Your worst job / best job?

DontBringBertie

Enjoyed reading all the Civil Service comments above.

I recently left a civil service job and it still shocked me despite working in other public sector organisations the rest of my career.

Staff on old contracts had a thing called “Flexi Leave” which was meant for if you had to stay 2 hours late one day, you get two hours back another time. Max 2 days (15 hours) a month.

The problem was that 99% of staff on the old contracts just took it as extra annual leave so ended up with 56 days’ leave a year: 32 days + 24 Flexi Leave days. This was in addition to the 10 or so sick days most would take a year.

And a few of them had a cheek to complain about the government wasting tax payers money!

lincroft1710

DontBringBertie said:

Enjoyed reading all the Civil Service comments above.

I recently left a civil service job and it still shocked me despite working in other public sector organisations the rest of my career.

Staff on old contracts had a thing called “Flexi Leave” which was meant for if you had to stay 2 hours late one day, you get two hours back another time. Max 2 days (15 hours) a month.

The problem was that 99% of staff on the old contracts just took it as extra annual leave so ended up with 56 days’ leave a year: 32 days + 24 Flexi Leave days. This was in addition to the 10 or so sick days most would take a year.

And a few of them had a cheek to complain about the government wasting tax payers money!

It was quite usual to to build up credits for flexi-time so that you could have a day off. The employee didn't actually gain anything. The standard day in my department in the CS was 7hr 12 min, so 37 hr over the 5 day week. So if you worked an 8 hr day for 5 days that was 40 hrs, so 3 hrs credit. Keep on until you had a credit of 7 hr 12 min or more then you could have a day off. You had worked the time, so you weren't taking anything from the employer
   

TELLIT01

DontBringBertie said:

Enjoyed reading all the Civil Service comments above.

I recently left a civil service job and it still shocked me despite working in other public sector organisations the rest of my career.

Staff on old contracts had a thing called “Flexi Leave” which was meant for if you had to stay 2 hours late one day, you get two hours back another time. Max 2 days (15 hours) a month.

The problem was that 99% of staff on the old contracts just took it as extra annual leave so ended up with 56 days’ leave a year: 32 days + 24 Flexi Leave days. This was in addition to the 10 or so sick days most would take a year.

And a few of them had a cheek to complain about the government wasting tax payers money!

You are wrong in your interpretation of how Flexi Time/ Flexi Leave works in the Civil Service.  It is/was perfectly legitimate to work longer hours and then take a day as leave.  There were limits to how many could be taken in a year.  It was up to managers to ensure that the longer working days were actually productive time, not just somebody staying on for a couple of hours reading the paper.  Control of sickness absence had also been tightened considerably in the years I worked in the CS.  Exceed the maximum of 4 periods of sickness or 8 days absence, whichever was lower, would automatically trigger an attendance management meeting.

Mutton_Geoff

I think it was Bruce Forsyth who once said "if you enjoy your job, you never have to work again".

grandadgolfer

DontBringBertie said:

Enjoyed reading all the Civil Service comments above.

I recently left a civil service job and it still shocked me despite working in other public sector organisations the rest of my career.

Staff on old contracts had a thing called “Flexi Leave” which was meant for if you had to stay 2 hours late one day, you get two hours back another time. Max 2 days (15 hours) a month.

The problem was that 99% of staff on the old contracts just took it as extra annual leave so ended up with 56 days’ leave a year: 32 days + 24 Flexi Leave days. This was in addition to the 10 or so sick days most would take a year.

And a few of them had a cheek to complain about the government wasting tax payers money!

Had a friend who worked at Longbenton in the 1970s early 80s.......no work was done in the afternoons after 3 or 4 pints in the local pubs or the licenced on site canteens,most department managers would lock their office door in the afternnon to have a nap

DontBringBertie

TELLIT01 said:

DontBringBertie said:

Enjoyed reading all the Civil Service comments above.

I recently left a civil service job and it still shocked me despite working in other public sector organisations the rest of my career.

Staff on old contracts had a thing called “Flexi Leave” which was meant for if you had to stay 2 hours late one day, you get two hours back another time. Max 2 days (15 hours) a month.

The problem was that 99% of staff on the old contracts just took it as extra annual leave so ended up with 56 days’ leave a year: 32 days + 24 Flexi Leave days. This was in addition to the 10 or so sick days most would take a year.

And a few of them had a cheek to complain about the government wasting tax payers money!

You are wrong in your interpretation of how Flexi Time/ Flexi Leave works in the Civil Service.  It is/was perfectly legitimate to work longer hours and then take a day as leave.  There were limits to how many could be taken in a year.  It was up to managers to ensure that the longer working days were actually productive time, not just somebody staying on for a couple of hours reading the paper.  Control of sickness absence had also been tightened considerably in the years I worked in the CS.  Exceed the maximum of 4 periods of sickness or 8 days absence, whichever was lower, would automatically trigger an attendance management meeting.

I know how it was meant to work in the Civil Service.

The thing is the employees weren’t actually working the longer hours yet still claiming Flexi.

Someone in my team used to leave at 3pm every day yet claim his 2 days a month.

lincroft1710

DontBringBertie said:

TELLIT01 said:

DontBringBertie said:

Enjoyed reading all the Civil Service comments above.

I recently left a civil service job and it still shocked me despite working in other public sector organisations the rest of my career.

Staff on old contracts had a thing called “Flexi Leave” which was meant for if you had to stay 2 hours late one day, you get two hours back another time. Max 2 days (15 hours) a month.

The problem was that 99% of staff on the old contracts just took it as extra annual leave so ended up with 56 days’ leave a year: 32 days + 24 Flexi Leave days. This was in addition to the 10 or so sick days most would take a year.

And a few of them had a cheek to complain about the government wasting tax payers money!

You are wrong in your interpretation of how Flexi Time/ Flexi Leave works in the Civil Service.  It is/was perfectly legitimate to work longer hours and then take a day as leave.  There were limits to how many could be taken in a year.  It was up to managers to ensure that the longer working days were actually productive time, not just somebody staying on for a couple of hours reading the paper.  Control of sickness absence had also been tightened considerably in the years I worked in the CS.  Exceed the maximum of 4 periods of sickness or 8 days absence, whichever was lower, would automatically trigger an attendance management meeting.

.

Someone in my team used to leave at 3pm every day yet claim his 2 days a month.

Then their line manager was extremely lax and not doing their job properly!


Back in the 1980s, people in my department were put on to standard hours and in the worst cases were dismissed. It was a stock promotion interview question, "How would you deal with someone who was abusing flexitime?".