Eye-Service Breeds Institutional Disservice: Threatens Performance and Betrays Productivity

Eye-service is the act of working hard, obeying rules or showing diligence to service only when supervisory bosses or authority figures are watching, observing or inspecting. It epitomizes insincerity and lack of genuine integrity.

Simply put, eye-service is when services are strictly tied to being noticed. It means showing work seriousness only when within sight of a boss. It is a habit bodied in craftiness and precipitates toxic work environments. It is usually found among persons with low esteem, complexes or people of insufficient career knowledge or expertise.

Different authorities have described eye-service with various phrases and lexicons. Some scholars have described eye-service as ‘Service to the eye’, some called it ‘window-dressing’ and others referred to it as ‘Men-pleasing’, among others. Methinks, eye-service is ‘Service optics show”.

Apostle Paul in his epistles to the Christian families in Ephesians 6: 5-7 and Colossians 3:22, admonished the bondservants to “obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. And do this not only to please them while they are watching, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.” .

These Men-pleasers are very punctilious in what meets the master’s eye and slovenly when the boss seems far-off, and out of sight. Their services are hollow, just to please the supervising eyes, rather than pursuing genuine service with dedication and commitment.

Morally, eye-service represents a breach of integrity where the illusion of diligence is manipulated for personal gain or favour currying; rendering the service fundamentally vague, with results that are absolutely in contrast with the ethical expectations, and in negation of impactful productivity.

Eye-service is uncultural to standard practice of service, it is ruinous, sycophantic and perniciously deceptive to performance and productivity. It breeds delusion and encourages malice. It creates and promotes a toxic work environment with its tools of deceit, gossip and backbiting.

Eye-service delivers superficial performance instead of genuine and measurable output. It is highly injurious to performance and productivity. It undermines skill-building and professional development. It wrecks efficiency, negates team spirit and invalidates growth. It trades commitment and sincerity for hollow appearances which destroys reputation.

Earlier, before this time, eye-service was more prevalent in the civil, and public services and perhaps the political sector, until recently, when it swiftly crept into the academic institutions, private sector establishments, and the Church.

Apparently, this unethical practice of superficial compliance to designated services, pretending busy only when superiors are watching, breeds profound disservice in institutions. It replaces merit, true productivity, and structural innovation with hollow pageantry, ultimately crippling institutional growth, eroding morales, and institutionalizing systemic disservice that erodes excellence.

The primary aim of eye-service is interim manipulation to win the boss’ unmerited favour and approval for preferments and rewards. But it represses the fundamental purpose of work and fuels indolence and nonchalance at the detriment of productivity and professionalism.

Eye-service is immodest and at variance with true service. It chases petite self aggrandizement deceitfully rather than offering faithful service for posterity.

Pathetically, It kills motivation, innovation and stifles personality advancement. It destroys trust, murders reputation on the altar of vanity and betrays productivity.

The practice is most threatening when the purveyors are persons trusted with sensitive offices and positions of authority that expectedly conveys confidence. Eye-service merchants do everything possible, to take charge of the official environment, operational atmosphere, and strive to determine work pace in order to browbeat and frustrate competence, performance and career advancement of colleagues, who are driving their beats genuinely.

They mostly flaunt a high degree of pomposity as if they possess the performance magic wand that is building the institution or establishment. Meet them further, they proudly brag around as if they are the pillars and engine-houses of the institution/establishment; even though they have added no iota of value to the growth of the institution. Instead, they race forth hastily to claim the glory of other peoples’ performances before the evaluation and rewarding authorities.

The penetrating antics of eye-service peddlers include, pulling the longest faces as if, they are the most in earnest, the moment their supervisory authorities are sighted but meet them shortly, after the boss is far off or out of sight, the fake emotion-laden face of a pretentious hard worker disappears.

In most cases, when they achieve the desired closeness and soon-to-sink trust, from their boss, they ultimately begin to feed the bosses and authority figures with damaging falsehood against performing colleagues. Eye-service purveyors are neck-deep into blasphemy and witch-hunting of dutiful performers. They begrudge the sincerely loyal and dutiful colleagues with competences and faithfulness.

Eye-service causes genuinely competent professionals to become bored and frustrated, making them serve with grudges or disengage the system entirely, creating a service vacuum that may be filled by competencies.

Anybody who can heartlessly deceive his or her boss with pretentious dispositions of service delivery and falsehood both behaviourally and informatively is petty and morally bankrupt.

However, the career life of eye-service is unwittingly crafted on a sinking ground and it is therefore short-lived. Very, pathetically, the end is precarious and disgraceful.

Truly, faithful service is deeply connected to progressive future, in conveyance of essence and indelible impacts glued to posterity. Faithful and true service requires intrinsic motivation, a dedication to a shared vision, and a desire to leave a lasting impact that outlasts any singular leadership.

To metrically combat the nauseating effects of eye-service in institutions/establishments, leaders should endeavour to replace subjective loyalty with strict, and measurable Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and reward constructive dissent and transparent feedback rather than blind conformity.

Bright Chigozie OKEREKE, a Media Consultant and Public Affairs Analyst, writes from KOMU