Yes. We all have civil servant friends. These seemingly deep and composed beings who float stately around with an air of mystery about them.

We can’t figure them out really. But we’ve done some research and found that these are some things that our civil servant friends don’t do.

#1 Tell you what they do at work.

Go on. Ask any of them what they do. They won’t tell you. Instead they give you vague answers which don’t make any sense. “Policy”. “Comms”. “Ops”. Come on man! What’s that supposed to mean? That you sell insurance policies for communicable diseases and operations? Surely you can do better than this.

Source: Challenge

#2 Take selfies with Ministers.

Have you seen all those selfies that cool people have been taking?

Or this.

Source: ComChest

Or this.

And all of us want to take selfies with PM Lee because, well. PM what. And you’d think your civil servant friends would have some selfies with politicians because, well, they work for them. And in the same building too! But no. I asked around, and apparently, it’s very unprofessional to ask your boss to take a selfie with you. Confusing.

It’s very sad for them.

#3 Post about Politics.

It was GE season and everyone was spamming FB with long and mostly annoying posts on their supposedly deep and insightful thoughts on the political scene in Singapore. Well, go to one of your civil servant friend’s FB page and scroll through it. What do you see?

Source: Buzzfeed

No lengthy posts on their wall. No annoying long-winded FB updates on the GE. Just some of news articles shared from online platforms which subtly point towards their opinion on the matter. Very sneaky these people are!

Source: Buzzfeed

#4 Invite you to their work gatherings.

Say your boss has invited the whole office out after work and all your colleagues are going. It’s going to be at a random coffee shop/ bar/ pub, but you ask a couple of your close friends along anyway.

Because you know that drinks will be free and everyone will have a good time hanging out anyway.

Now think about your civil servant friends. Have they ever invited you to one of their work gatherings? No. But that’s okay because I’d probably be very awkward and not know what to say.

Okay can.

#5 Converse normally.

Do you remember the first few times when all your guy friends first enlisted to NS and booked out to meet you and the rest of your girl friends? And they started talking? And you wondered if they had learnt a completely different language in Tekong?

And you’re over there like...

Listening to civil servants in a conversation is similar.

But then again I can barely remember all the acronyms for the expressways in Singapore.

That being said I would like to thank all civil servants for working hard to keep our country running smoothly. They say that it’s a thankless job, so I’m glad that there are people willing to do it! :)

Related article:

Here’s how the civil service decides whether PM Lee should do a jump shot

Top photo via

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