The economic shock of COVID-19 will touch everyone, and public servants are no exception.
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That was made clear today when the federal government decided to delay pay rises for Commonwealth bureaucrats by six months.
In case it wasn't clear enough, the assistant minister taking the reins of the Australian Public Service during the pandemic, Ben Morton, spelled it out. "While communities are doing it tough, it's important the APS helps share the economic burden," he said.
Public servants are under great pressure to implement the government's measures to fight the pandemic. Now, the government is telling them to do a bit more.
The wage delay involves a calculation. Pay rises would have put a bit more cash into the economy. The wage freeze involves relatively small sums for the federal budget.
Two things override all in the government's thinking. It's decided to do everything it can to show it's sharing the economic sacrifices with Australians.
It's also calculated that COVID-19 has forced it to spend such colossal sums of money that even the modest savings it will make from deferring pay rises are needed.
Considering the economic crash playing out in the private sector, it's comparatively a very small sacrifice. Public servants aren't losing jobs en masse and will eventually get their pay rises.
Words go far, but some would argue the best way to acknowledge good work is appropriate pay.
That doesn't make it any less a hard note to end the last few weeks on, as Commonwealth employees come into Easter.
The pay rises on the way - no greater than 2 per cent under the government's bargaining rules - were not large.
Recent history makes an unfortunate backdrop to this. Morale already took a battering in some workplaces after the fraught round of enterprise negotiations from 2014 to 2017. The public service has sustained decades of the efficiency dividend - annual cuts to budgets. For many years, there have been job cuts.
There's a danger the wage rise freeze will leave some public servants wondering, if they don't already, whether their work is valued. It comes with a potential cost for morale at a critical time.
Mr Morton was quick to pre-empt all that, saying everyone in the government from the Prime Minister down appreciated the work of public servants during the pandemic.
Before he handed over to Mr Morton, minister assisting the Prime Minister for the public service Greg Hunt wrote a letter thanking the bureaucracy for its dedication.
Words go far, but some would argue the best way to acknowledge good work is appropriate pay.
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What's an appropriate wage is of course changing as COVID-19 unfolds. That's one of the many brutal economic side effects that will be felt throughout all sectors in coming months and years.
In a small way, it's being felt already in the public service.
The bureaucracy has shown it understands the enormity of the task in its hands. It's rising to the occasion, as staff volunteer to be redeployed to areas of need. Public servants are working long hours, and quickly learning new tasks.
For them, a wage freeze is another part of the grind ahead.