Advanced Search

The story appears on

Page A6

January 20, 2014

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Opinion » Opinion Columns

Public trough less enticing as perks cut in frugality campaign

By Ni Tao | January 20, 2014, Monday | Print Edition

Last Saturday tens of thousands of people sat the annual national exam to become civil servants.

Even in the absence of precise figures — test-takers numbered 1.23 million in 2012 and 1.5 million in 2013 — it’s safe to say some of the nation’s brightest minds found themselves among the candidates.

This year the exam was marred by a peculiar angst. Despite its popularity, the test is overshadowed by a myth — civil service as a profession is going downhill. And that myth is prevalent among civil servants born in the 1980s.

Internet chat rooms are abuzz with talk of these post-80s civil servants planning to quit their jobs and ply other trades. Newspapers run such headlines as “Want to Resign? Civil Servants, No More Whining, Just Take the Plunge.”

What a difference a few years have made. In the wake of the financial tsunami, the massive layoffs, fat-shedding and other vagaries in the private sector, the appeal of government jobs was greatly enhanced. Since then college graduates have learned to appreciate the job security promised by an iron-rice-bowl position with a government agency.

But the fortunes of civil servants, especially those newly recruited, have fallen perhaps as precipitously as Chinese stocks. Their complaints are similar: A lot of stress, low pay, regular overtime work. What’s more unpleasant than a boring yet stressful daily routine is that they are exposed to all the intrigues involving guanxi. For instance, respect is dictated by rank, not by merit.

A civil servant friend of mine mainly writes speeches, briefings, and even personal statements for her many directors. She has to put herself in their shoes and imitate their tones.

A ghost writer, one may well say. Sometimes, she is ordered to work on weekends or through the night on an article on short notice, only to see her work barely used at the next day’s meeting. Day after day, these petty officials become weary and even doubtful of their once-vaunted career choice.

Public perception of an official job is often a sinecure filled by people slacking off all day while still earning good salaries, including what is disparagingly called “gray income,” money obtained through clandestine channels.

Yet many post-80s officials would protest, saying this stereotype is barely true, or at least not in their case.

Furthermore, recent crackdown on official extravagance will make civil service a much less “lucrative” job than meets the public eye. For instance, the campaign urging frugality will soon deprive many cadres of their exclusive use of official cars and replace them with traffic allowances. The campaign has gone to such an extent that even the year-end banquet is now declared history.

Not all civil servants focus on material gains, for sure. There are altruists devoted to serving the people whole-heartedly. But quite a few people do become civil servants to seek stable income and perks. A young civil servant once told me the only reason he still stayed in his lackluster job is that he only has to wait a few more years to be eligible for the one-off home-buying allowance for civil servants. But who knows if that too will be abolished one day?

Pragmatic concerns

He sounds very pragmatic, a far cry from the pledges of our officials to serve the commonweal.

But his sentiments are no doubt echoed by many. The Beijing News recently surveyed 100 civil officials, asking how the national crackdown impacted their commitment to work. Quite a few replied they would consider a move.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, the country  rewarded civil servants with home ownership after they had served for a specified period. The policy is long dead. Nowadays, young officials can hardly afford their own shelter with modest salaries.

Although these perks are gone, civil servants still enjoy certain privileges. They contribute very little to their social pension accounts. However, they are entitled to a pension 60 percent to 80 percent of their pre-retirement income, while ordinary workers’ pension averages only 40 percent of their pre-retirement wages, or even less.

This discrepancy has left the public calling for scrapping this dual-track system. So whenever some civil servants complain about their work online, they are often met with scorn.

Now some official circles are rife with talk of resigning and going into business, just as their predecessors had done in the 1980s and 1990s following the initiation of market reform.

But young people today lack the connections that take years to cultivate and the bar has been raised in the game, making it harder for them to start from scratch.

Many young petty officials are now in a bind. Some want to leave this system, but having sacrificed so much to come into the fold — including sitting the grueling test and in some cases bribing their way into the system — are they willing to just leave behind all their “achievements” and start all over again?

From a broad perspective, that civil service becomes less attractive is good. If the majority of a nation’s young people craved the supposed security and comfort of a stable government job, how can we expect to become a nation of innovators?

 

Opinion Columns


 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend