Early last week, I had to visit a number of government branches in Jeddah to renew some permits and complete other official paperwork. I consider visiting any government department as punishment not only because of the procedures but most of the time the treatment. Although the authorities are working hard on facilitating procedures by introducing online services there is still a need for us to visit the branches to get work done. And facing a government employee itself is punishment enough most of the time because they not only take time to complete the process, but nearly always greet us with a frown or an angry face.
This time around was no different. I went to the front desk to seek information about where I should go to submit my papers and was greeted by a sullen face. I looked at the man and I squeezed my memory to see whether I had taken money from him or had killed a member of his family. Without allowing me to complete my question he just shouted at me to go to the far office on the left. When I still stood there and asked him “to whom should I give the papers”, he looked at me angrily as if I was an imbecile and just ignored my question.
Just guess what happened next? I just slunk away in the general direction he had pointed along with three or four other clueless souls to arrive at the right place. It is thanks to some helpful regulars that citizens and residents are able to go though the opaque maze called procedures.
I reached the directed spot, ascertained whether it was the correct place and sat down for my turn. With nothing to do, I observed other employees and what do I see — surly employees finding every opportunity to send the person before him away, from incomplete papers to the wrong desk (even though the right one would be the person on the next desk to him) — easily tipped to anger. And this seemed a common approach by many. For the nearly two hours I had to wait, none of the government employees smiled at any of the people they were serving, or even made an effort to reply with softened features.
However, the frowning face magically disappeared and a smile surprisingly appeared on their faces when these employees left their desks for a break. The tone of the voices coming out from the back offices is ironically very different, and a person will hear animated and light chat mixed with a series of laughter from these employees, who moments ago wore different faces. The grim face and attitude will magically appear when they return to their desk from the break. This observation made me ask the question — though I know that there will be no answer whatsoever — as to why government does not make smiling compulsory?
While I was thinking about the near impossible, my thoughts were interrupted by a raised voice. And what did I witness was a government employee shouting at a citizen simply because the latter had asked him to find out something, which required the employee to get up from his seat to provide assistance. The berated Saudi, fed up with the constant negativity, just replied, “why can't you'll do your job, which is what you are paid to do, with a smile on your face”. I almost laughed out loud when he asked them why they don't serve with a smile.
Looking back, I find this is the case in almost all government departments and most companies where employees are directly dealing with public. Why can't we smile or at least greet people with respect. Why is it so difficult to do these simple things?
I venture to ask readers when was the last time when he/she went for a service, the employee providing the service actually greeted him/her with a smile on the face? The majority answer would be none. When I asked a friend of mine, who is working in a government department and dealing with public directly, why this attitude? He put the blame on people themselves. He refused to blame the employees saying that most people are rude and their attitude in turn pushes them (employees) to be rude in kind. He said that also the frustration they feel because of reasons like salaries, job growth or the pressures of life, adds to the glum interaction. In addition, be it employees or customer, most are not used to start any conversation with a smile.
He even dared me to switch places with him for a day and see if I could keep my smile for 30 minutes. He sarcastically told me that Saudis cannot smile before 11 a.m. After hearing his litany, I am still of the opinion that there's no excuse for their curt attitudes. But it also got me thinking, that we can train employees to smile but it is extremely difficult to train a whole nation to smile and interact respectfully with the employees.
This lead us to the question, is this part of our culture and norms, to frown at people or to greet them with an icy face? On reflection, it looks like it is our culture. I say this because I have been told more than once, by different people, that a normal Saudi will not smile first.
I was told that government employees have been taking training courses to improve interaction with the public but the question is why don't we see evidence of the effectiveness of this training on the ground?
The irony is that in the cradle of Islam, which gave the world our revered Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), we are not following what he preached. He said, “When you smile to your brother's face, it is charity.” This is what we should tell our beloved employees to learn. For every smile goes a long way in making every procedure easy. All we ask is for government employees to smile and treat people nicely. Am I asking for the impossible?
