Written by Long Zhizhu

The mother-in-law in Shandong may have an even more difficult situation.

The Shandong Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security and 10 other departments recently jointly issued an important notice, announcing the launch of a comprehensive reform to transform provincial public institutions into enterprises.

The reform involves provincial institutions in and outside Jinan. After the transformation, all institutional staff will be withdrawn, and the former staff will be removed from the real-name list of the Provincial Organization Department and sign labor contracts with the newly established enterprises. About 100,000 employees who once had institutional staff will officially become contract workers of enterprises.

Picture/Internet

The examination for civil servants is to match one post to another, but the reform directly withdraws 100,000 people from the establishment. The intensity of this round of "transferring government affairs to enterprises" is indeed strong enough, and even makes people feel a little chill. As the subsequent impact continues to be released, it will inevitably increase the difficulty of Shandong people taking the civil servant examination. Those who love to take the examination are dumbfounded.

01

This is not difficult to understand.

Reforms at the institutional level, when passed on to society, will naturally stir up all kinds of waves.The social impact of Shandong's largest downsizing in history cannot be overestimated.

Even if you are rich and have a booming business, it is not as good as a "bureaucrat" in the eyes of your mother-in-law. Shandong has always given people the impression that it is a province with a lot of civil servants. The topic of "Why do Shandong people love civil servants so much" has become popular on major platforms. Even teacher Zhang Xuefeng made fun of Shandong people's obsession with civil servants during a live broadcast, saying "There are three unfilial acts, and not having a civil servant is the worst."

In many people,A stable organization is the only value, which is the basic understanding of life and survival of an individual in the great era.

Of course there is no problem with this. The texture of life or the value of survival is rough but real for most people. Having a system means a kind of certainty and steadiness, which is the confidence of ordinary people in the system. In layman's terms, being included in the system is like entering a "safe".

However, things are changing, and programming is no exception.As the "safe" gets bigger and bigger and more and more people are included in it, it becomes a bit difficult to sustain.

On the one hand, there are too many public institutions, covering too wide a range of areas, which inevitably leads to the opposite of seeking security and suppressing vitality, resulting in the financial burden being overwhelmed and unable to support it. And because public institutions are involved in production and operation, many areas that should have been vibrant have gradually become entrenched in interests and social rigidification.

On the other hand, the pursuit of a stable life within the system also leads to a large amount of institutional and personnel redundancy. Many people would rather stick to a useless system, cling to their shortcomings, and stay in their comfort zone, rather than realize more possibilities, which is not conducive to stimulating social innovation and creativity.

02

The reform of public institutions is imperative. How necessary is such a reform? Let's examine the results that have been achieved so far.

As one of the pilot provinces for the reform of public institutions in the country, Shandong Province has been carrying out the reform of public institutions. In September 2022, Shandong Province announced at the "Shandong in the Past Decade" series of themed press conferences that in the past 10 years, no more than 10 provincial-level, 7 municipal-level, and 5 county-level public institutions will be retained. The number of public institutions included in the reform scope in the province has been reduced by 9,996, a 33.1% reduction.

The reduction of nearly 10,000 public institutions is indeed a large number, but it only accounts for less than 30% of all public institutions. Behind this huge achievement, there is actually an even larger number of public institutions.

From this background, the newly launched provincial public institutions to enterprises reform can be considered as entering the deep waters and starting to bite the bullet. After all, compared with the nearly 10,000 "small, weak and scattered" institutions that were cut off before, provincial public institutions are often closer to power, making it more difficult to promote.

This undoubtedly requires greater determination, a more complete action plan, and a series of subsequent connection services. After all, any reform means the deprivation and redistribution of interests, and it must be carried out, but the interests of all parties must be taken into account as much as possible.

At the same time, it must also be taken into account that a part of public institutions provide the most basic public services, including education, medical care, employment, social security, etc. These are the most basic public services that the government must provide and cannot be marketized and socialized.

03

No reform can be carried out in isolation, but must be coordinated and interconnected.

At present, the reform of public institutions in many places has shown frequent highlights and is in full swing. In addition to Shandong, Henan Province launched the reform in April this year. In principle, public institutions at the section level and with less than 16 staff members will no longer be retained.

These practices are commendable, but they are only the first step in reform.

The reform of public institutions has been continuously deepened, and the reform of administrative units should also keep up and quickly solve the problem. Since it is easy for people on the payroll to be lazy, will civil servants not be lazy? Civil servants account for a large part of the real burden of the finances at all levels.

In fact, many people only see Shandong people’s love for the system. In fact, what we should see more is the yearning of the grassroots people for a predictable life.

A healthy society should, through continuous reform, make resource allocation more reasonable, enable the flow of talent to be smoother, and better release and stimulate the enthusiasm and creativity of members of society, so that everyone can find the most suitable position for themselves and the object that they are most satisfied with.