To be fed up with the way the Government and the Daily Mail are provoking arguments between public and private sector workers?

[josephinebruce]

I'm a public sector worker - have been for years in education and now in the NHS (a management position so I'm hated by everyone). I have no problem with the private sector: at my level I would be earning double what I am now in the NHS. I do appreciate that some of the lower bands in the NHS are probably better off in terms of pay and conditions than the equivalent in the private sector.....but at my level - it is not.

I have paid a lot into my pensions and have suffered financially in the present to do so. As my current NHS pension is going to be based on average earnings and not final salary - like it used to be, then I am going to lose a lot of money when I am eventually allowed to retire.

I never get paid overtime - yet I work it every day.
I have to put up with constantly moving goalposts from the Government and have to meet targets that are totally pointless and often impossible to meet.
I have to then put up with headlines and stories in the press about how useless I am and how I should be sacked.

I don't moan about private sector salaries or perks (we're not allowed to spend public money on 1st class rail tickets even if they are cheaper, not allowed to even hold meetings in venues that sell alcohol, have to have most of our meetings by phone....). I made my choice of career and I'm happy with it.

But what does annoy me is that this stupid fucking government uses these imagined divisions betwen public and private sector for their own benefit and to screw us even more.

It also annoys me that some people are so fucking stupid that they don't realise it.

Sorry if this rant doesn't read perfectly - but I've been working since 6am and so am probably not as eloquent as I might have been.

[picnicbasketcase]

Well said.

[deepfriedsage]

First they came for the ...

Divide and conquer in action

[EthelredOnAGoodDay]

Totally agree.

[DorisIsAPinkDragon]

Couldn't agree more

Emphasised by Danny Alexander today who when rambling on about how pay rises should now be 1% clarified that with 'not the public sector'....

[CoffeeBucks]

Absolutely agree OP. there are so many lies fed about both the private and public sectors, and all it does is encourage sniping and irritation. I hate it.

[penguin73]

Well said!

[josephinebruce]

Thank you.

[ExitPursuedByADragon]

What's that noise? Oh, it is my heart bleeding.

[gordyslovesheep]

well said

[PorkPieandPickle]

Agree, well said. Good luck convincing the rest of the country though :(

[sameoldIggi]

Yy

[Sixtiesqueen]

I especially like the stuff about making doctors work, well 24/7 and all weekend.

Doctors are subject to the European Working Time Directive. There is a limit on the hours they can work. If you force them to be present in hospital all day/night, you will need A LOT more doctors to ensure that the staffing levels are maintained. This will cost A LOT in extra salaries/other costs. You will have to pay A LOT to train them and wait a long time, or recruit from abroad.

DH is a doctor. He would quite like to be present in hospital all night because he'd clock up his 48 hours in 2 days and get the rest of the week off work. Or he could do on call nights and have every day off work.

They are all on the golf course, they all earn £300k in overtime they don't even turn up for. You can't trust doctors. Or teachers. Or nurses.

Now for the crossword.

[Sixtiesqueen]

(I have a friend who complains that doctors ought not to be able to do private work on a Weekday. This is 'NHS time' even if they are not at work.

She has all her operations privately, mind. I'm glad she has the choice.

[TheSeaPriestess]

Totally agree OP.

[MinnieMousse]

Completely agree with you, especially about making sacrifices in your earning potential. Nobody ever mentions this - it's just all about the pensions.

[DrCoconut]

I feel your pain. As a HE lecturer I get home from work before I've left, have 50 weeks a year off, am personally responsible for the tuition fee fiasco and am robbing pensioners to get my six figure salary. When I retire years before the private sector I will be loaded, and able to spend the rest of my days on cruises and hobbies with my deluxe gold plated pension. I should be put in the stocks and then sacked. Meanwhile on planet real world.........

[YoungGirlGrowingOld]

I think you are being a tad unreasonable to blame the government - there are massive disparities between public and private sectors when it comes to benefits such as pensions. I don't need a politician to point that out!

My DP works as a Consultant for the NHS and I work in the private sector (so we have covered all bases) Although my base salary is higher there is absolutely no way I could afford his pension - we worked it out with our FA a few years ago and at the time it would have cost more than my gross salary to get an annuity with the same return. There seems to be a perception amongst the public sector that they should not have to adjust to economic reality (lower interest rates, people living 30 odd years after retirement, etc) when most businesses did this years ago. That's where some of the resentment comes from.

