Clement can't kill the public service, so he might as well kill morale

Clement can't kill the public service, so he might as well kill morale
by Kelly Egan

   OTTAWA - The Conservative government doesn't hate Ottawa. 

   It just despises lots of people who live and work here. Sure feels that way. 

   What's next from Tony Clement? Cancel lunch-hour and Christmas holidays to boost workplace morale? 

   Seriously, if an election were held tomorrow, you wouldn't want your name to be Galipeau or Poilievre or even Baird. The big bosses trashing the little workers in a company town that loves gossip and shop talk: nice campaign platform. 

   You know, with that circus they're running on Parliament Hill, these guys have a lot of nerve telling the serfs what to do, or telling us how Ottawa, the city, should be run. 

   The National Capital Commission, given the main job of making the capital a great place? More like the National Capital Omission. The feds took away the only thing it did really well - festivals, like Canada Day - and gave that to the Canadian Heritage Department, leaving the NCC to be in charge of, you know, lots of trees. 

   Is it not telling that the Crown corporation has been without a permanent CEO for almost a full year? (Marie Lemay announced her departure on July 6, 2012. Ads looking for her replacement went out three weeks ago.) 

   The Rideau Canal, Ottawa's showpiece waterway? The proposed lockage fee increase this spring was a complete fiasco and, when it looked as though that beast was back in its cage, here comes a hike in moorage fees. 

   Great way to support Ottawa and our UNESCO World Heritage site. 

   Museums? They don't want to build or improve any, just monkey with their names. Better parkways? Nah, but here's a new name and sign. A new bridge over the Ottawa River? A better waterfront? People, we will all be dead by then. 

   But, back to the public service which, conveniently forgotten, the feds cut by 19,200 in the 2012 budget. 

   It is very telling how the government is framing both the question of performance review and sick days. 

   Clement, the Treasury Board boss, did not begin the discussion of performance by calling for improved productivity. Paraphrased, he began the discussion by declaring: "We totally need to fire some asses around here." 

   Look at the numbers they released to help the public to understand this horrible dilemma of actually having to employ people. 

   According to Clement, the dismissal rate for unsatisfactory performance in the private sector is between five and 10 per cent of the workforce. I'm not sure what his source is for these numbers but, working in the private sector for 35 years, I'm skeptical. 

   He went on to say the rate in the public service is 0.06 per cent. So, ergo, the firing rate in the PS should be much, much higher, because this is an apples-to-apples comparison. Baloney. 

   The "line in the sand" announcement to PS executives was made as though Tony Clement had just invented the concept of performance reviews. Spare us. Have they not been going on in the PS forever and a day? 

   And, furthermore, what have all these managers been doing, lo these many years, if thousands upon thousands of public servants are sitting around working at half-speed all day? 

   You want to fire someone? Fire some supervisors asleep at their desks and quit yammering about unions. 

   And, rest assured, it does not escape the attention of the average worker that the story of Clement's winging about sick days appears on the same page as the story of MP Eve Adams claiming $424 for seven trips to a spa during the 2011 election. 

   Heh Tony! Why don't you review that performance from your G8 gazebo? Honestly, the hypocrisy is breathtaking. 

   The sick day discussion also seems to be full of figures and wedge words sure to be seen as red flags by a casual consumer. 

   On a typical day, for instance, the government reports 19,000 workers are on some form of sick leave, making this sound like a colossal problem or rip-off. 

   And sick days can be "banked", from year to year. But this is not the "banking" that some professions had, like certain teachers, who could cash in the days when they retired. There's no cashing in. 

   Furthermore, the union disputes the government's figure of 12.5 sick days per year. It claims the correct figure is below 10. 

   Clement, however, says absenteeism is "exceedingly high." 

   You know, put it all together: On the whole, your boss thinks too many workers are lazy, not enough are being fired, too many abuse sick days and lots of them need a kick in the pants during a performance review. 

   Doesn't that make you want to race to work in the morning!