Public Servants—Critical Infrastructure for the Journey Ahead

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.

By Lisa Saye
February 2, 2020

Critical Infrastructure©, São Salvador da Bahia, Brazil. Photo and Photo Title by Lisa Saye

Quiet Desperation

This is an election year in the United States. You would know it were so, even if you did not read about it here. There have been debates and there have been debates about the debates. There have been accusations and lies and there have been lies about the accusations. And there have been new promises that look remarkably similar to the moth-eatened promises of the past that have been repurposed in current language and emoji mash-ups. As public servants we pay close attention to all elections, be they local, state, national or international. We pay even closer attention to trials and impeachments. We do so not only because the results will give us an indication of our leadership or funding levels, but also because of what those results say about the stability of the current public sector.

How will history treat us in twenty years when viewing our ancient social media? What name will history give to our collective disposition? How likely will history find a philosophy in our time to describe what is happening now? “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation,” wrote Henry David Thoreau in his oft-quoted 1854 novel, Walden. I am certainly not the first to quote Thoreau this week and I have no illusion that I will be the only person to quote him in this century. But, why do we quote Thoreau and moreover, why this particular line from a text of notable philosophy? I quote this line of Thoreau in order to prepare you for the book’s next sentence. Taken together they read thusly:

            The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.

For me, it is the second sentence that is telling, or rather, more telling. If the first sentence gave the impression of desperation, the second one, the resignation, confirms desperation’s existence. Public service can suffer from the desperations of its civil servants, especially when those desperations become resigned as normal and are carried across the thresholds of government offices or arrive in the driver’s seat of G-tagged government vehicles. When public servants resign that their government does not care, that their co-workers are disconnected and that the public is preoccupied with resignations of its own, desperation becomes core and government grinds to a halt.

Anyone reading this knows that the next section will insist on some kind of public sector reform. I may possibly suggest restructuring some policy or program, work-sharing, resource-sharing, out-of-the-box exercises or a series of departmental retreats as resolution. And those may be good ideas. However, the kind of reform that is needed when public servants are desperate, tired and resigned to the inevitable should be based on simple reflection. But, in the current environment, how would that look?

One can get a few ideas on reflection and reform of the public servant by noting how Sen no Rikyū, a 16^th Century Japanese philosopher, reformed the Chanoyu or Japanese tea ceremony from one of high visibility and based on a foundation of wealth to one that is more low-key and based on simplicity. Rikyū reformed the space and size of the tea house from large to small and transformed the goal of the ceremony from wealthy showmanship to Sei (pronounced say) or purity. His suggestions brought the act of tea preparation and tea drinking closer to that of a slow art designed to engender reflection and humility. Rikyū was not resigned to the inevitable, but instead he sought to change age-old traditions in order to help people remove life’s desperations—one tea cup at a time. 

I am not saying that we need more green tea in the breakrooms of all government buildings. I am sure that there is more than enough at present. I am suggesting that, where possible, we help to reform the public servant by changing the spaces we work within and by transforming the goals of public service. A new year is another opportunity to transform ourselves anew and it is expected on a personal level that we do just that. We do not have to wait for the next funding cycle to get our act together. We, as public servants, can readily identify our resignations and begin to lessen their impact on the way we serve our citizens. We are still the Critical Infrastructure for public service delivery, irrespective of our government level or where we serve on the world map. While debates and speeches may ebb and flow from season to season, our citizens are always in the cue for good public service.  

My parents, particularly my mother, insisted that my siblings and I study each day at the same hour at home, at play or elsewhere. During the same time period and over half a world away, my friend’s mother insisted on the same, even when they were forced to live in a refugee camp. We both agree that our mothers did that in order to give us a consistent environment whose aim was excellence. We know that we are the better for it. When public servants provide a consistent environment of good service delivery, know that the citizens like it, know that they appreciate it and down the line, know that they are the better for it.

Dedicated to my Mother (I wouldn’t take nothing for my journey now)

Above quote from Maya Angelou. The ‘Critical Infrastructure’ image was taken by Lisa Saye in São Salvador da Bahia, Brazil.

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Author: Lisa Saye served as Fulbright Specialist in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and as International Consultant for the United Nations Development Program in The Maldives. On July 9, 2019, Dr. Saye delivered the Pre-Departure Orientation Keynote Address at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois for Fulbrighters leaving for Sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Saye earned her Master’s in Human Resource Management at Troy University and her Doctorate in Public Administration at The University of Alabama. She can be reached by email at [email protected].

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