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Perspective, Stephen Mpofu
AS jingles by Father Christmas in November and early December ignite excitement almost universally, in Zimbabwe the magic word “bonus” grips the minds of workers, much more so civil servants who seem hell-bent to reap where they did not sow.

Some of these workers go to the extent of holding their employer to ransom by demanding assurances of their 13th cheque, or else — the or else standing as a veiled threat of a strike if the employees are not paid money over and above what is stipulated in their contract.

A dangerous precedent over the payment of bonuses may, or may not, have been set by the incumbent government or its predecessors. But truth must be told and be known by civil servants for whom bonus is a strange but lovable animal and to young Zimbabweans who will become tomorrow’s civil servants.

That immutable truth, according to a dictionary definition of that emotion-pregnant concept is that “a bonus means an extra payment received for doing one’s job well or a salary or a wage based completely on how well one does his job”.

But can it really be said with equanimity that all the civil servants in our country — or non-state employees over whose minds the word bonus also hovers at year end — who now apparently spend sleepless nights wondering whether they will receive bonuses, this year actually can be said to do their work so well as to deserve the 13th cheque?

What about those who report for duty only to spend a great deal of their time seated on their hands or malingering or those who go away from their work station, leaving behind jackets or handbags hanging on their chairs to feign their presence on duty — are they also candidates for end of year thank-yous for a job well done?

The mind boggles when this pen listens to the voices of almost every civil servant rending the air over bonuses when it is not clear if their work is assessed, as what happens in some parastatals or private companies to determine who deserves a pat on the back at the end of each year or who does not.

Or is it too cumbersome for every civil servants to have their performance appraised in order for those who excel to be paid what is over and above their normal wage, and for the sluggards not to reap where they didn’t sow?

Giving people what they did not earn and which is money from the taxpayer, does not motivate workers to acquit themselves in the best possible way. On the contrary, some people will ask themselves why they should shed more sweat when they know they will still earn a bonus even if they dose off on the job?

When rewarding civil servants equally for their work is brought into perspective, this pen humbly believes that the government’s residential stands scheme, now to be expanded and made universal, is probably the most durable reward for all state employees. This is particularly so when considering the fact that those in the lower ranks and who are in the majority do not own or live in palatial residencies as do their fewer but more privileged bosses who also drive government vehicles.

Moreover, many if not all of the civil servants covered by the expanded housing programme live in rented properties which they might be forced to vacate for financial reasons when they grow old and retire or if they lose their employment, thereby exposing their families to hardships.

But what about civil servants out in rural areas where there are no residential stands for them to build their own houses – how well covered are they for their families in the morrow?

The civil servants housing scheme portrays the government as an employer with a tender heart for its employees.

On the other hand, an employer who worries only about the workers’ presence on the job while not caring a hoot about whether the worker and his or her family live in a tumbledown or shack or under a bridge possesses the heart of stone.

But, of course, there must be an exchange of positive minds here with the civil servants re-doubling their commitment to duty in response to the government’s goodwill towards them.

In addition, lower rank employees should become the eyes and ears of the government in efforts to sweep away the riff-raff in the form of corrupt officials and to bring about security to the taxpayers money and, in that way, engender full and efficient government service to the public.

When the government cracks the whip to rid its own house of corruption that bedevils its image, and is seen by all to do so, those in the private sector who also dwell on the wrong side of the law are wont to shudder and repent, fearful of terrible consequences to be visited upon them for their conduct.