How to enforce a public service policy you don't believe in

Eventually, every manager and leader finds themselves being required to carry out a legitimate instruction that differs starkly from their own preferred choice. It becomes more challenging when that manager feels that they cannot provide satisfactory answers justifying that instruction.

I suspect that you won’t be surprised to hear that I have no incontrovertible logic that will convince every dissenter that they are wrong. Such logics never exist in debates marked by strongly held views.

One thing is incontrovertible, though: those with the authority to organize the public service in supporting the government in meeting Canadians’ needs and expectations have made a decision about returning to the office. They will have taken many factors into consideration, including the needs and expectations of citizens and clients, ministers, partners, various organizational requirements, impacts on local and regional economies and the views of public servants and their unions. The results of this process are legitimate and lawful instructions to the public service.

As a manager or leader, it isn’t your job to convince every employee that disagrees with a decision that they are wrong to hold that view. What managers and leaders do need to do, however, is to make clear to their staff when the time for debate has ended and when they need to accept and respect the instruction they have been given. The Values and Ethics Code for the Public Sector speaks clearly to this dynamic.

As the leader of your unit, you need to work with your team to focus its perspective and energy on meeting its mandate and to not allow staff to spend time and effort disputing a legitimate instruction. When management allows employees to voice sustained disagreement with a legitimate instruction it becomes not only unproductive, but sometimes even toxic.

Negativity and cynicism (which differ from simple disagreement) grow exponentially in short periods of time if the conditions are allowed to exist. There is a time and place for constructive discussion, difficult questions and even a degree of venting, but no healthy workplace can coexist with negativity and cynicism.

The single most important inhibitor for the growth of these factors is the leader present in the room or group where it would otherwise grow. That leader needs to be you and the example you set, regardless of your private views.

There is another reason that it is important that you focus your unit’s efforts and priorities as effectively as possible: you describe your unit as barely keeping up with the demands it faces. Any unit at the limit of its capacities cannot afford the energy or effort required to carry on a campaign against a legitimate instruction. Those you serve are entitled to your unit’s full effort and abilities, not just what is left over after disputing properly established conditions of employment.

As a leader, this is a moment to lean into the reason that your unit exists – focusing on who it serves, what they need and why it matters to them. It is also a time to lean into the values of the public service in accepting democratic and lawful decisions and putting service to Canada and Canadians as a priority. Success in this challenging context will flow from leadership grounded in the values and ethics of the Public Service and the example you set, not from finding incontrovertible answers.

— Daniel Quan-Watson, Public Service Confidential