carolinephillips

In the UK Wiltshire County Council have to be the worst. When I was there and had just graduated as a teacher I could only get a part time (one day a week job). I'd been claiming the dole as it was 6 months since graduating, and not only did they stop my dole, they said I was fully employed and so not entitled to any benefits even though my salary was lower than the dole!! I had to borrow money from my dad for petrol. Luckily after 12 weeks I got another day and then did some supply work for the next 6 months.
Now, after 5 years of no pay rises because they claimed she was on the wrong grade, and 12.5 years in a job that she was very good at, they have made my sister and her whole team of emergency planners redundant and brought in a new team of juniors to replace them. My sister had to train her replacements- they gave her a week to do so.)

Hope they all drown in the floods. (The WCC, not the juniors)

BadgeIsBack

hmmm Wiltshire...I missed out having to deal with them. May the stones of the Henge fall on their heads...

spouse of scouse

I don't understand how they can get it so spectacularly wrong

BadgeIsBack

I do. It happens. All the time - in fact it's c'est normal in parts of the govt service.

I don't even question these things - there is good reason for it - normally in the case of cost-cutting.

I might see if I could refuse to take part in trg - but I suppose its a condition of redundancy terms!

Amazulu

Privatise their useless civil service asses = after half of them have been fired

GarryP

Central government dictate of no pay rises, first because of the criminality of bankers, then because the Tories hate civil servants.

The 'expected level' of performance is 'very good at', which isn't valued explicitly, and certainly isn't reflected in the 0% increase in pay bill that's allowed by central government.

And that job should have changed over 12.5 years - since the beginning of that would have been in the washout from Sept 11, and a good part of the effort was supposed to be getting a better handle on the entirety of civil defence.

Which enables them to pay them less, freeing up budget both to meet the attacks on funding levels from central governments, and the pay demands for areas where people don't stick around for 12.5 years.

Training your replacement isn't professional, it's dumb.


See, thing is there is always a moron around who will cast shit at civil servants, and claim that private industry will do better (neatly ignoring all the instances were private industry gets given the task and makes a complete, enormous, pig's ear of the whole thing). They never consider that it's not the people involved; its the rules they run under and the drivers that are placed on them.

In short you don't fix it by attacking the civil servants; you fix it by starting at the top and fixing THEM, preferably by the neck.

And at the top of the top of the pile are voters aren't competent to understand the problem, recognise the solutions, and persist on electing criminals on the make...

carolinephillips

Oh the job changed alright- she ended up doing the work of 3 people and was given more and more responsibility without anything to show for it.

Beoz

Well for us in the private sector, that is just the norm. About time the public sector caught up.

asher

that's diabolical Spouse of scouse! they really put you at risk there what an utter idiot!! I can't believe the uselessness of some people.

In the UK the psychiatrist saw my depressed son after waiting 5 months for an apt He told her he wasn't comfortable talking to her face to face he preferred e mail so she told him that's ok go away and e mail me.

the problem is that she didn't give him an e mail address
she's not allowed to give out her private e mail address
They have no office e mail address
So he had to wait for another apt!! and nothing was done for a suicidal person.

some people just don't engage brain do they

spouse of scouse

That's really scary asher, 5 months is too long to wait in the first place without being totally let down when he finally had the appointment I hope your son eventually received the help he needed. xx

Pollyana

Some of us in the public sector have been working very hard, covering several roles, and doing unpaid overtime, for many years. Don't tar everyone with the same brush.

asher

sadly no he didn't get the help he needed, they cocked up his appt for the second one so told his GP to give him Prozac and he still hasn't been seen. I put in formal complaints they agreed they were at fault and apologised but he still hasn't been seen

Dorothy

That's great for you. I'm guessing you walk on private land to your workplace then and don't rely on public transit or streets maintained by public funds. And I would imagine you don't use the government rubbish pickup or libraries, etc. Must be difficult to live life without relying o the government.
Yup. With cutbacks and a moratorium on new hires I'm currently working at 50% more workload than I did when I started my job 5 years ago. It's not uncommon for me to bring home work on weekends that I dont get overtime for. I'm told to take flex hours, but with nobody to cover my days off I just come back to a desk full of work.

Still Game

I absolutely agree with this. Having worked in private sector my entire working life and now having spent 9 months in public sector the workload in incredible. We don't pay overtime (or at least only on a very special Director agreed basis) and yes you do get flexi however with the amount of work there just isn't time to take it. The guys and gals here are hard workers (majority, there are one or two who are a bit work shy, however you get that in pretty much EVERY organisation). I fully admit that I had quite a dark impression of 'public sector workers' having only experienced poor customer service as a customer.

However, seeing it first hand - very different opinion.

What has happened in spouse of scouse's individual case is completely inexcusable. It is however, an individual case

spouse of scouse

Yes to Still Game and Dorothy's posts. There isn't one public sector worker that I know on a personal basis who doesn't work very hard, often over their normal hours and without overtime.

I do apologise for my thread header. I was angry (so angry!) when I wrote it, and my meaning was more is this (Centrelink) the worst govt. department. But even there, I'm convinced that the majority of its workforce do their job well under stressful circumstances.

I'm not quite so homicidal now