Saudi- Evening shifts in govt departments

(MENAFN- Arab News) It is being suggested that government offices should stay open in the evenings. This it is said will provide a better service to the public. The cries of delight with which the idea has been greeted by businessmen suggest that it would be a highly popular move. During the day time people are busy in works and this will help them get things done after office hours. Although many government services have been made available online but there is a great need for streamlining procedures and this move may be a step in the right direction.However less thought has been given to what civil servants themselves will be thinking about the plan which was put forward in a study by the Control and Investigation Board. The idea says the board is to improve efficiency and staff performance.Yet as currently proposed the evening shifts would not attract any significant extra pay. This lends a touch of unreality to the board's other stated aims. These are to fight rising workplace absenteeism and boost employee morale. No one in either public or private employment is ever going to take happily to being told that they must work longer hours for pretty well the same amount of money. Furthermore it is hard to think of a move more likely to boost absenteeism and more certain to wreck staff morale. Therefore if the idea of evening shifts in government departments does take off it is going to require a great deal of thought. It may even result in more hirings for a governmental machine which many would argue is already seriously overstaffed.If there is already a problem getting a full day's work out of civil servants extending their hours even if they are paid more seems unlikely to be effective unless properly planned. Instead it might make the problem of slipping away from the workplace even greater. The trouble is that organizations which are overstaffed are often the last to realize it. As Parkinson's Law states so accurately: 'Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.' Busy offices can be found everywhere. But what is keeping these workers busy Are they just shuffling papers as part of a meaningless system designed to give people something to doEven in private companies Parkinson's Law frequently applies. And the bigger the company the greater the tendency to create makeweight work. This is especially true of firms that find themselves growing ever more levels of middle management. But in the final analysis a business that is overburdened with inefficient bureaucracy is harming only its shareholders. In a competitive world customers will go elsewhere if companies do not deliver. It is very different with government departments. There are no rival ministries to which a citizen can take his or her problem if it is not sorted out properly. Civil servants are critical intermediaries between citizens and their rights and duties under the law. Only they can do their jobs. And if they do not do them properly no one else is going to step in. The Kingdom's bureaucrats are no different from those all over the world. They trade an almost-certain lifetime job for a relatively modest salary. There are often generous entitlements attached to a civil service job especially in the middle and higher echelons. High quality government employees could very probably earn more in the private sector. But they would almost certainly have to work harder. And unlike in the civil service where firings are the exception corporates tend to punish failure with the sack. Company jobs can also go because a business is in financial trouble through no fault of the unfortunate employees who are shown the door.If civil servants were told they would be sanctioned for under-performance laziness or failing to turn up for work attitudes stand some chance of changing. The essential services government departments provide to the public might improve. For sure the bureaucratic machine would close ranks to protect itself. But the introduction of a tougher employment regime combined with promotions and financial rewards for solid performance could be transformational. And there is a peg on which this new workplace rigor could be hung. The Kingdom is committed to the expansion of e-government. As more processes are automated jobs in the bureaucracy ought to be disappearing. In the coming years the huge government payroll should be shrinking as at a minimum retirees are not replaced because their jobs have ceased to exist. This cutback would need to be combined with a winnowing of unproductive bureaucrats. Evening opening of government departments will certainly facilitate people getting their work done but at the same time it should be ensured that all civil servants actually do the work for which they are being paid.