122nd Philippine Civil Service Anniversary Speech of CSC Director Rey Albert B. Uy

My high respect to the University President Edgardo E. Tulin, Vice-President for Academic Affairs Dr. Beatriz S. Belonias, VP for Student Affairs and Services Dr. Aleli A. Villocino, VP for Research and Extension & Innovation Dr. Maria Juliet C. Ceniza, VP for Administration and Finance Dr. Daniel Leslie S. Tan, VP for Planning, Resource Generation & Auxiliary Services Dr. Dilberto O. Ferraren.

My greetings also to the Directors, Deans, and Heads of Operational Units, other officials and employees of the Visayas State University, fellow civil servants, guests, ladies and gentlemen, a pleasant afternoon!

It’s September once again and we are celebrating the establishment of the Philippine Bureaucracy. This year’s theme is – “Transforming Public Service in the Next Decade: Honing Agile and Future-ready Servant Heroes.” 

The CSC introduced last year a 10-year overarching theme, Transforming Public Service in the Next Decade: Honing Agile and Future-ready Servant Heroes. The theme reflects the collective experience of the government workforce in the new normal, and in pushing for digital transformation and innovations to uphold public service excellence and continuity. This year, the thematic focus is on resilience, which is part of building smart organizations and a future-ready civil service. Resilience has been shown by the civil service during the pandemic crisis in its readiness to accept challenges and its ability to give continued assistance to the public.

According to the research by McKinsey & Company, one of the trademarks of an agile organization is having dynamic people that ignites passion.

Passion and success are interrelated. One can achieve success when they find passion in the work they do (be it any). Your work will be judged not on “what you did” but instead on “how you did it.” 

While researching for my talk this afternoon I came across a beautiful quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who said:

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”

Let me tell you at least 4 reasons why passion at work leads to success.

Passion is a state of mind so when you are passionate about a job or task then you not only love doing it, but it must also be interesting to you. You make sure that it is completed with full accuracy and with the best of your competency.

1. As a result, you become more attentive and focused on your chosen job. If you do a job that you are passionate about, then there is no space left for disruption and distraction, or disengagement. Having said that, your passion enables creativity and innovation. Doing the work you are passionate about is one of the most pleasing experiences. There are more highs and fewer lows, and each day seems more bright and more interesting. Even your creative process is also enhanced and you tend to come up with better ideas. Doing work that you enjoy helps enhance your mental state and as a result, you come up with more innovative and progressive ideas as compared to doing a job that seems dull and boring.

2. Passion for work enhances the desire to pursue excellence: working with passion. When you are doing your favorite work, then you not only want to complete it with ‘great precision', but with ‘complete precision'. For this, you are willing to put in more effort and contribution as you want the end results to be the best. So, this is another major reason why passion is important at work, as it naturally increases your contribution and you are willing to put in not only 100% but even 200% of your efforts. When you do your work with passion, then you surely wish to do it with full precision. You excel in it as surely you do not desire another person to beat you in the work that is of your interest. So, when you are passionate about your work, then you always put your best step forward, and ultimately you achieve excellence in it.

3. Passion brings energy to work: You wake up in the morning, and when you realize that you are going to spend your entire day doing work that you like, then you feel more energized and refreshed. Even at the workplace, you work with full energy to get it done in time. Maybe, you even want to deliver it ahead of schedule. Your energy turns into ‘positive energy’ and lasts even when the day ends up. If you are happy with the roles and tasks that you are doing at your workplace, then surely, it will bring positivity and pleasantness to the entire environment. When you work at a place that you are passionate about, then working for more (extra) hours does not seem a burden to you. Putting in extra hours does not hurt you as the work does not appear forcible. Even if you are working for more hours, your entire experience becomes more enjoyable as it is also fruitful.

You feel more satisfied and less stressed:
Having a passion for work is an excellent way to reduce work stress. This is because when you do work which you like, then not only your mind but even your entire body feels relaxed and pleased. So, instead of feeling stressed after completing the work, you feel relaxed, happy and satisfied with what you did the entire day.

Passion ignites your achievements graph:
You can achieve never-ending success only in the work, which you are passionate about. If you are passionate about your job, then you will be ready to fight all kinds of obstacles and obstructions coming in between your achievements.

