This entry was posted on Saturday, July 18th, 2009 at 5:56 pm and is filed under General Discussion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
A highly-intelligent young woman graduated from Cambridge and took a job with Goldman Sachs. Very quickly, she became disillusioned with the world of finance. She became interested in the developing world. She spent a year in Liberia. She did post graduate studies at Harvard. She applied to work for the British government. At her own cost, she flew over for three separate interviews, after which she was accepted over some 4,000 other applicants. She was told she would work on tax or treasury issues. She was keen to work in her area of interest and expertise. She e-mailed, telephoned and wrote asking for a meeting or at least a conversation. She received no reply — not even an acknowledgement. She is no longer working for the British government. She has opted to apply her talent elsewhere.
I am not sure what era these civil servants believe they are working in. But I suspect with their pensions secure and benchmarks of achievements low, they have no incentive to ensure that Britain’s government is staffed by the best and the brightest. Everything in this story could be acceptable and explained — accept the refusal to reply to the correspondence. That is one symptom of a failing institution.
2 Responses to “Top down arrogance”
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July 24th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Humphrey, are you really surprised by any of this? You know the Civil Service has been a fortress for eons, and the inertia is legendary. No different in Washington, Brussels, Moscow, Beijing, etc. They are entrenched and only in protecting their small individual turfs — they like the feeling of power, however little they wield.
If these civil services were employed by people with the true skills, determination and desire to do best, the world (and each of the countries themselves) would be a much better place, instead of having a few million little Napoleons and i Duci running their tiny fiefdoms.
Look what happened when European Commission Vice President Siim Kallas (Estonia) advocated — that Eurocrats need to be confirmed for their ability (and not just sheer seniority) — and the Eurocrats went on strike (led by unions and Spanish, Italian and French members) and burned him in effigy. All he said was that abilities should be the best arbiter for job placement.
Now what is wrong with that? This is why you have these clubbish and cliquish situations in civil services all over the world that reject those with better abilities and those with strong desire to do good. This is why corruption is rampant, and the work of the civil services are mediocre at best, wasteful at its roots.
Again, should any of this surprise you?
mel
July 24th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
I guess I live in hope, Mel.