War on thousands of local borough council 'non-jobs'

leveller2911

Poppy9 wrote: »

OH has a private pension from his days of being self employed. It's !!!!!! but all he could afford. He has been public sector for last 10 years so will have something of a better pension to look forward. The price though has been his health. I doubt he will be able to work in his present job for very much longer due to ill health

So being employed has been more damaging to his health than when he was self employed? IMO that the exception rather than the rule.

When your self employed don't turn up for work then no pay and I think the Public sector should be run in the same way, its far to easy to get signed off work with stress , get full pay for 3-6 months and then half pay....

Poppy9

leveller2911 wrote: »

So being employed has been more damaging to his health than when he was self employed? IMO that the exception rather than the rule.

His health problems are directly related to his job. I don't want to go into details on here a it's personal but while it maybe the exception in your opinion it is what has happened and it's affected the whole family. LOL at all those who used to say he was "set for life now" 10 years ago when he joined the public sector.

leveller2911 wrote:

When your self employed don't turn up for work then no pay and I think the Public sector should be run in the same way, its far to easy to get signed off work with stess , get full pay for 3-6 months and then half pay....

Is it that easy to get signed off? Have to say I've never tried and judging by the sickness management that my OH has to deal with he is having far from an easy time of it.

When he was self employed he had to make sure what he earned when fit and well covered these sick days & holidays so his hourly rate would be higher than say an employee would earn to cover this. Much the same as agency workers get a higher hourly rate for same jobs as many council staff doing same job but their hourly rate includes sick/holliday pay allowances.

tomterm8

Poppy, I haven't seen you around on this forum, but talking to or even reading the White Horse's post is futile.

leveller2911

Poppy9 wrote: »

When he was self employed he had to make sure what he earned when fit and well covered these sick days & holidays so his hourly rate would be higher than say an employee would earn to cover this. Much the same as agency workers get a higher hourly rate for same jobs as many council staff doing same job but their hourly rate includes sick/holliday pay allowances.

Generally speaking self employed do charge more than an employed person gets paid, however we don't get paid holidays,redundancy pay, full pay when off sick and in the construction industry sent home when theirs snow,rain and laid off with a minutes notice so I guess the Construction industry isn't wrapped in cotton wool ......


Oh and despite paying class 2 NI and class4 NI (percentage of your profit) if we do get laid off work we get less benefits than employed people ...Seriously though if more employed people took a couple of years out of employment and tried going self employed they would know how well off they are being employed.....There are NO tax perks to being self employed anymore...

Personally I prefer self employment as to certain extent I'm master of my own destiny and not made redundant by some managerial non job cost cutting......

Yes It is that easy to get signed off for stress by GP,s ........TBH IMO people need to toughen up a bit .....I can understand how doctors ,nurses,surgeons etc suffer from stress but not LA jobs.


Having said all the above I do respect anyone who chooses work over a life on the dole.....

Blobby8_2

leveller2911 wrote: »

There are NO tax perks to being self employed anymore...

:rotfl::rotfl:

abaxas

Poppy9 wrote: »

I don't want my child's school to be driven by profit not by educational standards.

You'll find that your local school is driven by profit. Usually the profit of the headteacher's mates/family.

Nice article in the local paper about a school. Three chickens were stolen but that is nothing compared to the £7000 it cost to build the coop!

7k to keep 3 chickens and you say there is no profit.

Brallaqueen

In my experience it is management that cause the problems.
-the times our office has spent waiting because the department heads haven't reached an agreement in xyz - things that happen every ruddy year BTW! Too busy protecting their interests and playing at kingdoms...
-the manager who has come back from 4 years maternity leave (best friends with the head, who authorised that do you think...)
-the team that now has 2 managers due to her replacment having been confirmed for another 6 months (by management!)
-the year-round team created to manage a seasonal problem, now sitting twiddling thumbs until the summer (recruited by...)
-the wages earnt by our 'assistant head' who is chiefly in meetings promoting her own causes and ignores our teams issues as they are 'not in her remit' (unless the client is Christian, then she rolls out the red carpet)
-the director who will 'bend the rules' for wealthy and influental clients no matter what

Poppy9

tomterm8 wrote: »

Poppy, I haven't seen you around on this forum, but talking to or even reading the White Horse's post is futile.

No been away for a good while. Just got a bit bored. I get quiet satisfaction that I responded to each of WH points and that he/she didn't to my response

leveller2911 wrote: »

Generally speaking self employed do charge more than an employed person gets paid, however we don't get paid holidays,redundancy pay, full pay when off sick and in the construction industry sent home when theirs snow,rain and laid off with a minutes notice so I guess the Construction industry isn't wrapped in cotton wool ......


Oh and despite paying class 2 NI and class4 NI (percentage of your profit) if we do get laid off work we get less benefits than employed people ...Seriously though if more employed people took a couple of years out of employment and tried going self employed they would know how well off they are being employed.....There are NO tax perks to being self employed anymore...

Personally I prefer self employment as to certain extent I'm master of my own destiny and not made redundant by some managerial non job cost cutting......

Yes It is that easy to get signed off for stress by GP,s ........TBH IMO people need to toughen up a bit .....I can understand how doctors ,nurses,surgeons etc suffer from stress but not LA jobs.


Having said all the above I do respect anyone who chooses work over a life on the dole.....

