Madam PM I Recommend

 

 

Madam PM, I recommend

Public servants be given two more days off,

John Public, please give me a hearing

Before you begin to scoff.

 

I propose Mondays and Fridays

And Madam PM, I’ll tell you why,

On Mondays, public servants are still asleep

And on Fridays the weekend is nigh.

 

Little work is done on Mondays

So that Tuesday is the first working day,

Thus, three work days comprise each week

And Friday begins the weekend treat.

 

Sunday, Monday, Friday, Saturday

Are public servants’ non-working days,

However, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday

They ease into their working ways.

 

Private enterprise is not far behind

Given all that I have been seeing,

But you mightn’t have any say with them

So that may not be worth pursuing.

 

I do foresee a problem, though,

If my recommendation meets your approval,

As you and I know only too well

Public servants are greedy people.

 

It is obvious to me that in five years or so

Another trend will occur,

Public servants will then be asleep on Tuesdays

And on Thursdays all work they will defer.

 

I hope you see that in five years max

We will have a one-day work week

And Madam PM, you will then have to explain

The reason for the revenue leak.

 

But that is only, Madam PM,

If you accept my fallacious proposition

To create for public servants a three-day week

That will end with Barbados’ demolition.

 

My deceased mother used to say,

“Give people an inch and they will take a mile.”

And Madam PM, given the brilliant person you are,

This would never be your style.

 

It could very well be the other way around

If there is any taking at all,

For my experience has taught me well;

The taking would be your own call.

 

 

I am told that at a car manufacturing plant

The best car is a Wednesday car,

This is the day when the plant is at its optimum

Hence our one-day work week is up to par.

 

Monday cars and Friday cars

They tell me are the worse,

So now you see what they mean by a lemon:

It’s a vehicle that is accursed.

 

Madam PM, it appears to me

That we are on a one-day work week

And not much production is happening

Given the current economic leak.

 

I recall a story I once heard

Not a very long time ago,

Whether it was a true story or not

I certainly would not know.

 

 

A ram sheep, faithful to its purpose

Was purchased from a private enterprise,

From the time it worked for Government

It behaved totally otherwise.

 

Apparently, the ram sheep discovered

It'd be fed whether it produced or not,

Consequently, it behaved like a public servant

And didn't ask the ewes to trot. 

 

Please find a way and do it fast

To separate out two kinds of workers;

With good supervision it would be easy to tell

The workers from the shirkers.

 

The shirker puts in one day a week;

The worker goes beyond “duty’s call”,

I recommend that both be paid for what they do,

Madam PM, that is all!

 

Stewart Russell © November 28, 2022