Civil Servant Bashing

thriftyminx13

Am I the only person sick of civil servant bashing from the media and now Minister Poots?! Every day I listen in to Radio Ulster, mainly for the traffic report, but also to hear the craic. As it goes, there doesn't appear to be anything else going on in Northern Ireland bar the politicians and then how rubbish civil servants are!

I, for one am sick of it!! I work hard for my pay as a civil servant and am struggling with the resources that I have to achieve everything that my branch, department and minister want. Sick leave - what a pile of tosh that there is a culture of "sick leave is a bonus" - this so rarely happens ,especially nowdays. I'd actually love to know WHO these people are? Cause I certainly don't know anyone who doesn't give their best to do their job. The problem is is that the sick leave also counts industrial staff and also staff from Social and Benefits department who tend to have higher sick leave due to physical injury in the former and stress in the latter. But if you listened to the radio ulster you would think we are all off for weeks and weeks as a bonus! In 6 years I have had 3 days off sick leave because of a bad back - hardly weeks. And in fact the sick leave is so strict that you can't have a day sick if you are on 6 months probation even if you are sick. Apparently you have a duty of care not to come in to give it to other staff but if you take a day off you can have probation terms extended or a written warning and can't go for any transfers etc.

Every day journalists send in FOI requests just to get some scandal. From recent memory there have been "big news items" on number of unused flights over 10 years; sick leave; and irish lessons.

I personally would like to hear the media telling me about the good news items. What we are doing or what we have achieved, wouldn't that help morale and bring attention to the public what services are out there.

tight_arze

I worked for the Civil Service for a year on a temporary contract and I did witness a lot of inefficiency and poor management while working there.

I recall one day I was actually told off for doing my work too quickly. I do think Civil Servants get a bad press. Im sure there are plenty of hard workers in the CS but unfortunately the press almost always report the bad before the good.

I now work in the private sector and there is a hell of lot more pressure than when I worked in the CS. If Im not up to scratch or take a lot of sick days the company would get rid of me fairly quickly. Can you honestly say this would be the same in the CS?

Golden_Anemone

Yes tight_arze, I can and will say that. The managing attendance procedures now in place across the NICS mean that anyone off sick on 4 occasions OR for 20 days is liable to inefficiency procedures which can result, if there is no improvement, in dismissal on grounds of incapability. People are dismissed every month for this reason.

As to not being up to scratch - Radio Ulster interviewed an employment lawyer this morning who explained that an organisation the size of the NICS had more hoops to jump through than small employers in terms of proving incompetence. She said that if someone wasn't doing their job properly NICS would have to demonstrate that they gave them every opportunity to improve before dismissal and it would only be reasonable for that to mean they were offered an alternative post if they weren't up to scratch with one. Poots seems to forget that there are employment laws in force which the NICS must adhere to.

Poots was also talking through his arze when he said he wasn't able to make surplus staff redundant but had to redeploy them in other departments. Why would his department want to pay redundancy to excess staff when there were jobs in other departments? He could of course have focussed on the real issue with his department - that £60,000 was paid in bonuses last year to senior civil servants in Planning who had under-performed - but no, he needs to keep his senior officials sweet so he bashes the people who actually do some work for little reward.

Yet another example of our grossly overpaid and completely unqualified politicians making it up as they go along to the dismay of the officials who have to do their ridiculous bidding.

motorguy

thriftyminx13 wrote: »

I, for one am sick of it!!

Best take a fortnight off then.

motorguy

Sorry to hear that you're having to live like the rest of us in the 'real world' thrifty, but you have to admit that there are desperate desperate inefficiencies in many civil service departments.

A friend of mine is an IT contractor in the civil service and he says pretty much everyone in the office hes in runs a business on the side - car sales, pub, property developer - you name it they can do it during working hours!

The staff come in late, sit and chat for 20 mins, read the paper, then have a smoke break, then a coffee break, then nip down the office for a chat with a friend. Not much point in starting anything new before lunch, best leave it to after....

