Village, Ward Secretariat employees face mental stress due to harassment by superiors
KAKINADA: Employees of Village Secretariat are under mental stress as they are being “abused and harassed” by their superiors. They say that for their superiors, bossism comes first and work next.
To achieve targets and implement government schemes, the superiors are directly targeting the secretariat employees without giving them sufficient time and without taking into consideration the technical problems.
Many of these employees were profitably employed in private firms and corporate firms. They left those jobs and joined the village secretariat jobs.
“We were lured by the government jobs and prospects of living with our parents and relatives. But, we are deeply confused and upset after watching the reviews by the superiors,” an employee said.
Many of these employees are B.Tech, M.Tech, M.Sc, MBA graduates or post graduates and were working with corporate companies. They are a deeply distressed lot now because of the attitudes of their superiors, they say.
According to them, the superiors have no leadership qualities to take work from the employees and what they do are simply scolding, abusing and harassing.
“When we worked in corporate companies, the company gave us tasks. We completed them on time and got appreciation and even incentives. In government jobs, the superiors are giving multiple tasks at a time and holding review meetings three or four times every day. In such a situation, how can an employee devote himself to his work and reach his or her targets’’ wondered an employee of a secretariat.
He said that during the reviews, the superiors “are using abusive words on us, like scoundrels, useless fellows, fools” etc.
“In October, a superior officer used such language on a horticulture assistant and warned him his service would be terminated. Unable to bear the humiliation, the employee Subhash Varma committed suicide,” an employee said.
Ten days ago, a superior scolded an agriculture department employee and used harsh words. He also tried to end his life. But, he was saved.
“The secretariat employees are young. In the present generation, even the parents are not scolding their children and educating them in private corporate schools. The superiors should give up their age-fashioned bossism and supervising methods,’’ said an NGO leader.
The employees cited examples of their tasks. In the Agriculture department, the officials have given only limited time to them and instructed them to complete the e-crop and e-KYC registrations. “But some of the farmers don’t want to reveal their OTPs due to the alerts from the mobile operators and bank officials. This was a horrible task to the employees. They were not able to complete the task on time. This made the superiors angry as they had to show their targets to the government.”
In Municipalities also, the ward secretariat staff are facing such problems and experiencing mental agony. Mind-experts said such employees have to be given counseling to bear with the ill-treatment of their superiors.
The agriculture extension officers union state president Venu Mahdav said the superiors should stop their harassments and threatening of the employees. Instead, these youths should be motivated and encouraged to meet targets.
“Otherwise, they may get upset and try to end their lives. The government should take the issue seriously and rectify the situation,” he added.
