Hostility in my Civil Service answers

This was written as a response to one Case Study in the Civil Service Distance Learning Program. The case involves Roy, a rank-and-file employee who gets late frequently and his lates are being recorded and he is getting cited. While Mr. Sanchez, the Director of the Department also goes in late but does not get cited.

My response:

Roy is envious. He should resign and find a nearer job.

The director deserves the flexible working schedule. This is how it works in corporate management. You provide incentives to the top brains, to the top managers, to the top salesmen, so that they remain in the company and stay happy working for the company. These incentives may come as a flexible working schedule, bonuses, service cars… and they deserve it because in the long years that they have stayed in the company, they have proven that they are capable of bringing more for the company despite the expenses spent on them. Now if we expand that to a larger scale and substitute “COUNTRY” instead of “COMPANY”, we can say “The top brains, the top managers, the top salesmen, the top professionals, deserve the incentives given to them because in the long years that they have stayed in the COUNTRY, they have proven that they are capable of bringing more for the COUNTRY despite the expenses spent on them.”

Providing the same incentives for top managers and rank-and-file employees is a Communist Ideology and it does not work in this day and age. It becomes counter-productive in the long term. How? It starts when employees in a company make this very simple observation: “the lazy do not work, the diligent work hard, but yet they get the same.” If we substitute the names in this case, it becomes: “Roy does simple clerical work in the office, and comes in late. Mr. Sanchez with all the stresses of managing the department as a Director comes in late too.” Now, why would Mr. Sanchez work so hard through those long years to become top manager if he will only have the same privileges as a rank-and-file employee? This is the downfall of this Communist Ideology, of providing the same incentives to the top manager and rank-and-file employees. No motivation to work harder, no motivation to become better. No motivation to get a Doctor of Medicine Degree or a Masters in Business Administration or a Doctor of Philosophy or a Degree in Economics or a Degree in Engineering. The entire society suffers in the long-term due to the lack of motivated and brilliant professionals. Why would I study 5 years to get a Degree in Economics or Engineering or Architecture or Nursing or Physical Therapy or Education or Accounting or Banking and Finance if I only get the same privileges as the person putting folders in the cabinet? Why would I study 7 years to get a Masters in Business Administration if I only get the same privileges as the person putting folders in the cabinet? Why would I study 10 years to get a Doctor of Medicine if I only get the same privileges as the person putting folders in the cabinet? Why would I study 13 years to get a Doctor of Medicine and a Diplomate in Medicine if I only get the same privileges as the person putting folders in the cabinet? Why would I study 15 years to get a Doctor of Medicine, a Diplomate in Medicine and a Fellowship in Medicine if I only get the same privileges as the person putting folders in the cabinet?

We live in a Capitalist World and the Capitalist System predominates. Roy and other rank-and-file employees should wake up to this reality. The Capitalist System is a just and fair system, we have EQUAL RIGHTS but we have DIFFERENT PRIVILEGES. The Capitalist System is a just and fair system; it rewards the hard-worker, the motivated, and the brilliant.

Jake E. Hofileña, M.D.