Life as a Basement-Dweller: My experience navigating the vast network of the federal public service

Preamble

Several years ago, when I was still new to the public service, I wrote this reflective essay on my experiences as a student with a Blueprint team at Health Canada.

When I first started on the team, I was working on the 13th floor of a building by the river at Tunney’s Pasture in Ottawa. Over the course of the next year or so, the communications team moved several times, eventually ending up in the basement of the building where we became good friends with the commissionaires and mail clerks and literally had a code lock on our door! We often referred to ourselves as “Basement-Dwellers” the irony being, as communications officers, we were physically located in offices that were so isolated from the people we were communicating with.

I found this essay on my phone the other day and wondered why I never got the courage to publish it back then. While maybe a bit outdated now, I decided to share it anyway. Hopefully, I can provide a few insights to current students and “intrapreneurs” in the public service. Better late than never right?

The Wider GC Network

As a basement dweller, confined to the walls of your cave, it’s more important than ever to find opportunities to leave your desk and to make personal connections even when you’re sitting in front of your screen. I became much more adept at the latter, the former remained a challenge. Relying on tools such as Twitter, GCconnex and Sametime messenger, I often told myself that speaking to people online and keeping up with GC happenings was enough. The real challenge was pushing those connections further and making myself visible in the real and physical network of employees. As a student with an irregular schedule, this was even harder. Even when events came up that I wanted to attend, it was easy to say ‘I have classes that day’ and avoid interacting with the speakers and organizers in any way.

“The most important lesson I began to learn was that you can’t just leave online relationships online. Your presence on social media serves only to improve your connections offline, and to spark conversations and dialogue that will eventually translate into action in the real world. “

When I did attend events in person or go say hi to that employee I always talk to on Twitter, I felt so much more inspired and fulfilled than by simply leaving that interaction online. And usually, the only way to actually accomplish something together was to actually take that conversation that started online and get face to face with a pen and paper where you can work out the real problem and create a solution together.

The Irony of Blueprint 2020

I always like to think I started in the public service at a time of revolution. Blueprint 2020 was still new and fresh and brought a lot of hope to more senior and junior public servants alike.

Being on a dedicated Blueprint 2020 team, I always knew it was my job to stay in touch with the realities of our employees. I also felt a personal responsibility to ensure the work we were doing helped employees in a useful way. Meanwhile, I was sitting in the exact conditions we were trying to prevent: an isolated cubicle with little motivation to change processes or create something useful. It was this strange paradox; I wanted to create change but it seemed elusive and I didn’t know where to start. From the beginning, I felt like good ideas always prevailed. The longer I stayed the more I started to lose hope that this notion was true. But every once in a while I would come across a great public servant who made things happen and started projects from nothing. I would get a burst of inspiration and work effectively until an incorrect paycheck, HR mess, or a lonely work day eroded my motivation.

Often, I would write something I was proud of. Something that had clear and important objectives. Something that was articulate but beautiful. But eventually, it would go up to senior management. And when it came back down to me the beauty was gone. The objectives were now vague and unattainable. The articulate and innovative language became generic corporate speech about our top “priorities”. It was disheartening and it made me forget that persistence tends to eventually win.

“Since my placement was temporary, as an employee I too felt temporary, and I felt as though no how hard I worked, even if my ideas made it to the top, I simply wouldn’t be around long enough to benefit from the result.”

My team had a high turnover rate and, in my year and a half there, I got to watch several employees, with the energy I once had, go through the same processes. What I found particularly interesting was the variety of reactions that these different people demonstrated. Most were civil, but some grew more frustrated than the others, some continued pushing their ideas so hard no one wanted to listen, while others simply found a way out. Those of us who survived adopted a similar cynicism; we all provided our best ideas and recommendations in the beginning, but knew when to stop pushing, sit at our desks and do the work we were asked to do. While I built lasting relationships with these employees who stayed, it was the others who taught me the most. I learned how complaining only digs your morale further into the ground, how pushing annoys others, how apathy and laziness damages your professional reputation.

As a student, I think I had more to complain about than other employees did; and don’t get me wrong, there was plenty of complaining and worrying; but I think the longer I stayed the longer I began to learn that throwing up your hands and saying ok to decisions you don’t agree with is not only the easiest but sometimes the best thing to do. While there are certain situations and decisions that you should never give up fighting for, if your persistence extends to every project, you will be left with no energy and no choice but to leave frustrated.

The Importance of a Supportive Team

Despite the high turnover and frustrating nature of our work, our team was one of the most fun and collegial ones out there.

“I was fortunate that all of the struggles I had at work were either internal or systemic. Very few (if any) of my problems at work were interpersonal or due to a bad boss.“

I was also fortunate that my manager and director encouraged me to seek out learning opportunities and to attend events elsewhere in Ottawa. I was always proud to represent our group at GC events and because of it, I got to meet so many interesting people, including the PM!

When the Communications team got banished to the basement, we always tried to find ways to make the space a little bit better. I finally decorated my cubicle, we created a photo wall (where we put up all my selfies with said people), and in the fall we designed a little tea bar on an empty desk. People still didn’t come to visit us often, but we were always happy when they did, and we got used to our unfavorable space.

“Most importantly, I always felt like an employee more than a student. Each and every person on my team treated me with respect and valued what I had to say.”

I was never looked down on because I was younger or because of my limited experience. By the end of my journey, I had been on the team longer than most of my colleagues and I was even more senior to Health Canada than our ADM! I will always remember how kind people were to me, whether it was my direct supervisor, my director, or even the DM. In my first interview with Jennifer Hollington, our Blueprint Champion, she said “kindness matters”. After over a year on such a kind team, I can wholeheartedly agree.

The Student Experience (i.e. HR/Phoenix Disasters)

I’m going to go ahead and open the can of worms that is Phoenix. There I said it; the name that has become both profanity and an opening joke in presentations. While Phoenix was an overall disaster for a large number of public servants, students’ cases were among the most prominent and these payroll issues were present long before Phoenix wreaked its havoc.

HR experiences varied greatly among departments, directorate, and even individuals. I knew many students (most working at TBS) who had smooth sailing throughout the entire HR process. On my end, every semester I spent weeks (sometimes months) sitting at home in my pj’s, unemployed because I was waiting for a signature or a security clearance. Even though I was an employee for 5 terms, each one was treated separately and fresh, and I had to go re-do my paperwork each time. I kept hoping the longer I stayed the better the process would be, but bureaucracy proved me wrong every time.

“But I waited (sometimes patiently) at home anyway because, all things considered, the federal government is one of the best places a student can work.”

Post-Amble

Now, years later with an indeterminate in my hand and the same entrepreneurial spirit I had at 18, I can still attest to the fact that working in government has done me well. From my first experience to today, all of my colleagues and leaders have inspired me and instilled that sense of pride in serving our country and the citizens who live here.

I always say that someday I’m going to leave the public service and live out my dream as a photographer and yoga teacher — and maybe I will. But at least today my past experiences have proven to me that a bit of persistence, good people, and a little bit of patience will help you create real change for the people you serve.