Devbrat Patnaik

Bhubaneswar: In many of the private companies, employees are asked to follow the philosophy of 'flat hierarchy' where age, sex and designation don't matter. And over a period of time, the workforces in corporate sector have inculcated the habit of calling colleagues and even bosses with their names. But the culture is contradicting in government offices here.

Corroborating this is a letter of the Director of Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Services, to all Joint Directors, which mentions that junior level officers cannot call ‘Bhai’ (brother) to senior officials during office hours and anyone found violating this henceforth would invite disciplinary action.

“Junior level officers of this directorate and in field offices are not maintaining office decorum in dealing with their superiors even in presence of Higher Authority. For example, the technical officers are calling 'Bhai' to their senior officers like SDVO/CDVO & Joint Director level-I. It is not proper on part of any of the government servant to address to their higher authority in this way, irrespective of whatever personal relation they are having among themselves during office hours or office premises. This not only violates Odisha Government Servant Conduct Rules, 1959, but also amounts to insubordination,” stated director Ratnakar Rout in the letter.

He further warned that stringent disciplinary action would be taken against the defaulting officer under Odisha Government Servant Conduct Rules, if anyone fails to maintain office decorum.

“All concerned should be careful for maintaining official decorum in office premises and during duty hours in dealing with or addressing the superior officers henceforth. Any deviation in this matter will be viewed seriously and stringent disciplinary action as deemed proper will be initiated against the defaulting officer under Odisha Government Servant Conduct Rules,” Rout mentioned.

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