Oh and then theres the 'perks'

35hr week
finally salary pension
possibility of retiring at 55 (was 50)
flexi time
30 days hols a year

Where do i sign up?

thriftyminx13

pgilc1 wrote: »

Sorry to hear that you're having to live like the rest of us in the 'real world' thrifty, but you have to admit that there are desperate desperate inefficiencies in many civil service departments.

A friend of mine is an IT contractor in the civil service and he says pretty much everyone in the office hes in runs a business on the side - car sales, pub, property developer - you name it they can do it during working hours!

The staff come in late, sit and chat for 20 mins, read the paper, then have a smoke break, then a coffee break, then nip down the office for a chat with a friend. Not much point in starting anything new before lunch, best leave it to after....

Oh and then theres the 'perks'

35hr week
finally salary pension
possibility of retiring at 55 (was 50)
flexi time
30 days hols a year

Where do i sign up?

37.5 hrs a week actually and flexi time is great but, i will have to work until I am 67, and 25 annual leave days a year but yes we get public holidays.

name your friends department...or are they all subcontracted in? you are talking out your arze me thinks. but yet again even if true, tarnish us all.

Golden_Anemone

I do get 30 days leave - it increased once I had 15 years service. Grades below mine have to work even longer before it goes up.

I have had 1 period of sick leave, duration 3 days, in the last 10 years. The vast majority of NICS staff have very little sick leave. A few people with long term sick leave account for about 80% of all sick leave.

The final salary pension reflects the lower wages paid for equivalent responsibility than is the case in the private sector. A few years ago I had a post as a project / contract manager which required me to travel to England every Monday morning and back every Friday night for about 6 months negotiating terms on a £29 million contract. I was paid less than £22k when the private sector equivalent was over £40k.

Like thriftyminx I will be well over 60 before I've earned a full pension. Of course, as I could in any job, I'll be able to choose to retire earlier for less money.

I started work at 7.45 this morning and worked until well after 6. Flexi starts at 8 and ends at 6 and what's the point when I won't get time to take it all anyway. I actually really enjoy my work inspite of the long hours it requires so it's not a huge issue for me.


If what your friend told you is true - and I actually doubt it is - then that office is totally untypical of anywhere I've worked in the NICS in the last 20 years. Yes, there are some who abuse the system but these are a tiny few in a massive organisation and processes have been put in place that mean they will not get away with things for ever.

tara747

pgilc1 wrote: »

Where do i sign up?

Same place as everyone else:

http://archive.nicsrecruitment.gov.uk/

Witless

thriftyminx13 wrote: »

37.5 hrs a week actually

I hate to burst your bubble, but you work a 42 hour week - assuming,of course, that the wonderful long lunch - all 35 mins of it - is a paid break.

Have a look at both your payslip and the NICS Handbook.

And anyone who berates Civil Servants for the wonderful pension scheme should have a detailed look at NUVOS - it might alter their perception.

icelandic_queen

I agree with Golden Anemone re the sick leave. I work for hrConnect, (for now) and deal with Civil Servants on a daily basis. The basic pay is not great and contrary to general opinion many civil servants are quite well educated. However, a word of caution to Civil Servants, I feel that the general reorganisation of the NICS may result in redundancies. The NICS have forecast their recruitment for 2010-2011 to decrease by 78% hence why almost 50 staff in hrConnect are currently going through the redundancy process, myself included. It will only take 1 department to take the plunge and the rest may follow.

MrsE_2

tight_arze wrote: »

I now work in the private sector and there is a hell of lot more pressure than when I worked in the CS. If Im not up to scratch or take a lot of sick days the company would get rid of me fairly quickly. Can you honestly say this would be the same in the CS?

I work for local gov.

Actual bodies haven't been cut in my directorate (yet) but job posts have - meaning vacancies won't be filled & temps won't be kept on.

We go into next year with less money, less staff & the same (& growing)workload:(

My team is as lean & trim as they come & our workload is truely amazing.