A grassroots civil servant complained: Why are townships so aggrieved? Why are township cadres so frustrated?

The first is the difficulty of township government. Here are a few issues.

First, there is no money to do things. Although office expenses have increased a lot in the past two years, they are still barely enough to maintain running water, electricity, heating, internet, cars, oil, paper and other consumable expenses. At the same time, when superior units assigned work to townships, they did not allocate service funds. They only assigned tasks without giving money. As a result, townships could only squeeze out office expenses to squeeze out money to complete the tasks assigned by superiors. Townships were in difficulty. Keep things running. I want to do something practical for the masses, but I have no ambition and only a deep sense of powerlessness.

The second is the shortage of manpower. The number of people in a township is generally 40-60. However, the staff has never been fully staffed, and most towns and villages in the county have more than 10 vacancies. Even if they are fully staffed, more than 40 people cannot do more than 100 tasks. Stability maintenance, central work, comprehensive management, folk religion, family planning, environmental protection, health, military service, petitions, safety supervision, planning and construction, civil affairs, social security and medical insurance, science and technology, poverty alleviation, Disabled Persons' Federation, agriculture, forestry and fishery, animal husbandry and veterinary medicine, agricultural machinery, finance, party building Groups, confidentiality, personnel and veteran cadres, disciplinary inspections and traditional warfare, etc., as well as dealing with endless waves of inspections, evaluations, surveys and surveys, which ones do not require manpower. Township cadres generally have three to four jobs, and some have more. In addition, the townships are already short of people, and the county has also transferred cadres from the townships. In addition to the two offices, two committees, and three ministries and other power agencies, some "cat and dog" units dare to recruit people from the townships, and they all use the townships as soft persimmons. Almost every town and town had four or five cadres removed by the county, and those removed were all key members. Sometimes I really can’t figure it out. Most units in the county don’t have much business, and the people in their own units are idle. It’s extremely unfair to have to recruit people from towns and villages. Don’t towns and villages need to carry out work?

The third is the imbalance of power and responsibility. The power is infinitesimally small, but the responsibility is infinitely great. The weakest shoulders bear the heaviest burden. After the institutional reform, the power of townships has been infinitely shrunk. Almost all powers such as financial rights, personnel rights, and land rights have been assigned to the county level. Townships are no longer independent and complete political powers at the first level. Small things like subsistence allowances and digging a well must be approved by superiors and cannot be decided by oneself. But at the central, district, state, and county level, every task is ultimately pushed down to the towns and villages. In China, except for diplomacy, almost all other jobs can be pushed down to the towns and villages. Even some tasks that are originally responsible for the county business departments of the state must be delegated to the townships, but to whom can the townships delegate the work? The superiors only assign tasks to their subordinates but do not give them the corresponding power and resources. What should the towns and villages do? Towns and villages can only bear the burden. If the work is not done well, the township will still be responsible and take the blame. Sometimes they even have to take the blame for certain county departments. At the same time, this is one of the many reasons why there are so many petition cases.

Fourth, it is difficult to make independent decisions and carry out work independently. Every day's work in townships revolves around the baton of superiors. It is rare that one day can decide how to carry out, progress and methods of one's own work based on one's own reality.

Fifth, it is difficult for village cadres to cooperate. As the village level is a mass self-governing organization, and the salary is only a few hundred or a little more than 1,000, it is inevitable that village cadres have low enthusiasm for work. The towns and villages are basically helpless against them. They cannot scold them or even say one or two harsh words, otherwise they will give up their work. Basically coaxing and tricking them into doing their work. And they basically hide when they can, cheat when they can, cope when they can, and just wander around. What's more, many village cadres are more powerful than township leaders because of their excessive autonomy. They can't eat oil and salt, and can't pour water.

Sixth, it is difficult to do mass work. The work requires the cooperation and support of the peasant masses, and even the help of the masses to carry out the work. After the agricultural tax was abolished, it became more difficult to mobilize the masses. Volunteer workers could no longer be sent out when building roads and canals, and it was difficult to summon them when necessary. Some farmers even stopped cleaning the garbage in front of their homes. Anyway, there were township cadres Clean for them. When something happens, we ask the masses to run around the masses, and the masses ignore it. But when the masses have something to do, no matter whether the township can handle it or not, the masses will come to them and act confidently. The most difficult thing to do is mass work under conflicts of interest. Some cadres break disciplines and laws, and they can't complete their tasks softly. They can only work hard. Some cadres even use their own money to buy things for the masses in order to build closer relationships. The county still doesn’t understand: Why is township work being pushed so slowly? The cadres have tried their best.

Seventh, numerous inspections, retreat work and petitions consume a lot of energy.

The most annoying thing is the inspection and evaluation survey. There are 30-40 units in the county. Even if each unit comes once a quarter, an inspection team will come every three days on average, not counting those from the state and autonomous regions. And the inspection content is mostly fake work. Especially the pragmatic party building and mass group work is the most annoying and attracts the most inspections. As long as he comes for inspection, no matter how old he is, he can't afford to offend him. He is still a master. He can only try his best to pretend to be a grandson, nodding and bowing to support him. Working overtime to falsify files, cleaning, greeting escorts, etc. all consume a lot of time and energy. And petitions are another headache, and there is no choice.

Let’s talk about the difficulties and grievances of township cadres.

