Would you want my job cut?

Sir_Humphrey

bendix wrote: »

I work in senior management for a large international law firm. My salary is paid for by a private company, NOT by the taxpayers.

You, on the other hand, are a public servant wasting my money protecting us from malfunctioning sparklers. That may or may not be a valuable use of my money: i don't know. But do us a favour; don't come on here during work hours and our expense expecting pats on the back and trying to justify your job.

You started this thread; noone else.

LOL! If there were no civil servants, you would no laws to work with!

BTW, did not mean to sound huffy with Lostinrates or CarolT

bendix

lostinrates wrote: »

What, internet use? Depends; if there was nothing gong on and other work was lean but I wanted to retain the employee I probably wouldn't freak about them being onthe internet occasionally. If they were on the internet and complaining that there was to much work etc, then I'd be explaining very clearly that this was not acceptable.

Do you know what your problem is lostinrates?

You let reason, logic and goodwill get in the way of a perfectly good hyperbolic rant.

Please stop it immediately . . I'm enjoying myself here.

Really2

If it needs to be yes
I think you have answered your own question as many views on here seem irrelevant to you.
Many people have been laid off that do important jobs. The civil service should not expect to be exempt from the recession. Your jobs can go just like the public sector.

Lets face it the civil service as become vastly overblown. A lot of dead wood can be removed without the tree falling down.

If you fear for your job you must feel your job is not essential.

bendix

Sir_Humphrey wrote: »

LOL! If there were no civil servants, you would no laws to work with!

BTW, did not mean to sound huffy with Lostinrates or CarolT

Nonsense. Most laws are originally drafted by lawyers, then sanctioned by civil servants. Don't kid yourself about your importance. The firm I work for is regularly seconded onto drafting committees.

And, more importantly, the vast majority of company law is developed by case law and precedents, not by anonymous mandarins in cheap suits and BHS rubber-soled shoes.

ILW

How many people work in the civil service?










About half of them.

Really2

bendix wrote: »

and BHS rubber-soled shoes.

They must not walk far they went years ago:)

carolt

bendix wrote: »

I work in senior management for a large international law firm. My salary is paid for by a private company, NOT by the taxpayers.

Interesting - so I take it your large international law firm does no work for government? Ever? Unlike say, Slaughter & May, which was recently shown, along with other 'large international law firms' to have taken enormous amounts of taxpayers money to work on the administration of Northern Rock?

Or did you just volunteer your services for free, out of the kindness of your heart?

Out of you and Sir Humph, I can guess pretty quickly who's higher paid - though I doubt you're more qualified.

You do something you think (I assume?) is valuable - he does something he thinks is valuable.

The rest of us don't know enough about either of your jobs to know who provides better value for money.

But to suggest that most money wasted by governments comes from overpaying civil servants is pretty juvenile - anyone who's ever worked in the public sector will confirm that the really criminal waste of taxpyers' money is that spent on employing private sector consultants, lawyers etc etc on a far, far higher rate than any civil servant could possibly dream of.

They come in from outside, without a clue of how things work, and the endless hum of "private sector = good, public sector = bad" being repeated under their breath.

Now, that DOES make me angry, as a taxpayer.

Sir_Humphrey

Really2 wrote: »

If it needs to be yes
I think you have answered your own question as many views on here seem irrelevant to you.
Many people have been laid off that do important jobs. The civil service should not expect to be exempt from the recession. Your jobs can go just like the public sector.

Lets face it the civil service as become vastly overblown. A lot of dead wood can be removed without the tree falling down.

If you fear for your job you must feel your job is not essential.

That was not my intention. My intention was to point out that the cuts in public spending that are likely to happen will have very negative effects, many of which do not occur to people.

Bendix, fair point about case law. However the point about drafting is a bit disingenuous - they draft the law in such a way that civil servants want - the lawyers are technical advisors. It is like claiming the bricklayer designed the house he built. The regs I work on are drafted by civil servants.

lostinrates

carolt wrote: »

Interesting - so I take it your large international law firm does no work for government? Ever? Unlike say, Slaughter & May, which was recently shown, along with other 'large international law firms' to have taken enormous amounts of taxpayers money to work on the administration of Northern Rock?.

TBF if the pr machine is right and this is actually going to save economy and not cost us in the long term, then the lawyers did a good job.

In other cases lawyers' work protects against other spending, or determines the public need compensation.

But I'm playing devil's advocate. (I think there is validity in what you say)

lostinrates

Sir_Humphrey wrote: »

That was not my intention. My intention was to point out that the cuts in public spending that are likely to happen will have very negative effects, many of which do not occur to people.
s.

But your intention doesn't rule our thoughts or intepretations. Neither you nor we can help that. I agree, with you point about 'not occuring to people'. This lead to a discussion about the safety of fireworks. It didn't seem to occur to anyone the dangerous position those blighters put me in!