300,000 jobs in public sector face the axe

Harry_Powell

Pennywise wrote: »

It's called being responsible, being self-reliant and looking to the future. Some day, her child(ren) will leave school and then the benefits will stop. If she has a good working history, perhaps picking up some extra qualifications on the way, she may be much further up the career ladder than if she just sat on her backside (like far too many claimants) waiting for the next giro to come through and then having to take whatever carp job she could get once the kids leave school and the benefits stop. Far too many people fail to see the bigger, long term picture. Just because you may not be much worse off today by being on benefits doesn't mean that will be the situation forever.

We're not talking here of staying home with the kids from birth until 18 here. In the case in point, her child is aged 5. Fine if she can get paid work that allows her to fit around school time, but I would imagiee they're few and far between (teaching assistant?) and pay even less than her current job. In reality her child will be dropped off at pre-school and post-school activity clubs, adding to an already long day for a 5 year old. The situation is made even worse if the child was a 3 year old. What then?

izzybusy23

Harry_Powell wrote: »

Why have kids and then have them raised by other people? If you're now a single parent family with an absent father, surely it's more important, not less for you to be at home with your child? Another generation of latchkey kids from broken homes is created.

TBH, I find it difficult to believe that anyone would choose to be at work, for less money that they would get by staying at home, and to pay other people to take care of their children while they did so. It seems a little dubious to me.

My daughter will hardly be latchkey! She is only 5.. and at school all day, I work 9.30 - 3.30 Mon - Thurs, and 9.30 - 2.30 (thats the beauty of working for LA's; the flexibility) so she gets dropped off at school by me and spends all of an hour in after school club playing with her friends and getting exercise for four days.. hardly going to cause her any hardship! And the reason I choose to work is for adult interaction and a sense of worth. I couldn't imagine being stuck at home all day, it would drive me nuts. I've pretty much worked all my life and thats how I hopefully intend to be until retirement.

He he, I love that I am getting 'slated' for going to work and creating a 'latchkey kid' from a broken home (not my choice, but her fathers) ... it sounds like you would rather I be a lazy fat !!!!! at home on benefits all day and be a sterotypical single parent! Make your mind up.

Just edited to say tax credits pays for out of school club; I am not working for less money than on benefits.. it would be about the same, or slightly less on benefits; but I am hardly going to put myself of work.. and as Pennywise says, its not all about 'today' but the future. If I took a long career break now until my daughter was in secondary school, I would be way down on the list of pickings for jobs, and I'm not getting any younger.

exil

I think everyone here who has a go at either the public sector or the private sector should be obliged to say
1. which sector they work in now
2. if they are consumed with envy of people in the sector they don't work in, to explain why they didn't get a job in it themselves.

Personally, when I've been looking for jobs, I just apply for jobs until I get one, which sector it's in doesn't matter, as long as they pay me.

And now I work in the private (non profit) sector but dependent on government funding so I don't know if this puts me in the axis of evil or not.

izzybusy23

exil wrote: »

I think everyone here who has a go at either the public sector or the private sector should be obliged to say
1. which sector they work in now
2. if they are consumed with envy of people in the sector they don't work in, to explain why they didn't get a job in it themselves.

Personally, when I've been looking for jobs, I just apply for jobs until I get one, which sector it's in doesn't matter, as long as they pay me.

And now I work in the private (non profit) sector but dependent on government funding so I don't know if this puts me in the axis of evil or not.

I'm the same, apply for anything and everything and take the one that offers the job, regardless of what sector.

Ive worked for both private and public; been made redundant THREE times from the private sector and now facing redundancy from the public sector.. redundancy follows me round like a big black cloud.

kriss_boy

Ive never understood the snobbery of public vrs. private.

Surely when you leave uni or school you make a decision about where you want to work? Is it so hard to believe that many in the public sector do work hard- trying to stretch their budgets as far as possible whilst providing a good customer services to a largely ungreatful general public?

I take most peoples remarks with a pinch of salt because I left the private sector for a safer job with a good pension and flexible working hours that afford me more time with my girlfriend and possibly a young family of my own one day.

How can I be critised for that?

donaldtramp

I left the private sector for a safer job with a good pension and flexible working hours that afford me more time with my girlfriend and possibly a young family of my own one day.

How can I be critised for that?

Because you've been living on the back of other people and taking money from their tax to fund and guarantee your "good pension" perhaps?

Other people have to work and provide for families as well. Most of us are now unhappy that we have been taking all the pain, paying the public sector's wages and pensions whilst they avoid all of the pain.

Time for a reality check.

marklv

donaldtramp wrote: »

So where do you work now? public or private?

I still work in the public sector, but if I get made redundant I will just move on and look for other opportunities. That's life. But why should I join you and attack the so-called privileged class of the public sector? It's nothing of the sort and you are utterly blind in not seeing it. Go and work in the public sector for a couple of years, just try it and see.

marklv

donaldtramp wrote: »

Because you've been living on the back of other people and taking money from their tax to fund and guarantee your "good pension" perhaps?

Other people have to work and provide for families as well. Most of us are now unhappy that we have been taking all the pain, paying the public sector's wages and pensions whilst they avoid all of the pain.

Time for a reality check.

Nonsensical rubbish born of envy - precisely what you accuse the so-called 'lefties' of. If you envy the public sector pension, go and bl**dy well work there!! :mad:

marklv

izzybusy23 wrote: »

I'm the same, apply for anything and everything and take the one that offers the job, regardless of what sector.

Ive worked for both private and public; been made redundant THREE times from the private sector and now facing redundancy from the public sector.. redundancy follows me round like a big black cloud.

Join the club!

I really don't understand this vitriolic hatred that a lot of people have against the public sector. You see it here and also in the BBC 'have your say' forums etc. At the end of the day we are in the same boat - a sinking one! It's a myth that the public sector has been put in a protected bubble - it has never been the case. Public sector employees have never been immune to redundancy and their pension benefits have been greatly offset by lower benefits in other areas.

And then the free-market fanatics whine like pigs when the subject of taxing the rich gets raised! They envy the public sector pensions (big deal) but get hugely defensive when their £100k+ salaries and 5 bedroom detached houses in the home counties are put under the examination of the taxman. They are happy to steal the pension of a hard working tax inspector on £50k a year, but when their much higher income gets targeted then they spit venom everywhere. If this isn't hypocrisy I don't know what is.

i8change

Originally Posted by bendix
I love marklv. I really do.

He left the private sector for some 'safety' job in the public sector, and now he is railing against the fact that he's in the firing line.

marklv will be fine.

The reality is that there are plenty like me, approaching 50, that will be queuing up for the original, legally binding and generous, redundancy terms, on a voluntary basis.

For the rest, most "pre-surplus" government workers will be moved to other government agencies and natural wastage allowed to take its course.

Free money from bendix taxpayer types and plenty of time for my hobbies is a real sweetner.