I HATE my job.

Plasticman

I've only just seen this thread. I have worked in the public sector but still find it unbelievable that people are being employed when there is no work for them to do. I suspect the phrase 'large government institution' at the start of your post may be relevant. I'm starting to think that there are two types of government organisation - they are either cash strapped and under staffed or well funded with staff who have no work.

I hope that things improve for you. I also hope that Deemy doesn't read this thread or it will turn into a 'bash the public sector' debate

raeble

I work for a University and you have the two types of government organisation that you talk about here - certain subject departments have lost staff because they are cash strapped, you have my dept where I'm doing very little but have a very nice tft monitor, shiny desk and very nice printers in the department. Wonder over to finance and the place hasn't been redecorated since the eighties judging by the brown carpet and everyone has huge computers, not to mention it being quite dark and only one printer in the room.

I used to work in a government funded quango (former) and that had plenty of money as well, we were understaffed in my department - shame you couldn't say the same about the higher ups. Public sector is ok but some people really need sacking rather than being allowed to stay in a job when they are useless. On my uncharitable days I used to wish that government funding would be withdrawn and all the pretentious pratts (former youth workers) would be out on their ear - you just knew certain people would never find work in the private sector.

nemo183

Oh boy, can't so many of us identify with this kind of situation.

On the positive side, when all around you is in a state of shambles, there is a chance to shine, improve things, make a difference - and be rewarded. Sadly, it does not really sound that this is likely to happen.

In your shoes, I'd get another job. Apart from anything else, I'd move for health reasons. There is so much published data that suggests that the more powerless we feel in our jobs, the more our health can suffer. In the extreme, it's even been proven to reduce our life expectancy.

If you accept the idea that life is always a learning experience, just accept this as a practical way of finding out exactly what you don't want out of a job, and use it to make a better move.

I really hope things work out - just remember, many of us have had similar experiences - it's what you do with it that counts.

Good luck!!!!

Poppy9

raeble wrote:

I work for a University and you have the two types of government organisation that you talk about here - certain subject departments have lost staff because they are cash strapped, you have my dept where I'm doing very little but have a very nice tft monitor, shiny desk and very nice printers in the department. Wonder over to finance and the place hasn't been redecorated since the eighties judging by the brown carpet and everyone has huge computers, not to mention it being quite dark and only one printer in the room.

This made me smile. I work in Local Govt. finance. The Council is running a programme of updating all PC's via a lease agreement every 4 years. Started 1 year ago. They are updating service departments first and finance are last. This means that in 3 years time when we are due for new pc's most of finance dept. pc's will be 10 year old and still running windows 95 with 126mb of memory! Yet we have to manage multi million pound budgets with systems from the arc. Walk around service departments where staff are often out and they have new ergonomically designed furniture & chairs with TFT monitors, shiny pc's and a printer each. Yes finance have just had new desks (only because the others were so old that there were H&S issues when they collapsed). Sadly we had the cheapest version available with little work space.

Bogof_Babe

In Deemy's absence, may I just say and doesn't this prove out everything we've often suspected about Quangos and the like?

I feel very sorry for the bored OP, and none of this is their fault, but really - if ever we wondered where our taxes are going............:rolleyes:

raeble

Poppy9 wrote:

This made me smile. I work in Local Govt. finance... Yet we have to manage multi million pound budgets with systems from the arc. Walk around service departments where staff are often out and they have new ergonomically designed furniture & chairs with TFT monitors, shiny pc's and a printer each. Yes finance have just had new desks (only because the others were so old that there were H&S issues when they collapsed). Sadly we had the cheapest version available with little work space.

I have noticed how Finance seems to be always poorly treated by the government organisations I and my friends work in. Finance always gets the brunt of peoples complaints - expenses not being paid on time (despite them a) sending it in late, b) it getting held up by management), having to fill in all these forms etc. We had that thing about people who were never in the office who had to have nice desks - there was a big argument about how they couldn't hot desk. Then there was how they all had to have laptops, ipaqs, mobile phones and digital cameras - management just caved in as they always did with that section of people. It got on the nerves of all the office based staff - especially when we moved buildings and they who were never there decided that they were having desks by the window.

I feel very sorry for the bored OP, and none of this is their fault, but really - if ever we wondered where our taxes are going............

A lot of people who work in the public sector do not like a lot of the wastage that goes on and the inefficiency - generally those in finance and central services. In finance we were always conscious of how much we were spending and buying the cheapest thing possible, or getting the best value and we never had any staff who didn't have more than enough to do in a working day.

When I started my new job (not in finance) they said to me if I wanted any in-trays or anything else for my desk I should just order it - frankly I was shocked there was two perfectly good sets of intrays on my desk already there wasn't any need for me to order more just because I didn't like them. But that is the mentality of some in the public sector - It's not their money so they don't care.

Poppy9

Yep we watch every penny in finance. Years ago one of the Directors of Finance banned the supply of tippex and highlighter pens. Also we were not all allowed our own PC - at one stage we had 1 per team (6 people). As we did our budgets on spreadsheets then (before databases) you had to be in early to nab a machine. The rest had to make do with tippexing our last years figures on 100's of sheets and manually writing in the new figures, then adding them up and then carrying forward all the sub totals. Alas we were spending too much on tippex though so we had to scrounge it from our colleagues in Education and Social Services. Up until 1996 he still wouldn't allow each person to have their own PC's generally it was about 1 between 2 he did however freeze recruitment when staff left as now we had computers we didn't have so much work to do!!!! When he retired we all got our own machines, sadly they haven't been updated. Staffing levels are still low and we spend our life firefighting etc.

cannylad_2

Hi, I work for an international Ferry terminal in the North East. Great job but the two supervisors who are having an affair are bullies. Thirteen people over five years have either packed the job in because of them or have been bullied out of the job. There are two court cases coming up against them but the governing body of the Port ( who employs everyone ) will do nothing about it at all.
The daily bullying can be anything from forced overtime on days off to being shouted at in front of the public,given the hardest duties when the ferries are packed with passengers,roumours to others that you have been calling them,to ignoring staff completley for months.
Many people have had it out with managment about all of this but they won't listen,the job is well paid but because the job consists of irregular hours we cannot train for anything else so we are stuck.
Every day we all go into work wondering what mood the supervisors will be in,if its a bad one then we had better watch out. All the security staff age from 30 to late 50's yet we have to put up with being insulted and ignored every day.
So in my opinion we all have problems its just that some people get the rough end of the stick more than others.
Cheers