There are always “performers” and “non-performers” in each and every field of work. Some are born-performers, and doing well at work comes as a habit for them. Many shine due to their unmatched grit and sheer perseverance. There are indeed a lot of persons who metamorphose from ordinary to extra-ordinary taskmasters as time takes its own course. Doing one’s duty diligently should, in the normal course, be seen as a person’s routine ritual but in a society where brilliance and efficiency are admixed with mediocrity and laxity awards and rewards can go a long way in instilling that extra-confidence in a person and making him/her feel recognised and, perhaps, propel a “non-performer” to emulate the former.
Both private and government establishments have their own yardsticks to reward the efficient. The Union government has set in a practice to honour outstanding civil servants on the Civil Servants Day every year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while honouring the officers this year, focused more on the non-performers who did not make it. It looks strange that one needs to “apply” to be felicitated for doing their work well.
But in a vast country like ours it looks reasonable that there may be innumerable achievers with an adequate performance record and their applications for the high honour of being appreciated by no less than the PM himself may not be out of place. But Modi provided a different dimension to the competency discussion itself by wondering why many government officers had not applied for the honour and lamented on the causes that might have led the government servants to underperform. He asked for a list of “last 25 underperformers”. If Modi’s directions are followed in the letter and the spirit, it may well prove to be a unique drive.
The reasons are no secret: unpleasant environment at home, unending financial anxieties, crippling personal and family health worries, frictions at work place are the main impediments for the smooth transition of a human being into a worker. In addition, many institutions tend to push an individual to the maximum and, sometimes, advertently beyond that only to snuff the creativity out of the worker and infuse fatigue in an otherwise excellent performer. Therefore, if undertaken appropriately, the task to find the “non-performers” may not be an exercise in futility.
