Young fish in a tank of dirty water

On my fourth day working in a government agency, my superior told me: “Ayusin mo ang records mo dahil baka maging kaso na naman sa akin ‘yan. (Make sure your records are precise, otherwise it might become an administrative case against me).”

It was a simple directive, but it carried the weight of a system that seemed less concerned with integrity and more with survival.

As a young professional with less than a year of working experience since finishing university, I found myself asking: Am I simply too idealistic about the work environment, or is the brokenness of the system already revealing itself?

I then recalled one of the metaphors that my previous mentor and Filipino teacher discussed in senior high school about a new fish put in a dirty tank. Does the fish eventually learn to survive in the dirty tank, or do we need to clean the tank, throw away the murky water, and flip everything over, that is to say, clean the system whole?

With the glaring issues that I recognize in my current post as an administrative assistant, where those in the management fail to take accountability, senior staff members are dissociating and quiet quitting due to burnout. Even the people within my own division who smile in front of me would not hesitate to throw me under the bus when the “higher-ups” are looking for someone to take the fall for a particular issue or problem: this government agency, without a doubt, a dirty tank.

I was new and young, and very much bold enough to say the unsaid: “This place is problematic.” But no one was willing to acknowledge. They wanted to just do their job, get paid, and go home; and it was understandable. Yet for the newcomers in the workplace, the power to enact change feels distant, almost unreachable.

Unfortunately, the quality of government service is inseparable from the conditions of its employees. When staff members, whether “plantilla,” contract of service, or job order, are denied security and humane working environments, how can we expect the delivery of public service to thrive? Many personnel are under contractual services, which rely on being in the “good graces” of the higher-ups to get a passing performance evaluation score, an essential condition for contract renewal, while the older and more experienced staff members want to take it as a stepping stone for a plantilla position, so they’d keep quiet even when the issue is glaring.

The generational misalignment, therefore, becomes clear: Gen Zs, like myself, enter the workforce with values shaped by transparency, collaboration, and mental well-being. Our boundaries are so well-maintained, but the unintended consequence is that we are often labeled “flighty” for leaving jobs that no longer serve us, and even accused of being “weak” for refusing to bear burdens that previous generations accepted as normal.

But this framing misses the point. Walking away from toxic environments is not weakness but rather a conscious refusal to normalize dysfunction. Burnout is not a badge of honor; it is a warning sign that something must change.

The challenge, however, lies in staying. When our generation can leave any situation we want without hesitation to prioritize our well-being, there is bravery in staying, not to tolerate the toxic situation, but to bravely voice out that there is a problem and solve it. The real challenge is remaining in bureaucratic systems that resist reform without losing ourselves to disillusionment. How do we reconcile our values with structures that seem designed to erode them?

The answer may not be immediate or simple, but it begins with reflection and collective dialogue. We must ask: What would it take for government institutions to value not only the service they provide but also the people who deliver it? How can workplaces evolve to align with the ethics of a generation unwilling to sacrifice well-being for outdated values?

As a young professional venturing into this environment, I recognize the tension between idealism and reality. Yet I also believe that improvement is possible, not only through grand revolutions, but through incremental shifts in culture, accountability, and empathy.

But if Gen Zs are to remain in these spaces, the system must meet us halfway. Otherwise, the cycle of burnout and departure will continue, and the promise of better governance will remain unfulfilled.

—————-

Sallymir C. Santillan, 24, is a sociology graduate from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines whose path mirrors the generational struggle between institutional demands and personal aspirations.