Finger-Pointing Hypocrisy

THE POT CALLING the kettle black is an idiom used in the English language, although it has a Spanish origin.

It highlights the hypocrisy of calling out someone for criticising another person over something they themselves are guilty of.

Before electric stoves and microwaves, cast-iron black pots and pans and shiny kettles hand-crafted from metallic sheets were favoured cooking utensils.

The idiom’s genesis is a pot seeing its own black reflection in the shininess of a kettle, believing the kettle is also black.

When one points a finger accusingly at another person, there are three more fingers on your hand pointing back to you.

This is another often-used saying.

A recent media report makes hypocrisy, accusers’ pretence or charade of virtuous character, this week’s topic.

Staff at a public entity recently levelled complaints of ill-treatment and bullying at their chief executive officer.

Complaints of this nature by public sector entity staff are often reported on in the media.

To an extent one wonders if the real reason for staff members crying foul is not because of the boss demanding they do what they are paid to do, which is their work.

It is best to avoid taking sides as every story always has three sides – yours, mine, and the truth.

In daily life, and for entrepreneurs owning and running their own businesses, routinely interacting with public officials or civil servants is unavoidable.

One is inclined to wager a bet that students at a tertiary education institution given an assignment to survey the public’s perception of government officials in their conclusion would highlight suboptimal work performance and service delivery.

Any success-driven chief executive officer of a public service entity would be intolerant of low productivity and sloppy responsiveness to duties and work responsibilities.

Expectedly, the entity’s boss would take a dim view of the lack of empathy and an absence of civility by staff members in their dealings with those they serve and by whom they are paid – the public and taxpayers.

For us mere mortals, before replacing inept departments with agencies and authorities operating from clean offices and staffed by uniformed personnel, it used to be a frustrating experience.

Also costly, because a simple statutory compliance procedure required several return visits to that specific ministry to accomplish a targeted outcome.

The establishment of stand-alone government agencies and authorities to provide regulatory tasks, functions and services, including revenue collection, was welcomed and broadly viewed as a smart service efficiency enhancement move.

Seemingly the downside is that public service employment termination regulations precluded the recruitment of new staff members to fill positions at those newly created entities.

As a result, many civil servants with a poor grasp of service delivery importance were transferred to the new public sector agencies and authorities.

To use another idiom: It was like pouring old wine into new bottles and expecting a better taste.

Allegations of overzealous bosses, followed by threats of industrial action by public officials at the newly created entities will be with us for some time to come.

So, when reading such reports, concluding with two or more idioms, one should perhaps turn a blind eye and treat the reports with a pinch of salt.

* Reach Danny Meyer at danny@smecompete.com

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