Auteur: Mitra of Federal Government
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After thirty trade periods, I have chosen to completely step back as a Federal and enjoy my well-earned retirement. Although not planned, of all Federals in the history of the Federation, I turned out to have seen most rounds from up on the mountain – realizing this got me thinking about what it did to me, and what it does to others. There never was an inaugural speech, but consider this my exauguration: a glance into the world of a Federal.
I made a perfect career in the Federation. Not to steep a slope, but slowly, casually and steadily growing in rank and esteem. I went from smalltime lawyer and politician to an authority amongst the population, all by just making enough flight hours. So after actively surviving 35 trade periods and doing just about everything I had set my heart on, the next step was unavoidable: governing the Federation. It might sound like a small line to cross, and in some ways it is. However, a position of real and ineluctable responsibility up on the Olympus is very different from the artificial obligations you face down in the valley.
Interesting dilemmas kept emerging throughout the 2,5 years. You want to be transparent in your governing, however there are many things you can’t share with third parties. We are bound by privacy regulations, on top of which some information is not made public to protect either the Federation or her inhabitants. Decisions therefore may have seemed odd, unfair or even downright wrong, but you can’t always tell the complete story. When becoming a Federal, you accept the fact that you need to have thick skin and accept that people sometimes see you as the bogeyman. I rather have people being angry at me, than taking it out on someone else. There will always be individuals looking for malediction in your words and malevolence in your actions; in time you’ll find out it’s not worth the energy to try to convince someone who doesn’t want to be convinced. It’s tiresome, but part of the job to constantly get doubts about your intentions, no matter how unreasonable that is.
Of course, I have done things wrong in my time, which I have tried to set straight one way or the other. It’s not easy to admit being wrong, but a lot harder to deny it. I look back with a clear conscience – cases I felt were in need of corrections or apologies have been dealt with. Sometimes publicly and for the world to see, sometimes behind closed doors. We regularly had to leave a person behind in a state of disappointment, and that might be the hardest part of the job. It it were possible you’d please every single soul, but even an artificial world is not the perfect one.
Governing is dealing with people. Your opinions, at one time harmless and superficially received, suddenly can have a great impact on others. It’s an art in itself to find the right balance here, which is not always recognized or appreciated by the outside world. Even when there’s no hidden message, people will still try to read between the lines. A populist is able to gather an angry mob in no time; facing those is a complete nightmare.
Enough with the more negative parts of the job. It’s rewarding to see how someone spends all one’s time in something you help to keep running. Those silent compliments and thank-you’s are worth most to me: in an ideal situation I am invisible and out of the picture. I only started realizing this after a while, which is a characteristic of the job; I have really learned a lot. Diplomacy as well as management skills are competences that started growing rapidly during my term of office, but also decisiveness and teamwork are aspects of my work day that went easier and more fluently. It was when I felt my learning curve had decreased too much that I decided to turn over my work into fresh hands.
On the verge of my retirement I wish to thank you all for making my past 2,5 years so interesting. I leave you the same way I started and governed: with the best of intentions.
Kind regards,
Mitra