) to trim down up to 9% of their workforce over a 3-year period! I was informed of this when I visited to one of the ministries some weeks ago to discuss work-related issues with them.

When I heard those words come out from the ‘horse’s mouth’, I was shocked coz this the first time (in my knowledge) that the ministries are carrying out such a large-scale trimming down of staff head-count due to the staffing ratio that has exceeded (above 100%) that of overall productivity! The rationale was because of further implementation of advanced technology, as well as striving towards greater organizational cost effectiveness.

This reminds me of an analogy where some of the branches of a tree are being chopping down because too many branches are causing the top part of the tree to become too heavy and start to topple sideways. Unless the tree trunk grows bigger, it would not be able to support all the crowded and entangling branches.

As much as I support this emphasis on cost effectiveness and minimizing an unnecessary staff ratio, it still took some time to register in my mind that the Civil Service is actually retrenching staff. Furthermore, new hires are often hired on 1-2 years contract basis, with the possibility of contract renewal upon successful performance appraisal at the end of the first contract. This has really changed my impression of the Civil Service being famed as ‘iron rice bowl’ in the early years of Singapore’s independence.

The economy is changing and now the Civil Service has begun to evolve too. Good and bad, it depends on whose perspective one chooses to view it. Yet one occupation is still being pumped in with lots of money… which is the education sector. Teachers seem to be the last to be out of job (unless they can’t perform) coz the country needs teachers to progress and train its younger generation. As for whether money helps make good teachers, it’s very difficult to say.