Smile and dress modestly, civil servants told

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia's civil servants must get over their grumpiness, answer queries with a smile and stop wearing shorts to work, according to a new code of conduct that came into force this month.

The code says civil servants "must act professionally and kindly," "provide true and timely information" and "respect citizens' personality and dignity." They must keep citizens' business confidential and behave with dignity in public.

Although it does not set a dress code, it rules out "disproportionately short skirts, tops with revealing decolletage or narrow straps, short or see-through blouses and short pants."

Serbia has some 250,000 civil servants, a bloated number from when it was the centre of much larger socialist Yugoslavia.

Despite the modest salary, they are coveted posts because of the short hours, job security and lingering sense of power. But for ordinary Serbs, the civil service represents a culture of grumpy, unhelpful and long-winded bureaucracy.

(Reporting by Ljilja Cvekic, Editing by Ellie Tzortzi)