Human Resources

The job title I contracted with MSF was as Financial Controller. My job description mentioned that my duties would involve a small component of national staff human resources. It turned out that my actual job title is Financial & Human Resources Coordinator, with the two roles having a fairly equal demand on my time. Although not my area of expertise, as we like to say in the HR profession, this is a “wonderful developmental opportunity”. Of course, this rationale was once used to induce me to take piano lessons and eat turnips.

I am currently doing a road show to all our project sites to discuss the new national staff salary levels. The wages have been increased, but not by the same percentage for all staff, as we have found that certain positions, specifically doctors and nurses, earn significantly more with other NGOs. I have been attending special staff meetings and with the assistance of a translator discussing how the review was undertaken and the changes to be implemented.

This performance has met with mixed reviews. I’ve had to defend why some hard working people are getting smaller increases than other hard working people, explain why everyone just can’t get more, and listen to many past grievances, both real and imagined. However, the changes are explainable and defendable and the sense I get is that the staff are as much concerned about the respect that they get for the work they do than the money itself. There have been a few challenging moments, but this is certainly more interesting than sitting in my office.

My trip included spending five days in Quetta where I managed to accomplished quite a bit and have a nice visit. In addition to presenting the new salary levels and doing some post-presentation damage control, I was able to work on variety of things including budgets, leases, Expat topics and most importantly prepare my BC Hydro NHL playoff pool and MSF World Cup soccer pool. Gareth and I were able to sit on the roof of the house, sketch out a national staff training program, and peer-up periodically as we are drowned-out by the roar of the Pakistan airforce MIGs speeding overhead on their return from East Balochistan to see if they were still carrying any of their missiles.

Dave, the project coordinator, and I share the same Canadian language of hockey. I arrived on the day that the Canucks had been eliminated from playoff contention. After a moment’s silence we spent the next few days tearing the team apart. There isn’t much to do in Quetta so watching TV is a prime evening activity. When one station promoted that coming next month they would be showing new episodes of Seinfeld, Dave’s response was “this mission keeps getting better and better.”

This past week I’ve made my staff presentations at our Islamabad, Quetta and Peshawar offices. I am presently sitting on a cargo trailer alongside the airforce runway waiting for the helicopter to arrive to take me to Kashmir. The helicopter has been an expensive but necessary luxury and has allowed MSF to function during winter and landslide season. However, the contract for the helicopter is almost finished and this will be my last ride. I suspect that traveling by land will also be wonderful developmental opportunity.