Confession of a personnel manager

Tom Wheeler

Meintjeskop Courier Volume 3, 1993

With all the perspective of two days in a new Branch of the Department, perhaps it is time to look back nostalgically on a year spent in the Directorate of Personnel Management.

My predecessor, Alex van Zyl, called me urgently soon after my appointment was confirmed and suggested that I involve myself immediately in arrangements for the next Awards Ceremony - generally known at Ad Astra as The Oscars.

What I found out later was that this was only part of the story. I was to head a group of the most professionally diverse people one could imagine. The mysteries of what they did became clear to me only over a period of time. There were psychologists, psychometrists, social workers, clergymen, administration officers, personnel specialists and clerks, language instructors in the eclectic communicative method, an editor, a computer graphics artist, field workers for security vetting, programme managers for training, instructors for a host of subjects and latterly labour relations specialists - 95 in all. (No less than six were fully-fledged line-function officers). I ended the year with a high regard for their professionalism and dedication.

To be faced with acronyms like POD, SMK, BOS, tongue-twisters like Departement-Partikuliere Toekennings and Personeelpraktisyne and terms like "koopaanbod" and "uitmotiveer" as one's daily fare and to sit in judgment like a magistrate every Friday on who gets into the Department and who does not, took some getting used to for an innocent from the Transkei/Ciskei Directorate. Suddenly the responsibility for a small university with three Faculties or schools, Professional Diplomacy, Management and Administration and Languages was also mine.

Never having been a rugby player, I often wondered whether my shoulders could ever be broad enough to bear the weight of all the problems that were tearfully or otherwise loaded onto them by colleagues.

Until you occupy a seat like that you cannot imagine how many problems we can have or jams, scrapes and idiocies we can get ourselves into or land in through the actions of others or the misunderstandings that can come about between the different professional cultures in the Department.

I have on occasion defined the job-description as 1a cross between a ping-pong player and a traffic cop. Perhaps I should have added further a father confessor and an odd job man. A bit of lateral thinking also does not go amiss. You get a perspective on the Department you can get nowhere else.

Make no mistake, it was demanding. You realised, particularly when you made a mistake that you were dealing with the life, future and happiness of your colleagues. A hasty or ill-considered decision could have serious ramifications both for the person or people concerned, but also in financial terms for the Department and the individual.

A concession for one person turns into a precedent which everyone reminded you of. Suddenly the guidelines provided by those regulations which are the bane of the lives of us free-wheeling line-function officers made infinite sense.

To have been able to make some contribution to placing the Department in a position where it is recognised in the Public Service, in certain UN circles and outside, as the government department best orientated to deal with the Change ahead was a privilege.

But the real fun part was being Editor of the Meintjeskop Courier, scheming with Erna on what we could put in, dreaming up headlines like "Dangerous Liaisons, Swazi Style" and then deciding that as a "family magazine" the adage ''when in doubt, don't" contained wise advice after all.

One day I sat down and listed the ex officio duties I had, besides the normal desk jobs and the frequent interviews and conversations with colleagues on home-leave and within the Department. It makes interesting reading and impresses me no end.

Here is the list:

Ex officio Chairman of the Departmental Support Committee (ex HRSC study)

•             Organizing Committee for the Awards Ceremony

•             Head Office Standing Committee of KOBDA

•             Moderating Committee for Merit Bonuses for Junior Line-functions Officers

•             Central Merit Committee for Assistant Directors: Foreign Service

•             Central Merit Committee for Deputy Directors: Foreign Service

•             Central Merit Committee for Law Advisers 

•             Moderating Committee for Appointments

•             Editorial Committee of the Meintjeskop Courier

•             Directorate Meeting

Ex Officio Member of the

•             Language School Subject Committee

•             Departmental Social Club Committee

•             Administration Branch Management Committee

•             Central Merit Committee for Deputy Directors: Foreign Affairs Administration

Staff Function to the -

•             Departmental Placement Committee

•             Deputy Director Generals' Committee

And anything else that crops up.

I confess: I enjoyed every minute of every crammed, crazy day.

Good luck, Gerry.