Letters | How Hong Kong's civil service can inspire excellence
- Hong Kong's civil service appraisal reform is penalizing underperformers, but only 94 out of 170,000 staff got denied raises in four years—so the 'stick' is barely a twig.
- A professor suggests the government publish criteria for promotions and leadership gigs to inspire 'excellence,' because apparently, a gold star is more effective than a demotion threat.
- Amid the bureaucratic navel-gazing, the city's education system is in crisis: 8 student suicides or attempts in 6 days, yet Legco spent 4 minutes on mental health and the rest on AI.
- Adults are so overworked and stressed they can't model healthy rest for kids—surprise, children learn by watching, not from government circulars.
Brief Summary
Hong Kong's civil service is trying to whip itself into shape with a tougher appraisal system, but the numbers show it's mostly an exercise in pointing out that, yes, 0.05% of employees are slacking off. A letter writer argues the real fix is to actually show high performers the golden path to promotions and fancy assignments, rather than just threatening them with a bad review. Meanwhile, the city's kids are in a mental health freefall, with suicide attempts in the first week of school, but the Legislative Council spent a whopping four minutes on that before getting back to the important stuff like AI. The education secretary's advice is to care more about growth than grades, yet teachers are drowning in 51-hour work weeks, so they can't model the 'rest' they preach. It's a classic Hong Kong dilemma: everyone knows the system is broken, but they're all too exhausted to fix it properly.
Why This Matters
This matters to you because the 'stick and carrot' debate over civil service reform is really about whether the government can actually function effectively or just shuffle papers. If they can't incentivize excellence, you'll keep getting the same sluggish bureaucracy that makes getting a visa or a permit feel like a heroic quest. On the parenting side, the students' mental health crisis is a warning sign that the city's relentless grind is producing a generation of kids who are academically sharp but emotionally hollow. And with teachers working insane hours, the adults modeling 'success' are just burnt-out zombies—so don't be surprised if your own kids think happiness is a myth. The real takeaway here is that Hong Kong needs a systemic reset, not just another round of reviews and surveys, because everyone's too fried to care anymore.