Public Servants, or Servants of the Public?

After a recent visit to a government department, I couldn't help but notice that the public servants considered themselves to be too inconvenienced to provide any of their valuable time to serving the public, which, incidentally, pays for their salaries.

I counted 7 different types of verbal abuse to elderly citizens, verbal abuse over the telephone with regards to enquiries, windows being shut down in the face of desperate, tired people, who had waited for hours to be assisted, with the excuse that it was "coffee break time", and to top it off, after the 10 minute coffee break, 40 minutes later, the "customer" being told to shut up, or else they will not have any assistance provided to them.

Whilst waiting for my turn to come up, and three hours later, I started to envisage the same scenario at a multinational fast food establishment.  

In this example, the fast food employee is the public servant, and the customer is the citizen seeking government assistance:

Customer at drive through: "yes, hello, I would like two all beef patties, special sauce, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun"

Pimple faced employee: (shuts window and screams out) "we are all going on a break now"

Customer: "but I've driven for an hour to get here, and I have to go back to work"

Pimple faced employee: "you should have thought about that 2 hours ago, and come earlier, come back tomorrow, or better still, don't come back at all"

Customer: "but, there's nowhere else to go, I'm hungry, and I really needed a two all beef pattie, special sauce, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun"

Pimple faced employee: "are you going to continue with your complaining, because you are wasting my time"

Customer: "sorry, I didn't mean to upset you; I will wait for you to come back"

40 minutes later......

Pimple faced employee: "yes"

Customer: "sorry to interfere with your life, and I apologise for making you work, is it possible for you to be so kind as to give me a two all beef pattie, special sauce, pickled onions on a sesame seed bun?"...

Pimple faced employee: " We ran out 50 minutes ago, come back tomorrow"

Now, why is it that government employees think that they are above everyone else, why do they believe that people depend on them?  People do not depend on the government employee, they depend on the system to help them.  Unfortunately, the rules that apply to private enterprise, that is, to treat the customer with respect and to give proper service, do not apply to this particular sector.   Maybe the government should take its own advice, and offer training to its employees, subsidized by the government  run and funded, Human Resources Development Authority!

..... imagine if the private sector adopted this attitude...!