FWIW all of the things you say about your job are true of any senior position in the private sector.

Everyone, from the trainees upwards, in my sector waives their rights under to EWTD so they CAN be asked to work over 48 hours. Why the hell the NHS does not do this is a complete mystery to me. As for 24 hour cover, the aviation sector manages it - and pilots are also highly trained professionals! It should not be beyond the wit of NHS management to do the same.

[Madamecastafiore]

DrCoconut - you wouldn't be sacked though if you worked in the public sector.

[bobbywash]

Yep blame the government or the mail, but actually you missed the BBC and the unions out of this too. Oh and the perceptions of the private sector who work with the public sector.

Your position is slightly flawed though as according to various statistics (available in the guardian) the public sector is 8.2% per hour better paid than the private sector and the gap is widening, so I don't see quite how you would be better off in the private sector. Also your pension (which you haven't received yet, so can't have lost anything) is index linked. Private sector pensions very rarely are.

so yep. YABU

[itsnothingoriginal]

Maybe not sacked Madamecastifiore but I've been made redundant twice over now large numbers of academic jobs are expected to go over the next 5 years too I heard yesterday.

I hate the whole pitching of public and private sector against each other but I agree with you totally OP this is just a smokescreen to avoid us all seeing the bigger picture!

My husband works in the public sector and can't afford to pay into a pension and goes from temporary contract to temporary contract. Nothing is permanent any more and he's taken a pay cut as they can only afford to employ him part time (even though it's a full time role).

Yes life in the public sector is great

[Fefifo]

I think your post does nothing but highlight why there are tensions between the private an public sector.

1. Pensions- Really? You think you're getting a raw deal here because you can't swan off into retirement for perhaps the next thirty years on a prnsion based on a salary you only spent maybe ten years or so earning? Of course if you put your money away for the future rather than use it here and now you will not have the benefit of using it here and now. How are you 'suffering financially' any more than anyone else putting money into a pension? The difference is you're going to reap a higher reward for it in the future than those doing exactly the same in the private sector.

1. Nobody at a very senior level gets paid overtime. Anywhere. If you like you could give up your presumably, from what you've said, high salary and go and work at a less senior level on an hourly wage that equates to just over the minimum wage in the private sector and watch those overtime hours rack up.

1. There is an element of difficulty in most jobs, that's why it's called work.

1. So the press doesn't comment on how businesses are performing in the private sector? Yes perhaps, I agree, there is more vitriol directed at public sector fuck ups by certain sectors of the media but then a boss at M and S gets next season's colours wrong and they don't sell then profits for M and S are down. If a boss at the NHS fucks up people die.

Your points are frankly ridiculous and if everyone in the public sector thought like you I wouldn't be surprised if those in the private sector were getting a little pissy. Frankly, though in real life I don't think many people at all have anything but admiration and respect for people like teachers, nurses, doctors, firefighters etc. Given your jump from education to the NHS OP I presume you're some sort of administrator/ career manager, in which case yes I think you're right, frankly nobody can stand the grossly bloated salaries such positions attract in the public sector when the people who fill them seem to constantly preside over incompetence and financial mismanagement.

[Lasvegas]

I have worked in both public and private sector. What I disliked about public sector was that there was a salary structure in place which meant that an employee got an automatic pay increase for every year they stayed in post. This was for maybe the first 6 years of their employment. It had nothing to do if they were rubbish at their job, if there was a recession or if they had been off sick for 6 months. I prefer the private sector where you decide upon new salaries based on in company performance, individual performance and the market for that role.

[Loopylala7]

Wow Fefifo you make some pretty big sweeping statements. I work for the public sector, DH works for private. It's all about compromise. Public get maybe better holidays, but as far as I can tell that's where it seems to stop. My DH gets a decent amount of shares every year, and regularly gets treated to days out, free meals, gifts when they finish x amount of jobs. We don't even get a subsidised Christmas do. As for my wonderful pension, it'll amount to about 5 grand when I hit 80 or so. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that there are pluses and minuses to every job. My BIL and SIL both work for private sector and I can tell you that they each earn more than 3 times my salary, and SIL whilst being an exceptionally bright cookie has almost a decade less experience in the job than myself. I think they can afford to save a little harder towards their dire pension.

[ExitPursuedByADragon]

[BraveMerida]

Yabu