Passion accelerates your abilities and you are prepared to accept and win overall obstacles with creative and innovative solutions.

4. You enjoy what you are doing: This is really important! If you wish to enjoy what you are doing, if you want to feel that you are utilizing every minute of your time and not wasting it, then it’s essential that you fully enjoy it. And, this you can secure, only when you are passionate about the job. Bringing passion at work is the key to enjoying it endlessly.

It helps you to cross your own delineated goals:
There is no better feeling than crossing your own line of the bucket that you set for yourself. When you reach a pinnacle in the end, then there is no more enjoyable feeling than that sense of achievement for something that you love to do.

Your work cannot be something that you will do for a few hours or weeks. It is, therefore, necessary, that you are true to yourself and do what makes you happy to achieve success beyond the boundaries.

Passion at work is therefore extremely vital, as ‘what you sow, so shall you reap’ (Galatians 6:7; 2 Corinthians 9:6). So, if you want a career or job that is rewarding and beneficial to you from all aspects, then it’s essential that you put in your best, and be passionate about what you do.

I surmise our esteemed awardees have the passion burning in them as they have demonstrated exemplary performance (as manifested in outputs, results, and accomplishments) and rendered meritorious services.

Allow me to quote the words of NFL Coach Vince Lombardi who said that “(i)individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”

These powerful words underscore that individual performance collectively makes the entire organizational performance. It is in essence the core idea of a functional and operational performance management system.

Ladies and gentlemen, today’s activity is just one of the manifestations of the established R&R (rewards and recognition) program of VSU as outlined in your agency Program on Awards and Incentives for Service Excellence (or PRAISE). As a PRIME-HRM Level II (Bronze) agency, VSU clearly demonstrates that said HR System continuously motivates and engages the VSU community towards living up to its brand and lifestyle of EXCELLENCE. Having said that, I am sure that the passionate officials and employees of VSU, as exemplified by our awardees today, are indeed fueled by its core values of “Relevance, Integrity, Truth, and Excellence.” (RITE) as your guide in determining ripeness (Research, Instruction, Production, and Extension).

To the awardees/honorees, I commend you for passionately standing out from among your co-workers. Your accomplishments inspire your co-workers, leaders, and other stakeholders in the university and in the community. Today's occasion also allowed us to come together as we celebrate our present heroes so we never forget the work it took and still takes to continue with our quest to build a better community, and the contributions many continue to make for the betterment of our own University, our community and the world around us at large. Your achievements inspire us all to do better and deliver beyond expectations as we continue with our pursuit to become “(a) globally competitive university for science, technology, and environmental conservation.” (VSU Vision).

As we celebrate the fourth week of the 122nd Philippine Civil Service Anniversary Celebration (PCSA) next month, we consider this event, this celebration as fitting and proper to express gratitude and recognize the achievements of our VSU Lingkod Bayani.

Keep being amazing, my dear awardees/honorees, keep setting the pace. Please know that it is you who inspire us. The challenge is to look forward to continuing performing the best that you can. The task that is before you is to use this platform to further inspire and motivate others, not necessarily to attain similar recognition but to find common purpose and reiterate that purpose to public service. Public service is for public good, and we all should have this longer-term vision of making impact, constantly applying our skills and competencies to make sure it is translated into services that directly benefit the organization. Recognizing the limited resources, however, we are asked to do a lot more so that it just doesn’t end here. As Aristotle puts it, “Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” We need to report for work and do even better at any endeavor you are tasked to do such that it will further inspire others.

Thank you for providing me this opportunity, privilege and honor to join you in this momentous occasion of recognizing the contributions of VSU employees to the mandate of VSU in particular and the government in general.

On behalf of the Civil Service Commission, allow me to thank you for your unrelenting support to the programs, projects and activities of the CSC. Together, let us continue to support the advocacy for good governance as we continue to September 2022 on the occasion of our 122nd Anniversary of the Philippine bureaucracy with the theme: Transforming Public Service in the Next Decade: Honing Agile and Future-ready Civil Servants.

Maayong hapon sa tanan! Thank you!

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