Active discussions

Help protect children from gaming harms.

Take our survey

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Politics
Original poster

Why are public-sector administrators so crap?

65 replies

longfingernails · 26/03/2011 15:18

Recently, out of whimsy, I decided to interview a couple of ex-public sector types for a new company I have recently started.

I am not talking about nurses and policemen, I am talking about back-office jobs.

LOL.

No wonder the public sector is so rubbish at everything.

The private sector is going to grow a lot over the next few years - but unfortunately, the ex-public sector employees won't get these jobs. They will go to immigrants, or for new positions, graduates.

They are simply too lazy and in general, too unmotivated. They just don't understand why they should go the extra mile - probably because in the public sector, they never have to.

A pity for them - ah well. They can always march for their "entitlements".

OP posts:
Iggly · 26/03/2011 16:12

Why the bottom 10%? Seems a bit arbitary to me. Why not the bottom 50%? How do you judge performance? What if the kids they teach aren't traditionally clever so do badly at exams?

Original poster
longfingernails · 26/03/2011 16:07

saggarmakersbottomknocker You think it's a good thing having crap teachers around? Why wouldn't you sack them? Keeping bad teachers destroys life chances for dozens of children.

OP posts:
Original poster
longfingernails · 26/03/2011 16:05

Of course AhhBisto

This is for a general IT administration position.

I asked about how closely they were following developments in the drawing up of a particular new technical standard which will have a major impact in this area; I gave them half an hour with a laptop and asked them to write some easy scripts to automate repetitive tasks (a concept seemingly unfamiliar to them).

This is the sort of thing which is the bread and butter of IT administrators. They couldn't do the basics. They were crap.

Even worse with one of them in particular, though, was the attitude. All the questions were about the benefits package (which I would expect, maybe, at a second interview) - but none whatsoever about the job. He seemed to have zero interest in independent learning and updating skills, and just a general attitude problem.

OP posts:
saggarmakersbottomknocker · 26/03/2011 16:03

longfingernails has MN history wrt public sector workers.

Last bright idea was to sack the bottom 10% of teachers iirc.

In short; she talks crap.

2cats2many · 26/03/2011 16:03

I've sacked people when Ive worked in both the private and the public sector, so it's not impossible to get sacked.

You're talking out of your arse.

Iggly · 26/03/2011 15:59

OP have you worked in the public sector?

I work in the public sector and have seen my private sector colleagues in action. Talk about corner cutting, shoddy work which meets the bare minimum of standards. Because, you understand, profit is King.

StuckinTheMiddlewithYou · 26/03/2011 15:57

Ah! This is actually an "I hate the left!" thread...

Rumbled!

AhhBisto · 26/03/2011 15:54

OP, can you give specific examples of questions you asked and why the responses failed to live up to your expectations / requirements? Genuine question, it would be really interesting to know in what way they fell short. And how they compare to people you've interviewed from the private sector, coming from similar levels of management / expertise of course.

Original poster
longfingernails · 26/03/2011 15:53

What a ridiculous argument Betamaxbandit.

No-one can choose to be black or not.

People can choose whether they want to work in the public sector or not.

Of course, to a left-winger, "choice" is probably an alien concept - so I forgive you.

OP posts:
Chil1234 · 26/03/2011 15:53

Why is longfingernails so crap? Biscuit

claig · 26/03/2011 15:53

Is this a vacancy for the company Scrooge & Marley?
Were there any wages or was it all bonus?

TheHeathenOfSuburbia · 26/03/2011 15:52

Oh, come on people, the job applicants are clearly fictional, lfn starts a thread along these lines at least twice a week.

In fact, perhaps lfn is fictional, an experimental bot from conservative HQ maybe?

Original poster
longfingernails · 26/03/2011 15:51

MrsKwazii You deliberately missed out the second part of my sentence.

It's easy to get something done if you throw a billion pounds at it. If it can be done with £100m, though, it is appalling.

I reckon it is possible to cut the public sector backroom headcount by at least 75% over the next 10 years and increase productivity by at least 300% over the same time period.

Businesses have to do this all the time.

OP posts:
BetamaxBandit · 26/03/2011 15:50

I know Mutt.

Similar argument would be "hey I interviewed 2 black people last week and they were SHIT. And I read some stuff on the internet that said all black people are really thick. Why are black people so stupid and rubbish, I'm NEVER going to employ one".

OP wouldn't get away with this, but it's the same logic, and similar MASSIVE prejudice and overgeneralisation based on a sample size of 2.

Bet if OP was in an accident she / he wouldn't think twice at rocking up at A&E and expecting a few public sector workers to make her / him better. