Are you happy? FM asks his officers

One doesn’t yet know how he proposes to revive the animal spirits in the economy, but Finance Minister P Chidambaram is surely trying his best to revive the spirits of his officers in North Block.

As a first step, the FM’s Office today sent a 10-question communication to all officers in the rank of director and deputy secretary to assess, among other things, their happiness quotient – a term made famous by the Harvard Business School.

Officers have been asked whether they are happy with their present work, and if yes, whether some changes were needed to improve their performance. Those saying ‘no’ will have to select one of the three preferences —move to another service or cadre, transfer to another ministry, or another post in the finance ministry itself.

An official seeking movement to another department in the finance ministry would have to suggest the post he or she would prefer and how he or she is qualified to perform the functions at the desired post.

A finance ministry official, who received the memo, was all praise for his new boss. “It’s a damn good thing. The finance minister is trying to introduce management mantras from the Harvard Business School where he had studied.”

The questions are not linked to work alone. Chidambaram has also tried to get a sense whether officials are having any constraints such as health or family issues which could hamper their performance. Officials will have to clearly state in the form about their comfort level with regard to long working hours and more responsibility. It’s, however, doubtful whether anybody would be open enough to share their discomfort on both these issues.

The minister, it appears, wants to put the processes on fast track which might have slowed down in the absence of a full time finance minister in recent weeks. After assuming office as finance minister on August 1, he has held meetings with various departments of the ministry to take stock of key issues.

The change of guard at the North Block had fuelled speculations of some restructuring in the finance ministry by the way of inducting few new faces and redefining roles for some existing ones.

FinMin remains open this weekend

In his first week in office, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has asked his officials to be present in office on Saturday and make themselves available on Sunday too, if the need be, thanks to the Monsoon Session of Parliament convening on August 8. Chidambaram will be just a week old in the ministry, but he doesn’t want this to reflect while addressing questions on economy and contentious taxation issues in the parliament.

Officials said besides a stack of pending files, there were many starred Parliament questions, particularly on taxation issues such as General Anti-Avoidance Rules and retrospective amendment in the Income-Tax Act on which the new finance minister would be briefed.