Purpose – the paper aims to present public administration as a managerial organisation which puts many requirements on its employees, respectively on officials in public administration. In today’s globalised society, the boundaries between the public and private sectors are mutually intertwined. The difficulty of official’s profession, both in terms of knowledge and psychology, is often wrongly criticised by civil society. The paper intends to point out the particular requirements and specify the risks carried by this profession.

Research methodology – the basic methods used are from the area of qualitative research. These are methods of analysis, induction and deduction. The method of description is used in the whole paper.

Findings – the result of the article is the identification of the principal risks and threats in the exercise of official activity.

Research limitations – the authors of the article see a certain limit that it is impossible to assess the demandingness of the official’s performance in terms of the quantitative, as the structure of executive positions within the Czech Republic is problematic.

Practical implications – the identified risks can be beneficial for human resources management in public administration, to avoid frequent burnout in this profession.

Originality/Value – the paper presents the new perspective of a public servant.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3846/cibmee.2019.047