Issues in Employee Transfers
Yousef Al-Shaikh emphasized that sudden and unjustified transfers of employees in government entities create a negative work environment and threaten job stability, noting the mismatch between specializations and new assignments.
Translated by Qiyas from القبس — Original source
No government or private administrative body can function properly, nor can any employee perform their required role with peace of mind, under the threat of sudden, unannounced, and unconsulted transfers to another entity. Decision-makers should seek the employee’s opinion on the proposed new assignment, especially if there is a desire to transfer them. The psychological dimension in management—whether in the relationship between supervisors and staff, in providing an attractive work environment, or in fostering a sense of job security free from the unjustified threat of arbitrary transfer—is crucial. All of this, and more, leaves such employees plagued by the fear of capricious transfers that lack any rational cause or consequence. The wave of employee transfers we see and hear about in several government entities has left multiple impacts on the flow of work and on the morale of those transferred without being informed of the reasons. Moreover, the specialized fields of the transferred employees often do not match the functions of the entities to which they are reassigned. For example, is it reasonable for a Sharia law specialist to be transferred to the electricity sector, a political science graduate to the health sector, or a history specialist to the transportation sector? Where is the principle of placing the right person in the right job? Yousif Al-Shaheen
