"Being Processed" — Processed to What Extent, Exactly?
— An Account of a Certain Brigade of the 76th Group Army Grasping and Rectifying the Work Style of Its Organs
■ Li Xuancheng, Ke Jintao, PLA Daily Special Correspondents, Zhou Yun
In summer, officers and soldiers of a certain company of a certain brigade of the 76th Group Army were in the midst of intensive preparations for a driving proficiency examination. Watching everyone work with full vigor, the company commander, Ren, furrowed his brow — the company lacked training aids such as restriction poles, forcing officers and soldiers to substitute improvised equipment, which significantly undermined training effectiveness. They had submitted a request to the organ for new equipment some time earlier, but days had passed and the equipment had still not arrived.
Second-Class Staff Sergeant Wang Qi, standing nearby, noticed Company Commander Ren's frustration and suggested: "Commander, why don't we ask the organ?" Company Commander Ren let out a sigh: "I'm afraid asking will be pointless."
After some deliberation, Company Commander Ren still picked up the phone to inquire. The organ personnel on the other end asked him to wait a moment before giving a reply: "It has already been coordinated — expected to arrive within one week." Hanging up the phone, Company Commander Ren and Wang Qi exchanged glances, both with a look of mild surprise — in the past, getting such a clear answer was not common.
Just a few months earlier, when requesting training equipment in the same way, officers and soldiers of the company had inquired with the organ several times and received nearly identical replies each time: "Please rest assured, it is being processed." This phrase, seemingly polite and thorough, left the hearts of grassroots officers and soldiers unsettled. "It's not that we're rushing the organ — it's that training won't wait!" said Company Commander Ren. "If we know when the equipment will arrive, we can arrange the training schedule accordingly. But with the organ giving us a single 'being processed,' all we can do is wait."
Previously, similar situations were not uncommon in the brigade, to the point that "don't fear things being hard to handle, just fear the organ saying it's being processed" had become a rather popular saying. Brigade leadership, through investigation and research, found that this saying reflected certain phenomena worth noting — equipment faults reported for repair received the reply "currently being coordinated"; inquiries about the progress of leave approvals were answered with "currently being submitted for approval"; reimbursement of travel expenses for study and training was answered with "currently being processed"... On the surface, everything had a response; in reality, the responses contained no answers.
Why the persistent preference for replying "being processed"? One organ staff officer frankly admitted: "Sometimes we are genuinely too busy and can only reply that way first." Another organ cadre added: "Or the relevant work is indeed being advanced, but we each have our own division of responsibilities and cannot keep a detailed grasp of the situation at all times. We can hardly tell the grassroots 'I don't know either,' so we can only first tell them 'being processed' and then go ask the specific person in charge." Beyond this, there were individual comrades who believed that the organ was short-staffed and overburdened, and that as long as they ensured things were "being processed" and notified the grassroots promptly once completed, there was no need to be "on call at any moment" or "answer every question immediately" for the grassroots.
"Nothing at the grassroots level is a trivial matter — a single reply from organ personnel directly affects soldiers' combat readiness, training, work, and daily life. A phrase like 'being processed' reflects the fact that some comrades have not firmly established the concept of 'grassroots first, soldiers first' (基层至上、士兵第一)." At the subsequent special analysis meeting, the brigade's political commissar's words cut straight to the point: "We always say we serve the soldiers, but if we cannot even give a clear answer, how can we provide good follow-on service?"
Shortly thereafter, targeting organ problems of "vague replies, unclear progress, and delayed feedback," the brigade quickly promulgated the Eighteen Measures for Serving Soldiers (《为兵服务18条措施》), requiring all functional sections, when facing grassroots officers and soldiers, to resolutely eliminate vague replies such as "being processed" and "wait a bit longer," and to clearly inform them of required materials and processing progress, achieving "every question answered, every answer substantiated" (问有所答、答有所据).
In addition, the measures explicitly required that for matters with complete documentation that meet regulations, a system of "on-the-spot acceptance and time-limited completion" be implemented; for complex matters requiring coordinated handling by multiple departments, a joint response mechanism should be established, with regular public disclosure of progress and notification of where things stand; for matters that do not meet the conditions for processing, patient explanation should be provided, eliminating the cold practice of "refusing outright" or "repeatedly sending back." Building on this, the brigade also established a follow-up mechanism for resolving difficulties and hardships, tracking the quality of matter handling, understanding organ service attitudes, and collecting officers' and soldiers' opinions and suggestions. Upon discovering situations of sluggish handling or perfunctory replies, on-the-spot criticism and notification would be issued, with time-limited rectification and accountability, compelling organ cadres to transform their work style and improve efficiency.
Today, in the brigade, "every matter has a response, every item has an outcome, and feedback is provided at all times" has become the norm for organ service to the grassroots. A few days ago, a certain battalion submitted an engine repair application to the Equipment Maintenance Section. Section Chief Feng, after inquiring in detail about the fault situation, clearly informed them that he would coordinate and arrange for a repair technician to come on-site the following morning. "One clear reply is worth more than a hundred 'please rest assured's!" said First-Class Staff Sergeant Gao Huajian of the battalion, who had submitted the application. "Now when we go to the organ to get things done, we no longer have to keep it in mind or ask around constantly. Nobody says that saying anymore!"
Brief Commentary
Service Requires Not Only a "Smile" but Also Real Results
■ Zhang Xing
A phrase like "please rest assured, it is being processed" may seem polite and gentle, but in reality it is vague language that "meets all changes with no change." This approach of "hearing only footsteps on the stairs but never seeing anyone come down" — "smiling yet failing to act" — not only strips the originally warm words of their warmth, but will also chill the hearts of grassroots officers and soldiers through the perfunctory attitude of some organ cadres.
When grassroots officers and soldiers inquire about the progress of their matters, what they hope for is not empty reassurance, but clear progress and definite timelines. Therefore, for organs dealing with the grassroots, a good attitude of "smiling service" alone is far from sufficient. Polite and thorough replies that yield no tangible results — however warm the words or enthusiastic the attitude — amount to nothing more than "surface-level effort."
The urgent, difficult, worrying, and long-awaited needs of the grassroots cannot afford to wait and must not be delayed. Some matters may appear minor, but they directly bear on combat capability building. Only by actively listening to the voices of officers and soldiers, precisely meeting their needs, and converting a good attitude into concrete action can organs truly put officers' and soldiers' minds at ease.