One man’s meat is another man's poison. These columns have pointed out earlier that government jobs are the destination of choice of a vast majority of India’s jobseekers. Even MBAs record an 80 per cent preference for such jobs. Is it the same in other countries?

No, says China. According to a survey conducted by the Institute of Psychology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the recruitment website zhaopin.com , government employees are extremely unhappy with themselves. The survey ranked 12 industry categories and found that workers in foreign ventures had the highest levels of self-satisfaction.

The survey findings were a bit of a puzzle, however. The same people who were not happy with themselves gave high marks to their organisations. Says Global Times, quoting Academy of Sciences researcher Li Xupei: “It shows that though they are satisfied with their status, they feel there's a big gap between the reality of the job and their expectations. This is because the public's knowledge about government jobs is misguided, as they assume government employees have good salaries and easy tasks, while in fact most of them are pressured and have a lot of responsibilities. I think that society needs to judge them more objectively. Being unable to vent their frustration also exacerbates their problems.”

Li is, of course, talking about a different public sector from that in India. In this country, venting their own frustrations and frustrating the public seem to be the main occupations of government workers. Even top public sector undertakings (PSUs) – the banks, say, or companies like Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd – that have to interface with the man on the street don't have particularly well-behaved staff.

“In China, a government job may be secure, but you are really considered a servant of the people,” says Mumbai-based HR consultant D. Singh. “This is the bedrock from which politicians spring. So you have to at least make a show of serving the people.”

Chinese society is extremely regulated. The efforts by the government to fast forward it into a rich man's club have produced various anomalies. Multinational companies (MNCs) are good places to work for, as the survey shows. But companies used by the same MNCs to source their products can be something out of Charles Dickens.

Forget China where things might change after it straightens out its labour straitjacket. What’s the situation in freer markets? In the US, satisfaction with public sector jobs is at its nadir. According to the latest “Best Places to Work for in the Federal Government” study, the job satisfaction score fell from 64 per cent in 2011 to 60.8 per cent in 2012. As in China, many were supportive of their organisations; 77.3 per cent of the employees felt their agencies had a worthwhile mission. At the bottom of the rankings was the department of home security. At the top was NASA; when you have your head amongst the stars, you have reason to feel happy with life. The intelligence units (spy vs. spy) also had high levels of satisfaction.

In the UK, reports the Guardian , 'pollster Ipsos Mori found in 2012 a fall in the number of public sector staff saying they were happy, but also found that pride in public service and sense of personal fulfilment had been holding steady and maybe even increasing.'

“Government jobs – in most countries indistinguishable from public sector jobs – always start with a mission,” says Singh. “They degenerate in practise, depending on the larger society. But the intrinsic mission remains.”

Today, when private sector excesses are becoming rampant – when for-profit philanthropy is no longer an oxymoron — this “mission” has new appeal. The trouble is that there are still too many people who regard a government job as nothing more than a security blanket. Check out amongst the lower-rung staff at a PSU bank or a government department. Their job is at the office; their work is elsewhere.

Destinations of choice

The top 10 government jobs in India

Indian Administrative Service

Indian Foreign Service

Indian Revenue Service

Lecturer in a government university

Bank probationary officer

State public service commission officer

Defence services

Job in a PSU

Engineer in the Indian Railways

Indian Police Service

Source: Recruitment4U.net