I didn't get paid for snow days either. I had the choice of take leave or unpaid leave. Same for all LA staff except for those with disabilities and teachers.

Agree it's wrong on the NI contrib. and lower benefits. I grew up in a totally self employed household and my OH was self employed for about 15 years and that always agrieved me.

Holiday/sickness pay, as I said previously he had to make sure his pay when working was high enough to compensate for this. Guess this is why a private electrician will charge double the hourly rate that a LA electrician gets paid and why a window cleaner will charge me £15 to clean my windows (takes about 20 minutes) and the window cleaner in work gets min. wage. If they are fortunate to not be sick all year then they are quids in.

No tax perks to being self employed. Mmh that's assuming every self employed person declares their full turnover.

I agree though that eveyone should experience life working in all sectors, private, public and self employed as it's good all round experience and you can bring so much more to each roll.

I have seen and experienced things from all 3 angles and it does give you an understanding into each situation and the pros and cons of each, and there are pros and cons to each sector. I personally am proud to be a public sector work. I take pride in my work, I strive to do a good job and I endeavour to help whoever asks me for help. I will not put the phone down and say "wrong dept. sorry" if someone is ranting at me from the off because I know what it feels like to be fobbed off when I ring places like Virgin, Vodafone, British Gas, Bank etc. I abhor misinformation from public or private sector - I'm thinking of passport office wasting my time this week!

Stress can affect anyone. Usually a combination of factors which can include work of any sort, even LA. A bullying manager and feeling trapped in a job, victimisation by colleagues, being assaulted by service users. One of the most stressful jobs in LA is a child care Social Worker. Staff retention is a huge problem despite offering market supplements/retainers etc. for not a huge salary - less than 30k a year, unsociable hours, unpaid overtime, rising client numbers, they are most certainly vunerable to stress.

Brallaqueen wrote: »

In my experience it is management that cause the problems.
-the times our office has spent waiting because the department heads haven't reached an agreement in xyz - things that happen every ruddy year BTW! Too busy protecting their interests and playing at kingdoms...
-the manager who has come back from 4 years maternity leave (best friends with the head, who authorised that do you think...)
-the team that now has 2 managers due to her replacment having been confirmed for another 6 months (by management!)
-the year-round team created to manage a seasonal problem, now sitting twiddling thumbs until the summer (recruited by...)
-the wages earnt by our 'assistant head' who is chiefly in meetings promoting her own causes and ignores our teams issues as they are 'not in her remit' (unless the client is Christian, then she rolls out the red carpet)
-the director who will 'bend the rules' for wealthy and influental clients no matter what

Sometimes it can be shi!t can't it and so bloody frustrating when you really want to do a good job?

leveller2911

Poppy9 wrote: »

a window cleaner will charge me £15 to clean my windows (takes about 20 minutes) and the window cleaner in work gets min. wage. If they are fortunate to not be sick all year then they are quids in.

£15-00 for 20 minutes work, you are being ripped off, mine charges £4-00 for about 20minutes work, I would get another window cleaner, for £45-00 an hour I would happily pop round and clean your windys:D


No tax perks to being self employed. Mmh that's assuming every self employed person declares their full turnover.


Exactly my point, thats not a tax perk though, thats just being dis-honest, personally I want to be able to sleep well at night


Stress can affect anyone. Usually a combination of factors which can include work of any sort, even LA. A bullying manager and feeling trapped in a job, victimisation by colleagues, being assaulted by service users. One of the most stressful jobs in LA is a child care Social Worker. Staff retention is a huge problem despite offering market supplements/retainers etc.

Something we don't get being self employed



for not a huge salary - less than 30k a year, unsociable hours, unpaid overtime, rising client numbers, they are most certainly vunerable to stress.

Thats what its like in the real world day in day out and many would love £25k a year.When someones life is in your hands ,like a paramedic,surgeon , soldiers etc thats stress .

Sometimes it can be shi!t can't it and so bloody frustrating when you really want to do a good job?

I can imagine theres plenty of frustration in the Public sector , when you can see so much waste, so many cowboys and not enough indians , but thats not real stress..

Poppy9

My hubby did cancel the window cleaner as he thought was too expensive. When he can find one that will do it for less he will be able to give up cleaning them himself, unfortunately he hasn't been able to find one and I'm not going up the ladder:rotfl:

Not saying stress can't/doesn't affect self employed, just that it can affect anyone regardless of job and it's not linked to life and death. I know this as my mother had a breakdown when I was a child. Nothing to do with life or death situation, just some crap things going on in her life.

Yes there are lots of people who would love (and do) earn £25-30k in the private sector. However not many want to do a childcare social work job for any amount of money. If it was just a money issue they would all leave, go to the private agency who then place them with a LA and earn £60k a year but they don't. They stay in LA because they believe in what they are doing or they leave the profession completely.

One of my friends who is married to a self employed plumber decided age 35 she wanted to be a Social Worker. She had spent year in various jobs in private sector and helping her OH but really felt this was something she wanted to do. So she embarked on 12 months of volunteering working with older children, completed a 2 year degree course in social work, loved it. Got a job as soon as she graduated. Within 12 months her blood pressure was through the roof and her doctor told her (not her him) that she was suffering stress and had to take time off. So she took 2 months off and down came her BP. Back to work, up it goes again. No life and death situations just the sheer weight of so many peoples problems, so much work and so much travelling.