Badges of the Ordinary Civil Servant
How do you spot a civil servant in a crowd? It’s normally quite difficult, especially if the civil servant is out of its element and traveling outside the capital.
Launch an ethnographic expedition into the heart of the civil servant’s breeding grounds, however, and specific badges, insignia and markings become quite evident. Like the feathers of a peacock - or the raised tail of a skunk - these details mark a civil servant as ripe for de-briefing and a presentation.
Now, this is a typically Canadian civil servant I’m describing, but I’m sure you’ll see shadows of your own colleagues in this description.
- a two year old Blackberry, extremely worn (managers)
- brand new Blackberry, never used (executives)
- hair, cut short sides and back
- pleather large Daytimer, with pocket calculator and notepad
- pleated 50/50 slacks with pursed pockets
- a cordura carrier bag, branded for a 1994 OECD policy conference
- generic black government notebook, with printout of Outlook daily calendar
- neck lanyard imprinted with an unintelligible departmental url
- on lanyard: departmental I.D. card, office phone list and transit pass
- wide collection of hotel pens
- book of taxi chits
- for the older civil servant, a lapel pin with multiple flags
August 15th, 2007 09:37
Applause.
August 17th, 2007 07:05
That’s the male public servant. The female public servant has overly dyed hair and either pants and a shirt (not a blouse as that would be too feminine) or a skirt and jacket combo that looks very restrictive. Plus, a variety of electronics in one hand.
And, you forgot to mention that we generally have office ass, where your butt sort of expands to meet the size of the seat of your office chair, because that’s how much time you spend in it.
August 18th, 2007 17:21
hi i enjoyed the read