Public Sector Workers

Hammyman

yellowlawn wrote: »

Why is the Public Sector being punished like this when it's the banks that brought us to this in the first place and they get off Scot free. I say the most secure job today is within the Private Sector working for a bank.

People haven't let the banks off but the public sector has just come under more scrutiny. The views I have are the ones I've held for a very long time.

You'll find the waste in the Public Sector comes from senior management.

Not IME. The waste I've experienced has come from the incompetency of the people I've had to deal with. One only has to go through the job application process for departments such as DWP to see the absolutely abysmal low standard of numeracy and literacy required to pass their entry tests to figure out that you're not getting the brightest bulbs in the pack.

I am not saying all public workers are bad but I've seen and experienced enough to know that they're the minority that proves the rule.

Lets take our local council "craftsmen", road workers etc. They drive vehicles that are legally capable of doing 50MPH on the road between our town and the next where one of the main depots is. So what speed do we find these people doing? 30-35 in a NSL and usually when there's a queue of traffic between 8-9am and 3.30-4pm you'll find a council van at the front. Why? Because over the day, they get to waste an additional 30 minutes just pottering from their depot to the first job and from the last job back to the depot which they don't have to "work" - that is the equivalent of 1/4 of an entire working day lost in a week or TWO AND A HALF FULL WORKING WEEKS OF LOST WORK PER YEAR SOLELY FROM DELIBERATELY HANGING THE BAG OUT AND TOSSING IT OFF.
And the above doesn't even take into account the extended lunch and tea breaks.

basscadette

Hammyman wrote: »

TWO AND A HALF FULL WORKING WEEKS OF LOST WORK PER YEAR SOLELY FROM DELIBERATELY HANGING THE BAG OUT AND TOSSING IT OFF.
And the above doesn't even take into account the extended lunch and tea breaks.

Love this - had me giggling out loud and I am very miserable at the moment :rotfl:

Hammyman

Abingson wrote: »

I find it crazy that any private sector workers think public have it better off.

Spoken like someone who never has worked in the real world or hasn't for so long they've forgotten the reality.

We've had pay freezes for years, are considerably lower paid than our similarly skilled private sector counterparts.

We've had pay CUTS. The wages in the job I used to do are back to 2001 levels. Yours? In my area, public sector jobs pay more than the private sector equivalents.

Supposedly this is because there is security in the public sector. This hasn't been true for years, about twenty years ago smaller offices started to go and it's continued ever since. The 'only' benefit of public sector work used to be the enhanced pensions, but alas these are on the out too.

Never even had a basic work pension, only know a couple of people who have. And do you not think that downsizing hasn't happened in the private sector? Are you completely oblivious to the 10,000's made redundant at companies at a time?

So there's really no point saying 'welcome to the real world' as we've been living in it with you for a very very long time. There's no huge difference, just a outdated attitude that public sector workers have it easy.

Thats because the truth is you do but you're so detached from the real world that you think that the private sector is the same as yours has lowered to but the reality is its still much worse.

For example, lets take the dismissed for no reason in the first 12 months rule. If you're in the civil service, you get the chance to argue that they've not respected your "rights", not gone through the proper appraisal, interview and disciplinary procedures - the same as an employee who has been employed more than 12 months. In the private sector, you get handed a weeks notice and have no recourse or rights to all of that if you've been employed less than 12 months, even if it was 364 days.

And then there's being off sick. Only in the public sector could you take 3-6 months off, especially in the first 12 months and not fear for your job. And I know that to be true for fact.

Hammyman

basscadette wrote: »

Love this - had me giggling out loud and I am very miserable at the moment :rotfl:

Heh-heh....Benny Hill moment? :p

Hmmm, looking back it could have been phrased better

michelle1506

Personally I get angry with all the of the Morons out there with very little constructive comments to make as they have it so 'damm hard'! If public sector workers have it so nice and cushy, then why did they not join the public sector??

Yes I am a public sector worker who has been in such employment for 10 years. I work VERY hard and put up with an awful lot just to get my pay cheque every month.

Where I work there are plenty of people leaving (has been that way for a long time) to work in the PRIVATE sector. So if the PUBLIC sector is so damm great to work in, then why are so many leaving??

Abingson wrote: »

I find it crazy that any private sector workers think public have it better off. I've worked in the public sector for years and colleagues that have left to do the same job in the private sector have often gained double the salary, before you all cry 'why don't you' I would if I could although the same jobs public/private are being cut left right and centre.

We've had pay freezes for years, are considerably lower paid than our similarly skilled private sector counterparts. Supposedly this is because there is security in the public sector. This hasn't been true for years, about twenty years ago smaller offices started to go and it's continued ever since. The 'only' benefit of public sector work used to be the enhanced pensions, but alas these are on the out too.

So there's really no point saying 'welcome to the real world' as we've been living in it with you for a very very long time. There's no huge difference, just a outdated attitude that public sector workers have it easy.

The truth is everyone has it hard right now and everywhere it making cuts. If someone is struggling, scared, at threat of redunduncy then they deserve support and sympathy wherever they may work. Just because you 'think' you have it harder doesn't mean that anyone living with a metaphorical axe above their head should feel any better or humbled because they've had it easier 'in your opinion'.

patchwork_cat

We are going majorly off topic.

This is not lets slag off public sector employees- if it is that cushy, why don't you work in the public sector?

As I said I am concerned that my DH is going to make himsself ill trying to cover the essential services in his section after 25% loss of staff in 6 mths!

I am worried that people's lives are being put at risk in the NHS as again there is a halt on recruitment, some departments I know of are working at dangerous levels.

ILW

Two words can sum up the public sector management ethos.

Sharon Shoesmith.

Hammyman

patchwork_cat wrote: »

We are going majorly off topic.

This is not lets slag off public sector employees- if it is that cushy, why don't you work in the public sector?

I got offered a job and a start date at DWP Jobcentre plus in Hull. It is precisely because I went through the full application process and got to speak to a few candidates I'd seen at several other interview sessions as well as having some family members in the civil service that I know the type of person they normally take on and the prevalent attitude. On the morning I was due to start, I decided that I'd probably not last a week before shoving some of the "rights based" illiterate and innumerate halfwits I'd be forced to work with out of the window if I didn't jump myself first so phoned them up and declined the job.

Hammyman

patchwork_cat wrote: »

As I said I am concerned that my DH is going to make himsself ill trying to cover the essential services in his section after 25% loss of staff in 6 mths!

I am worried that people's lives are being put at risk in the NHS as again there is a halt on recruitment, some departments I know of are working at dangerous levels.

Perhaps they should start working smarter. Yesterday, two ambulance men and a nurse spent an entire day taking my nephew on a 250 mile round trip to a pre-op appointment with a surgeon at a hospital at the other side of the country only to find the appointment ended up being a re-run of the previous one instead of the one that was supposed to happen with them then realising the !!!!-up and making a new pre-op appointment for a few weeks down the line. Maybe they'll get it right second time trying.

So 3 staff, one of which was a nurse taken off a ward, whose time was completely wasted because some moron couldn't do the job they're paid to do at the other hospital. THAT IS WHY YOUR DH IS GOING TO END UP STRUGGLING.

Hammyman

ILW wrote: »

Two words can sum up the public sector management ethos.

Sharon Shoesmith.

Don't forget that "she doesn't do blame". I wouldn't either if I were her.