Private Sector Cant Mop Up Public Sector Job Cuts

Jennifer_Jane

zappahey wrote: »

I don't think you understand quite how it works. Those who jump are those who have the get up and go to make it elsewhere.

The unemployable hang on for dear life.

This is obviously true to an extent, but what are the redundancy packages like in the public sector? I would be hanging on for that for dear life, and if you're over 50 or 55 or something, you can probably get a lovely pension without the usual penalties - perhaps a lot of people don't need another job?

(So they can now go off and volunteer for The Big Society, and give back something to Society - perhaps?)

Andy_L

What sector are the "500 companies surveyed by Barclays Corporate and the Financial Times" if there, say, Manufacturing and Retail then its hardly surprising that they don't believe "these workers were "not equipped" for a job in their business" since the public sector dosen't do much in the way of either anymore.

1984ReturnsForReal_2

zappahey wrote: »

The unemployable hang on for dear life.

Hang on a sec.

£5-10k redundancy or jump ship?

I think a majority would hang on for the money.

katkim

Starrystarrynight wrote: »

I was quite shocked to hear this report on the radio this morning. I've worked in both the public and private sectors and not found much difference between them. There are good people in both and lazy people in both.

I've worked in both public and private and I find this too - I've met many people in both sectors who were useless and without the skills or personality to do their jobs well, and many people in public and private companies who were excellent.

I would say this article says more about the prejudice of those hiring then it does about ex-public sector workers.

However, it's little comfort to say that the employers could be potentially missing out, because if the views are a true and accurate representation of those hiring, the prejudice would cost someone their chance to get re-employed. It's a sad situation.

Orpheo

At my wife's place of work they have decided not to replace 2 full timers that have left over the last 12 months. The govt keep pestering my wife to take unemployed people for work placements because the govt thinks that horticulture is unskilled. Horticulture is not unskilled. Needless to say my wife keeps sending them away.

Orpheo

Old_Slaphead wrote: »

I interviewed a public sector applicant several months ago and he seemed incredulous that we only offered 20 days pa leave, no flexitime and only statutory sick pay.

And as for the much vaunted private sector co cars, gym memberships, bonuses, expense accouts, subsidised canteens etc etc - err no, we don't offer those either!

Very entertaining. If only you hadn't made this up.

Thrugelmir

1984ReturnsForReal wrote: »

Hang on a sec.

£5-10k redundancy or jump ship?

I think a majority would hang on for the money.

I've seen 3 years gross salary as the redundancy entitlement in one ex public sector employees contract. The wonders of TUPE.

Made restructuring the acquisition somewhat difficult.

(The contract was written in the early 80's).

Old_Slaphead

Orpheo wrote: »

Very entertaining. If only you hadn't made this up.

Which bit did I make up?

Pennywise

In my experience the trouble is that a lot of ex-public sector (and ex-large private sector) staff have a very narrow range of experience. It's the old "one man, one job" production line approach where each person only does "their bit" and passes the job to the next in line, and so on. In the private sector, certainly the small to medium sized firms, they need staff with lots of skills and experience to multi-task.

As an example, I was recruiting someone to run the purchase ledger in a factory. I needed someone who would enter the bills as they were received, check them against the purchase orders, write the cheques, and then pass the "file" to the director who would sign the cheque and return the file for the purchase ledger person to then envelope it and put it in the post tray. All very simple and normal for a small-medium firm. I interviewed a few people from the public sector and they just couldn't comprehend doing the whole job, start to finish or being solely responsible for the suppliers to deal with queries etc - all they had was experience of one particular component of the whole job. One had experience in checking bills against purchase orders, but had never checked a supplier statement against the purchase ledger, and so on.

Another time, I interviewed for a payroll clerk - again to do the whole job, i.e. enter time from timesheets, create payslips, pay the HMRC, draft the BACS payment summaries, deal with employee queries, create and process P45s etc. I interviewed a guy from the BT payroll department and during the interview it became clear he hadn't a clue as to what components of pay were both taxable and NIable, which were just taxable, and which weren't taxable at all - all he'd ever done was enter numbers onto a computer screen. He also, amazingly, had never dealt with a P46 and only a scant knowledge of P45s.

In both cases, I ended up with recruiting from other small-medium sized firms and got staff who'd done exactly the same jobs we were offering in their previous employment, meaning we didn't have the hassle of training and supervising them through a protracted induction period. They both arrived and both hit the ground running which was exactly what we needed.

Sadly, I think that whilst there are good staff unemployed from private sector roles, they'll be ahead in the queue for whatever new jobs are created. The public and private sector are apples & pears. I heard it a lot the other way too, where people with a private sector small-medium firm background couldn't get jobs in the public sector or larger firms.

Orpheo

Old_Slaphead wrote: »

Which bit did I make up?

Oh come on?

You've constructed a plausible fantasy to confirm your prejudices about public sector workers.

Now excuse me while I go and construct my own implausible fantasy involving myself, Natalie Portman and Darcy Bussell.