First, low wages, poor treatment, and difficult conditions. Comrades at the grassroots level have paid much more than cadres at the state and county levels, but how much have they gained? Most of them only cost more than 2,000 yuan or more than 3,000 yuan. This is paid to the card, not counting net income, which is lower than this. Because the work targets of townships and towns are farmland and farmers, going to villages and registering households is basic work. Cadres spend at least 200-300 yuan each month on motorcycle gas, transportation, and phone bills when going to the village to live in their homes. The township has never made up for it, and the township has no money to make up for it. They have to pay it all out of their own pockets. We have to support our families and make a living. On the other hand, most cadres in autonomous regions and prefectures fight against landlords and steal food every day. How can He Dehe get a salary of three to four thousand? How can we not be disappointed? Besides, office conditions are difficult. Some towns and villages have improved a lot by building new offices in the past two years. However, there are still many township offices that are simple and simple, far less grand and spectacular than the city government, and not as quiet and comfortable as the state government. Many of them have three or four people crammed into an office. They set up a stove in the winter and their hands and feet tremble with cold, and they are full of smelly sweat in the summer. There are also many workers who don’t have canteens, and a meal at an outside restaurant costs at least 15 yuan. Half of a month’s salary is eaten up, making it difficult to save money. There are few dormitories, and most of them have a folding bed in the office. You can open it to sleep when you are on duty at night and put it away in the morning. In rural areas, it is inconvenient to see a doctor, buy groceries, get a haircut, take a bath, etc. It is also inconvenient to take a car. It takes a long time to get a tricycle when you go out. Although these difficulties are only minor problems, they are difficult for people in many big cities to understand. How many people working in large institutions have experienced the feeling of being frozen to the bone while riding a motorcycle down to the village in November or December? How many people have experienced the embarrassment of being soaked in water in the summer? And the smelly sweat, peeling skin and blisters caused by the sun during various kinds of work such as tree planting, cleaning, environmental improvement, demolishing and building sheds in spring and autumn?

Second, the workload is heavy and rest time is not guaranteed. Continuous overtime and on-duty shifts are normal, and they are all unpaid. It is good to have one or two days off a month. Even if you take a break, it will not make people calm down or feel at ease. Simple leisure activities such as sleeping quietly at home, going out with family, and gathering with friends have become a luxury for township cadres. When chatting a few days ago, several colleagues said that they had worked in the township for ten years and had never traveled far. They had not even visited the forest park 30 kilometers away. The unit had neither organized nor given time. Sometimes I think about it, a person's life has passed like this, and the great youth has been contributed in this way, and my nose is very sore.

The third is stress and nervousness. There are so many things involved in the work, even if you concentrate and work hard, you will inevitably make mistakes, and there will always be areas where your performance is not satisfactory. From the secretary to the mayor of the township, down to the general staff, everyone is frightened and sensitive every day. They are afraid of an accident happening somewhere in the township, afraid of someone in the area they are responsible for causing trouble, and afraid of all kinds of unknown risks. And once something goes wrong, the punishment ranges from being scolded, to having wages deducted, to being punished, to losing one's job or even going to jail.

Fourth, the future is murky. At the grassroots level, where the ceiling phenomenon is most concentrated, there are a lot of 4050 section members, but what can the deputy section level do? The vast majority of them just work until they retire. How many stand out? How many people have risen to prominence? Then I thought about it, aren’t township comrades excellent? Who is not an all-rounder and a multi-tasker? Many township and department levels have the ability to control complex situations, analyze and judge, handle emergencies, resolve sharp conflicts, do mass work, and have an attitude of not panicking when things change. Those at the department level in large agencies can compare.

The fifth is not being understood.

Family, relatives and friends don’t understand. Why are you busy all day long without seeing anyone? The society and the masses do not understand that township cadres, like urban management, are sitting in the crater where social conflicts erupt, facing the masses directly on the front line. They must complete the tasks of their superiors without offending others. Is it possible? It's like a mouse burrowing into a bellows and getting angry from both ends. Isn’t the glare and scolding you received enough? When it comes to work performance, how many people see it and keep it in mind? To give the simplest example, in Xinjiang, how many clues and signs of instability were discovered by grassroots cadres when they entered the house, and were eliminated and controlled in advance? Does anyone understand that it is precisely because the grassroots cadres are constantly preparing for duty and patrolling day and night day after day, year after year, that they gradually erode the action space of the bad guys? People enjoy a stable situation, but how many people remember the people who work silently behind the scenes? Some people always demand that cadres be as impoverished and live an ascetic life like what is said in the news broadcast. Sometimes they even eat meat and drink wine and others say they are corrupt. TV is full of propaganda about people at home who ignore their children when they are sick or when their elderly people faint, and they risk their lives to stick to the "advanced role models" at their jobs. When encountering difficulties, leaders often use party spirit to suppress others. But township cadres are also human beings, and they also have emotions and desires. They also have families to support, wives and children to take care of, elderly people to support, and relatives and friends to communicate with.

Sixth, low status. In the eyes of the masses, township cadres have no power and cannot get things done, so of course they are not welcome; within the system, many state and county government agencies also look down on township cadres, and a small clerk in the county can do whatever they want. There is no respect for yelling at township cadres and scolding them. Although he is a civil servant at the same level, he has no choice but to endure it.

Seventh, family and relatives are ignored. Always give up the small family and take care of everyone. Chatting with a school teacher, he said that most of the students in the class who did not do well had one parent working in the township, and 80% of the students with the worst grades had both parents working in the township. How many young cadres can successfully negotiate a date? How many times a week can cadres with children see their children and supervise their studies? How many people can often go back to their parents' house to help and talk?