(Why have I chosen a career in government service? — an essay about our reason was required from us Management Trainees. Below was what I submitted)
Truth to tell, my reasons for working in the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) will not immediately answer the question, “why have I chosen a career in government?”. It would have been nice to immediately expound on my altruistic motives and my belief in the nobility of public service. This, however, is not altogether true for me. You see, the realization of the benefits of having a career in a government service came after-the-fact. I am already working as a GSIS employee when I realized that I could make a career in government service.
Allow me to digress a little, to first answer why I have chosen to work in GSIS. I was once asked to prepare an essay answering this question after one panel interview for a position in a unit different from where I am currently assigned. My reasons then are no different from now. Why GSIS? It is because I grew up breathing it; partly because it is my father’s right; and because it reportedly gives good compensation and benefits.
My parents are both GSIS employees. They met, fell in love, married and raised three (3) children through their service in the System. As a child, I am one of those who were carried around by their parents during anniversary celebrations, summer outings and Christmas parties. All my godfathers and godmothers are GSIS employees, if not until now, at least during a point in their lives. I even spent a month of summer vacation studying dance and speech classes sponsored by the System. This is from a time where GSIS still had offices in Quezon City, a location different from where its current Quezon City District Office is, and Arroceros. I even spent my practicum with GSIS, in the unit I am currently assigned to, but is not where I am initially admitted for — but this is a different story. One can say that growing up, the only government agency I am familiar with is GSIS.
My father retired from government service in 1997. The System has an existing Next-of-Kin Policy, which gives employment priority to children of retired GSIS employees. After my college graduation, my father urged me to submit my resume, I obeyed. I, however, kept all other options open, and, in fact, work with private agencies for the first two (2) years after my graduation.
Since my father’s retirement, I have been hearing the positive changes (read: increases) in the System’s level of compensation and benefits. This fact, together with the preceding reasons, made me resign from where I was working when my application for employment to the System is finally processed and accepted. Very utilitarian, indeed. J
Why stay, then, why choose a career in GSIS”?. Honestly, there were moments that I think I came to be in the government service too early in the point of my career. I recognize the fact that government agencies are known to be slow in recognizing deserving employees for promotion and that they are misperceived as having lax working environment. With its current management, the latter is not true for the System. In my department, we were constantly pushed beyond minimum compliance and complacency, and this I appreciate. It gives me the feeling that my mind and skills have remained in constant enhancement.
I cannot dispel the importance of career advancement for me, however. There are times that I still fear that staying in GSIS, or in any other government agency, might mean being in one position far longer that necessary and undeservingly, at that.
Despite such thought, I have come to realize that GSIS provides long-term benefits, those that are meant to give a sense of holistic security to its employees and their families. The System has aimed for stability amidst globalization and advancement in technologies by recognizing the good in these changes and empowering itself through them.
My three years in service have gradually extricated from myself the minuteness of my perspective about GSIS. I am not assigned to frontline operations, my regular HR work make me view only the factors affecting us who are inside. The various projects that lead me in touch with the System’s clients awakened in me its effects on the government employees and pensioners, even the adverse ones that are due to the changes the System is currently implementing. Now that I have fully understood what the System means to the public it serves — the System’s bigger picture —- I have also come to realize the true meaning of the terms “in the exigency service”, a phrase usually read on Office Orders, but their true meaning lost on us employees.
Some may consider my realization to be slow in coming, some too naïve or idealistic, but my accounts are honest. Resigning is not far from my mind at times. Going back to working with private organizations is still an option. If ever I move to a different government or private organization, I know I will move only to one that will continue to enhance my mind, skills and heart the way GSIS has been doing. With my realizations, staying has become as much an option as leaving.
I still think of leaving, but I know now why I can stay, not only in service through GSIS but in other government agencies, as well. As short-term as the idea of a career in government service is for me, at present, I can now answer why I have chosen a career in such. I find satisfaction in the process of achieving and accomplishing goals. This motivates me more than any amount of reward, monetary or otherwise. Yes, the latter matters, a lot in fact, but I know I am left dissatisfied when I fail to accomplish something that I set out myself to do. Now that I have come to visualize my contribution to the larger society as a government employee, my motivation has now been shifted to a higher level — I am committed to work with more than my hundred percent if I see the contribution my organization has for the society’s goals. Yes, this can be provided by some private corporations, especially those who now have inculcated in their processes the practice of social involvement and responsibility. But only government organizations can directly affect the lives of the different sectors in our society, increasing the psychic income that popularly drives the government employees, the real public servants. It is the government agencies, after all, that based their decisions “in the exigency of service”.
