Efficiency? Who needs it?
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