This article is written and recorded by Al Kags, Executive Director, The Open Institute. Listen to an audio recording of this article here.

The problem: What happens when public servants have to change jobs or leave?

Why it matters: The professional resilience of public servants after their stint in service often has a big impact even on their personal well being.

The solution: Be active and work on something else, find ways to be relevant.

A career in public service is both fulfilling and very challenging. One moves at a high pace from early morning to late evening, from this meeting to that conference to the other forum, interspaced with briefings and an almost never-ceasing barrage of phone calls. The more turnkey the department you work in, the more the activity.

When I worked in the Kenyan government, it was common for me to have 15 to 30 phone calls an hour on most days (never mind the hundreds of text messages and emails that needed attention). I was in meetings almost all hours of the day, and on many days, only able to do any paperwork (which is part of the job in public service) late at night. It was exciting and fast-paced.

When the time comes, and you end your stint in the job, one is enveloped by an almost eerie silence, as the phone stops ringing, the texts and emails stop pinging, and there are no more meetings to go to. Your body clock is accustomed to waking up at the crack of dawn, only now you have nowhere to be–no meetings to attend.

The comfort I have been known to offer to them and myself is that once a public servant, always a public servant - it’s the station that changes.

Worse than the silence is people’s response to you. Your new vulnerability pushes you towards your friends and former colleagues–people you worked with. But, on the other hand, they find it awkward to deal with you. How should they deal with you? What should they say to you? What is your platform? You quickly realise who your friends are and who were mere acquaintances facilitated by the job. One of my former bosses once told of how his friends would avoid him on supermarket aisles, hastily turning a corner to avoid the awkwardness that they felt.

There is a common belief that many public servants die in five years following their stint in office, at least in Africa. Many African politicians will do anything to get back into office, even if it means spending fortunes to prepare people for the next elections. The return on that investment invariably comes from public coffers. If they fail again, the sense of oblivion can be fatal.

In my case, it took a while, but I took my mentor’s advice to “stop moping around and get doing something.” When I started working in the non-profit sector, another public service space, I had to find a new rhythm to fall in step with the people who work in the considerably more slow-paced sector. “Slow down; it can be done tomorrow,” I often heard as I urged my teammates to burn the midnight oil to achieve that thing with greater urgency.

Of course, I am aware that many public service jobs are not as exciting as mine was, and people there move at a much more stately pace, weighed down by bureaucracy and red tape. My friends who worked in such departments found a move from the public service to the private sector quite dizzying. Finding their footing in that space, where productivity is measured not by what work you did but by how much you added to the bottom line, created a new kind of challenge for them.

The comfort I have been known to offer to them and myself is that once a public servant, always a public servant - it’s the station that changes.

Al Kags blogs regularly on alkags.me.

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