Protesters angry about stay-at-home orders rally at the State Capitol in Lansing, Mich., Thursday, April 30, 2020.

Protesters angry about stay-at-home orders rally at the State Capitol in Lansing, Mich., Thursday, April 30, 2020. Paul Sancya/AP

Balancing Freedom and Responsibility on the Front Lines of Public Service

The pandemic has amplified Americans’ love-hate relationship with their government.

If the COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us of anything, it’s that we Americans have a love-hate relationship with our government—and the public servants who work there. 

On one hand, we treasure the individual freedoms that are guaranteed by our Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and their progeny, and in many instances, we just want the government to leave us alone. There’s nothing wrong with that. Indeed, it’s one of the things that makes us uniquely American. However, paradoxically, we Americans also want the government to be there for us, to keep the peace and protect us from harm, especially in times of extraordinary crisis, like the pandemic that besets us today. 

Without exception, public servants have responded to that paradoxical call, sometimes at great personal risk, and in so doing, they’ve given us yet another reason for expressing our appreciation during this Public Service Recognition Week.

This paradox goes back to our founding, when Madison, Hamilton, and others debated the nature of our fledgling democracy in the Federalist papers. They understood that the acts of individual citizens, all personally and perfectly rational, could still have a deleterious collective affect, and that led them to propose a system of checks and balances designed to curb the excesses of those individual interests. They also predicted tension between those interests and the collective, albeit a healthy one, and as we fast forward to today’s COVID-19 pandemic, we see that tension playing out every day in the debate between stay-at-home orders and re-openings.

It is no exaggeration to suggest that the United States was created in part to strike a balance between individual “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” on one hand, and the greater public good on the other. After all, freedom is never free. It requires compromise, something we should have learned in high school civics classes. However, our front-line public servants find themselves in the middle of that debate, trying to strike that lofty balance whether they know (or like) it or not. To most of us, they are the government, and while this week tends to focus on thanking them for their service to us, this is a part of their jobs that remains even more unsung and unappreciated.

So, in addition to thanking public employees for all the things that they do, I think we also need to thank them for trying to help us find that balance between our American antipathy towards government and the need, sometimes grudgingly acknowledged, for what it does.

I saw that first-hand way back in the late 1990’s, when I was chief human resources officer for the Internal Revenue Service. Trying to overcome a history of taxpayer intimidation, the Service was under a congressional mandate to become more customer-focused (not an easy thing to do for a tax collection agency). Led by then-Commissioner Charles Rossotti, “service to each, service to all” became our mantra. 

Intended to strike a balance between the needs of an individual taxpayer—the “service to each” part—with the needs of the many, as reflected in the tax laws enacted by elected representatives in Congress, our employees demanded to know which one was more important. But then, like now, there’s no right answer to that question. It’s not either/or but both. Then, as now, it comes down to the way each public servant tries to strike that balance between individual freedoms and collective responsibility, even as they just try to do their jobs. 

That was not an easy thing to ask of IRS employees back then, nor is it any easier to ask it of public servants now. However, its importance is underscored by the coronavirus pandemic, and it is one that is occurring every day on the front lines of government, where individual public servants—police officers and park rangers, nurses and doctors, even building and food inspectors—have to find a balance between the individual freedoms afforded their neighbors (including the freedom from harm), and the public interests that they are sworn to protect. Indeed, nearly every civil servant that comes in contact with the public faces that challenge.

One could argue that the same is true for workers of all stripes, particularly those who own and operate small businesses. They too have to choose between their personal safety (and that of their customers) and their economic livelihood. As our fellow citizens struggle with that choice, their love-hate relationship with government becomes all too real. So, even as they worry about “big government” infringing on their financial well-being, they also look to the government to provide them an economic safety net, police and fire protection, and if they should become sick, health care.  

This love-hate relationship Americans have with governments is especially relevant during this year’s Public Service Recognition Week. It manifests itself in the day-to-day interactions citizens have with public servants, whether those interactions occur in person or online. And given the pressures that every American faces in this crisis, those interactions can be even more testy and tense than normal, especially when they are magnified and amplified by the media. 

For the nation’s public servants, too often that means that they’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t, and for that, we owe them an extra dose of appreciation this week. 

Ron Sanders is director and clinical professor with the University of South Florida’s School of Public Affairs; he also serves as chair of the Federal Salary Council. A 37-year civil servant and 21-year member of the Senior Executive Service, he was associate director of National Intelligence, associate director of the Office of Personnel Management, chief human resource officer for the IRS, and director of civilian personnel policy for the Defense Department. The views expressed here are his alone.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.