How To Be A Miserable Public Officer

CHNG KAI FONG

• Permanent Secretary (Information and Development), Ministry of Digital Development and Information, and Permanent Secretary (Development)(Cybersecurity), Prime Minister’s Office (2023-present)

• Second Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Communications and Information, and Second Permanent Secretary (Cybersecurity), Prime Minister’s Office (2021-2023)

• Managing Director, Economic Development Board (2017-2021)

• Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, Prime Minister’s Office (2014-2017)

Dear Young Officer

Before writing this, I read through every “Letter To A Young Public Officer” that my colleagues have written. I wished I had read them as a young officer, but I am glad to have done it now. I concluded that I cannot add more value, except to urge you to read them.

Since I can’t add to the encouraging words, I thought to draw from my own experience and write in the spirit of Charlie Munger, on how to be miserable in your Public Service journey.

The first step is to embrace envy and resentment. Let the perceived successes of others consume you. Allow the green-eyed monster of jealousy to devour all your joy. The best time to practise this is every year in March, when the Service assigns you your performance grade and the promotion list is published. Go through the list and pause at each name. Ask yourself, “Why does this person deserve it? Why not me?” Then conclude that the ‘system’ is rigged. Resentment is sure to work.

Second, be unreliable. When the going gets tough, don’t show up. Break promises often. Let others down. When things go wrong or mistakes happen, blame others or the ‘system’. Don’t take ownership. Master this, and you will likely avoid all arrows. Reflect on what got you to where you are today. Chances are, you showed you could be reliable, even when you didn’t feel like it and your emotions overwhelmed you. You actually cared. Well, if you carry on doing this, you will fail at being miserable. Stop being reliable. Stop showing up.

Third, be a know-it-all. Learn only from yourself and not from others. This gets you ahead because bosses can only judge a book by its cover. You can see the results of not learning from others’ mistakes by simply looking around you. Whether it is business failures, wars or the pandemic. History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes.

The best way is to not read. In particular, avoid fiction because fiction makes you empathise and realise your problems are not uncommon. It transports you into another’s shoes, to think their thoughts and feel their feelings. Not too long ago, I was burnt out and struggling to find meaning in my work. I read “Welcome to Hyunam-Dong bookshop” and chanced upon this beautiful quote: “Dissonance before moments of harmony makes the harmony sound beautiful. Just as harmony and dissonance exist side by side in music, life is the same. Because harmony is preceded by dissonance, that’s why we think life is beautiful.” It comforted me. Therefore, don’t read if you want to be miserable.

Fourth, when adversity strikes, go down and stay down. There is so much adversity out there. It should not be too difficult to find yourself under tremendous pressure. Just surrender to the crushing weight of failure. Most of us will have tasted adversity. If you haven’t, you soon will. Some have had the ‘good fortune’ of having suffered early—studying hard but still failing examinations, being diagnosed with a crippling disease and coping with it, or suffering from broken relationships. The key is not to bounce back. Just tell yourself that no one has it as bad as you. Embrace defeat with open arms and wallow in the depths of self-pity.

Wallowing in self-pity always works for me. One day, it got so bad that I couldn’t wake up and get out of bed. I didn’t show up for any meeting. I lashed out at everyone and made all around me feel down. Unfortunately, my wife and some friends got me out of it by sheer grit. They checked in on me and helped me zoom out, slowly. They helped me see that while things are bad, things will soon pass as they had previously.

Finally, stop being grateful for anything. Because a life without gratefulness is a life filled with misery. Tell yourself everything you have achieved today is all because of your hard work. After all, that is the true essence of meritocracy. You reap what you sow. You earned it yourself. Make it all about you.

And remember, practice makes perfect. As you grow older in the Service, practise these tips every day. Then you will be well on your path to being the stereotypical grumpy, unreliable, and self-serving public servant. If enough of us do so, Singapore will become a normal country.

Letters to a Young Public Officer is a column in which senior public officers share their wisdom and experiences with younger public officers to inspire them.

Illustration by Joshua Yeo