Forward Planning for Productivity Improvement

I saw this article in The Star yesterday :

Fewer days of annual leave for new civil servants
By SIM LEOI LEOI

PUTRAJAYA: Come Jan 1, those joining the civil services will only be entitled to 25 instead of 30 days of annual leave regardless of their tenure of service, says Public Service Director Tan Sri Ismail Adam.

Those who are already civil servants will have a choice of reducing their annual leave by five days or not in a move by the Government to promote efficiency and productivity.

Currently, civil servants who have served more than 10 years are entitled to 30 days of leave.
Ismail said civil servants did not need to get “unduly upset” by the option as they could still choose to remain under the old scheme.

“The option is given to see if civil servants are willing to sacrifice five days of leave for their service,” he said in an interview here yesterday.

I would like to commend Tan Sri Ismail Adam for his efforts to improve productivity in the civil service. While the suggestion for civil servants to sacrifice five days leave is admirable, I have my doubts about the number of civil servants who would take up this suggestion without any compensation whatsoever. Come to think of it, I doubt that there would be many in the private sector who would take up a similiar suggestion as well.

This being the case, that would leave us with only the new civil servants. And since the additional five days leave entitlement only applies to those who have served more than ten years, we should be able to see this improvement in productivity in about ............ oh, ten years time.