Efficiency? Who needs it?

JAKARTA (JP): One day the general manager of the state agency where my husband works asked him to find a way to improve efficiency in the workplace.

No big deal, my husband thought.

He was wrong. Not that it was a difficult task, but he learned a valuable lesson: People benefit from inefficiency, in fact make a living from it.

What my husband discovered was nothing surprising or new. It can be found in many Indonesian institutions and companies, even the private ones.

The agency is over-staffed. There are eight people for a task a single person can handle. The reason? Many on the payroll act as if they own the agency and hire new people all the time. It could be someone's son, daughter, niece, nephew or best friend's second-cousins' in-law. The agency has literally become a huge family. You cannot avoid bumping into someone's relative when you visit. There is even a whole family -- excluding the mother who must be dutifully laboring at home -- working for the agency. Not to mention employees who join the agency with a katabelece -- the magical reference letter which no general manager could turn down.

"What's wrong with that?" I ask.

"Nothing if the sons, daughters, nieces, nephews or relatives meet the requirements for whatever jobs they are assigned to or if there are really the jobs for them," my husband explains. "The problem is, often they join the agency even when there is nothing for them to do."

His remark reminds me of a comment his colleague made when I asked him to join my company.

"No way. I like it here. They pay me even for watching TV," he said.

Which is half true. Because there are too many people to do the work that must be done, he can finish his work in a matter of hours and spend the rest of the day watching TV or playing Scrabble.

The problem doesn't stop there. Because of the blood links, it's difficult to impose company rules on employees with connections. One is of course bound to bump into someone's son or daughter or niece or nephew when dealing with a misconduct grievance or a irregularity.

"Even if a boss insists that the agency treat his son or daughter or nephew or niece or in-laws like any other employee, no one is his sanest state of mind will take action against a boss' son or daughter or niece or nephew or relative or in-laws for their wrongdoings," my husband says.

Another problem that comes with this traditional recruitment procedure is that primordialism is the rule. When one from a certain region is appointed head of section or department, then for sure he or she will regionalize that part of the agency so that there is the Padang bloc, the Cirebon (Sundanese) group, and so on. Nothing wrong with that, actually, if professionalism is still the number one consideration.

"You cannot expect a team set up on primordialism or a blood connection to perform professionally or efficiently because those two aspects become unimportant. What is important is to have your people or relatives working for you or with you," my husband points out.

To his shock, his findings infuriated the big boss, who became sullen for several days -- much to the dread of the whole office. My husband told the boss that the only way the agency could cut down on expenses and be more efficient was to stop recruiting people on the traditional basis.

The general manager became upset and angrily told him that there was no way the agency could do that.

What about the sought-for efficiency?

"Forget it," says my husband. "Who needs efficiency when people survive because of inefficiency?"

-- G.A. Koesoemowinoto