By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
If you are employed by the government or a government owned or controlled corporation, there are two things you should be prepared for. You should have other qualifications for another employment because if you are a sincere worker, chances are your days are numbered as an employee. Somewhere somehow, you will get in to a conflict situation with your superiors or co-workers who are not honest and are not sincere with their intentions..
For a very long time since time immemorial a job in government or in a government-controlled company are looked own on due to low salaries. In addition, to get into one often needed only some connections and not passing stringent qualifications or competence requirements.
This was perpetrated by the fact that government salaries were low compared to their equivalent in the private sector. Of late, however, salaries of government employees were adjusted and are now competitive with their equivalent in the private sector.
With the past low competence requirements to get employed in government, a low level work ethic was developed in its bureaucracies or offices. Will the much better government salaries now change this? Hopefully?
Another effect of low or lax requirements to get employed by government in the past is the highly politicized work environment especially in the awarding of incentives like promotions and job perks. These are often given to those well connected and those who are “magaling sumipsip.” In short, awarding of these was not on the merits.
Thus, if you are a sincere worker, you will not last long in such an environment. Hence you should be prepared of joining the throng of job hunters anytime. If you don’t have good qualifications, sorry. Be prepared to change shoes often due to worn out soles for always walking the sidewalks in search of a job.
An option for you is to have another source of income. A popular reality is putting up and maintaining a small business on the side. So when things come to a point where you go head-to-head against a corrupt superior in government, you will have a source of income. An alternative to this is putting up a firm offering professional services such as accounting services or law office services. Acquiring the qualifications though to offer such would be long and arduous. So lucky are those who have such professional qualifications.
I was one of the lucky ones as it was always at the back of my mind tp have an option if I ever got fired due to such a situation. So since I was a student I put up a small printing press. This paper is a spin-off from that. It was a big struggle to raise the capital for that and to learn the business which was practically foreign to me. But I persevered.
And when I joined Pantranco, the bus company, I was already a lawyer and I was hired as such. With all the incompetence there and the corruption, I became the most vocal critic of management. It was put in a situation where it had no other choice but to fire me. When that happened, I sued the company for illegal dismissal and I even made some money when I won the case. The damages awarded to me was not small change.
Moral of the story is, if you intend to join government or any of its companies or those it controls, you should have an option in case you get fired which is almost certain if you are a decent person.**
