Balances in Law Enforcement Column
Officers adopt pragmatic approaches for work and life
For Woman Sergeant Sarina Wong Mei-yee and Police Constable Danny Ip Kwok-keung, both from Kowloon East Traffic Enforcement and Control (E&C T KE), there are no magic ways to cope with work pressure or problems. What they have been doing in tackling these two issues is nothing short of a pragmatic approach on two fronts.
While at work, they take an interest in their chores and adopt a positive attitude towards their work and the inherent problems. After work, they resort to sports and recreation, volunteer work and pursuit of personal developments. These approaches seem to be working well for them in minimising the impact of work pressure on their careers and lives.
The approaches the two officers have taken may differ in some aspects, but they have one thing in common - a determination not to let pressure take a heavy toll on their work and lives.
Thanks to the in-serve training provided by the Force, and as they accumulate more work experience, Danny and Sarina apparently are now more capable of coping with problems.
Sarina pointed out that traffic officers, being frontline staff, have a fair share of work pressure as their colleagues in other units do, with the pressure mainly coming from hostile and abusing motorists or other road users.
"You've to ensure traffic flows smoothly and nobody gets hurt or killed on the road; nobody breaks the laws, and all members of my team have discharged their duties properly. And you have to do all these in all sorts of weather conditions. However, few road users would appreciate we're only carrying out our duties when we hand out a ticket. A nasty situation could occur even if we've handled it properly!" she explained.
Citing an example, Sarina said that in a recent case she had spent nearly 45 minutes in reasoning with a motorist who challenged her subordinates after being booked for speeding. In the face of a motorist "asking for favour, then demanding justice and finally becoming hostile", she took pain to explain the offence he had committed, the law he had broken, and the serious consequences of his offence in the hope that he would see his fault. She stood by her officers' action and refused to budge.
"I was just applying what I have been trained to do - be firm with your actions, and exercise restraint and try your best to avoid a confrontation. You'll feel good when you've defused a potential confrontation with an unruly motorist. Perhaps, this is both the challenge and job satisfaction of traffic work!" she noted.
Danny agreed that his work has sometimes brought him job satisfaction when road users showed their appreciation for services rendered. He explained: "I've come across motorists who pulled a long face and turned agitated when I booked them for breaking the law. But after I had explained the reasons and the consequences of their offences, they smiled and said 'thank you' and took the tickets obligingly! I also have come across motorists who regretted that their reckless driving had affected not only their own lives but also those of other road users."
Demanding jobs
As regard traffic work, both officers shared the view that it is no less demanding than other police work in terms of workload, responsibilities, knowledge of advanced equipment and law, as well as physical requirements and working environment. Despite the exacting nature of traffic work, they find their jobs much to their liking. This explains why they are spending their second tours in E&C T KE.
Sarina believed that the experience of traffic work would be beneficial to traffic officers' career developments in the Force. "A traffic officer has to be familiar with the law, know how to use advanced equipment and handle unforeseen situations on the roads, and has a lot of paper and follow-up work to do back in the office. The experience from these jobs will be useful for future postings," she explained.
Perhaps, it was their sheer interest in work that has motivated them to take a positive view of complaints from road users. They regard them as part and parcel of their police careers.
"Unruly and unreasonable road users, as well as their complaints are inevitable. When you see them as part of your jobs, you will feel better and lessen the impact on you! You've to face up to them with courage and do something positively!" said Sarina.
For Danny, his recipe is "doing something meaningful" after work, such as keeping fit with exercises, participating in sports and pursuing continuous education.
"I do jogging to keep fit and relax, and study Japanese in the past few years mainly because of my personal interests in this language. I'm also playing a relatively new sport, Korfball, with my wife and two daughters, and I have been working with the Korfball Association to promote the sport in Hong Kong.
"One has to set goals for life and tries one's best to achieve them. So I have set myself the goals to master the Japanese language stage by stage, to improve my time in the annual Marathon year by year, and to see Korfball becoming a popular sport in Hong Kong," he noted.
Besides exercises, Sarina works for the "Harmony House" for abused women after work. She said: "I man the telephone hotline for abused women, listen to their grievances, and give them advice. This is quite an experience with benefits to my work. I've brushed up my skills of listening to people, and this will help me do a better job in listening to the disgruntled motorists or other road users. Many callers on the hotline are migrants from the Mainland, so I've also brushed up by Putonghua at the same time. And this is also useful for my jobs," she added.
Comments by PSG
Deducing from the experiences of WSGT Wong and PC Ip, we can see again that external circumstances cannot have full control on our emotions. For traffic policemen, donning safety helmets and putting on uniforms, riding on hot motorcycles, working in suffocating hot weather, dealing with not too friendly citizens and being confronted with hostile complaints are far from being an ideal job. Yet WSGT Wong and PC Ip enjoy their work. Their secret for this is the fact that, besides personal interest, they have given their missions a clear meaning - they have to ensure the safety of road users and prevent serious traffic accident even though they fail to get the public's understanding. This has motivated them to put up with difficult situations and find pleasure from their work. Researches have shown that finding a valuable meaning from work would enhance job satisfaction and reduce the adverse impact of work stress.
PC Ip has also inspired our wisdom of balances. Apart from work, he is pursuing diverse interests and recreations after work. By openly communicating with his family, regular exercises, studying Japanese and promoting the sport of Korfball, he has extended his horizon beyond work and led a full and more meaningful life. PC Ip has seen to it that his rich personal life would not affect his work because his work performance has been so impressive. Other researches have pointed out that those who are capable of deriving pleasures from multiple sources would have more joy and life satisfaction than those who focus on only one source (e.g. focusing on promotion or a relationship).
With her positive and idealistic attitude, WSGT Wong has reminded us of the need to strike a balance between striving hard and self-care. She admits being a self-demanding person exerting herself in everything. However, she knows her limits, and is capable of applying a brake at the right time to recharge so as to face up to new challenges. As WSGT Wong and PC Ip have observed, motorcycle accidents very often involve those who have good driving skills but fail to realise their own limits. Our clinical experience has shown a similar phenomenon - some police officers pushed to the verge of breakdown by pressure are capable and intelligent persons who constantly push themselves without realising their limits on vulnerability to stress. The wisdom lies in knowing where to stop while making all-out efforts!
Psychological Services Group
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