Any Public Sector workers here?

tawse57

Have to admit to being quite concerned about all this talk of 600,000 public sector jobs to go in the next few years. I think at one point they said it would be 720,000 once they accounted for not replacing those who are retiring in that time.

I was just wondering if there any public sector workers on here and if the above news has made you think twice about buying or selling your home? Or do you know some public sector workers who are having second thoughts.

A senior guy I know in the local Council has put his house on the market because he thinks he will be lucky to hold onto his job - and he is a senior person - who said that locals have no idea how bad the cuts will be.

Quite worrying.

Does this enter into your thoughts when buying?

RuthnJasper

Hi Tawse (not going to ask what YOU would use a Tawse for ;-) ... naughty, naughty!),

I'm an Area Officer for a County Council. Yes; times are bad. My pay has been frozen for at least two years (at time of writing). _pale_

However; cuts are presently being made through not replacing retirees or those leaving through normal (handing-in notice) procedures and those of us who remain picking up the slack.

I have been told by my line manager that redundancy will be the absolute last resort - they cannot sack or make you redundant unless there are real, genuine reasons.

Yes. Times are tough for us public sector workers. And - yes - I believe there are a lot of corporate 'nonsense' posts that could be cut (such as the recent non-job highlighted in the media - one Greater-London council apparently advertised for a "Waste Management Systems Cheerleader").

Personally - I'd steer well clear of the housing market at the moment, as long as I was physically and mentally secure where I was (if you know what I mean).

Of course I fear for the future - but I am also grateful to have a (relatively - I'm in a 'non-nonsense' post and do my work well) secure job in these troubled times. My advice - as in any storm at sea or on land - would be to batten down the hatches, be grateful for what you have (as opposed to resentful for what you DON'T currently have) - and ride out the storm. It will pass.

Hope this, in some way, helps. If not - I hope someone will pop along here with more salient advice for you very soon.

Good luck. x

tawse57

Thanks RuthnJasper, interesting inside info.

I am finding it hard to reconcile what I read in the media - 600,000 jobs to go - and constant stories about planned job cuts but I don't see or hear of any happening.

I wonder if it has something to do with that 100 day consultation that needs to go on in the public sector and wonder if we will suddenly see a flood of redundancies in Sept or Oct?

It is a worry about house buying and I note that you say you would not go near housing now. I can only think that loads of people losing their jobs in every Council in the country will result in lots of forced sellers which will drive down prices?

I use the tawse to swat things :-)

PasturesNew

Forecast 2,000 jobs to be lost in Cornwall. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-10781111

I don't even know what a tawse is, first time I've seen the word... *goes to google it*

frank.hopper

Yes dear! <roll eyes>

Here is a two fingered one.

Running_Horse

This would probably be more suited for the house price and economy board.

Welcome to the same uncertainty those of us in the private sector have had all of our working lives.

mrcol1000

There a lot of council workers and managers who have had an easy life and have spent all day doing little for the last ten years are suddenly very nervous. Us council workers who are forced to work harder than our low salary pays us to are pretty confident.
Basically if your a manager who don't have anyone to manage or are bored at work or you have a non-job that doesn't really fufill any real priorty then you should be worried.

davmail

I work for a local authority,and have done the same job for 21 years,and believe me there are people who deserve to lose their jobs,as they do not do the work they are paid for,and don't care if they do it or not,and let others down by not doing so,my council's ASB section is completely and utterly useless,the staff do not deal with the problems at all.They should be very worried.

twirlypinky

I work in a hospital, I'm probably one of the managers that so many people think the NHS can do without.

I can tell you now, there are very few people here that are "spare" if any at all. I'm currently working 45 hours a week and only getting paid for 37.5 of them because we're short staffed as it is. We have been squeezed and squeezed and squeezed over the last three years, with millions of pounds in savings schemes already in place. I just can't see where else it can be pulled from.

The 600k posts that are being pulled won't be all actual people in post, we can't afford the redundancy pay. It'll be through not replacing staff that leave.

I think one of the biggest (and now unavoidable) costs to the public sector are all the overpriced PFI schemes. They're a huge huge debt to many organisations that are almost un-negotiable.

arby

i'm not sure why the current frenzy over public sector job-losses. Since the recession, there's been well over a million private sector job losses while the public sector has increased employment. All this means is that now the pain will be shared a little more evenly. Sure, it's bad for people involved, but welcome to the world that most people have lived in their whole lives, ie, fear of redundancy, pay freezes when money is short, constant 'restructuring'. It's not pretty, but that's how businesses have to operate to stay efficient. Hopefully the public sector can become more efficient without too much disruption.

twirlypinky

arby wrote: »

i'm not sure why the current frenzy over public sector job-losses. Since the recession, there's been well over a million private sector job losses while the public sector has increased employment. All this means is that now the pain will be shared a little more evenly. Sure, it's bad for people involved, but welcome to the world that most people have lived in their whole lives, ie, fear of redundancy, pay freezes when money is short, constant 'restructuring'. It's not pretty, but that's how businesses have to operate to stay efficient. Hopefully the public sector can become more efficient without too much disruption.

This isn't about making the situation more fair.
1) Most public sector organisations have already frozen recruitment and made many posts redundant over the last three years, only you don't get to hear about it because it's a post rather than a person. We don't have that many more staff we can actually lose.

2)It's reached the stage where front line services are going to suffer and that isn't just a case of "oh well it's about time the public sector felt it" it's a case of WERE ALL going to feel it. You're going to wait longer at the hospital, it's going to take longer to get an appointment at the GP, women giving birth are going to have to share their midwife with more other women, the council are going to take longer to process just about anything, parks are not going to be maintained, roads will be maintained less regularly, police men are going to have to reduce their presence at large events to avoid loss on the streets, patient transport services will struggle to get patients to and from hospital on time...

The public sector isn't just a bunch of people you pay for through your taxes. We run the support structure in this country.