Civil servants need career path

Although the public has criticized the overstaffing issue in China's civil service, many young civil servants are opposed to such view lately online. They believed that the main reason of redundancy is the inequality in the distribution of work allocation, says an article in youth.cn. Excerpts:

The uneven distribution of work means that newcomers to the civil service usually take on a large proportion of the job assignments, while their senior colleagues leisurely do less work. That's why the public feels the civil service is inefficient.

To some extent, the rapidly growing number of civil servants in China explains why this is the case. At the end of 2012, the total number of civil servants nationwide was 7 million, having continuously increased since 2008. But such a large civil service is inefficient compared to many foreign administrations, and there is actually superfluous staff.

But more importantly, the most fundamental reason for the lack of efficiency and the lack of enthusiasm for work is the limited opportunities for promotion available. Although civil servants should care more about carrying out their duties for the public good, there is no denying people wish to realize personal goals in their career. In reality, many officials remain in one position for more than 10 years.

Because such an "invisible ceiling" exists, it is impossible for lowly civil servants to arouse much enthusiasm for their daily work. Therefore, we cannot just blame them for having a poor work ethic. Only by giving them fair promotion opportunities and establishing a scientific employment mechanism, can civil servants' enthusiasm and motivation be rekindled, and their efficiency increased.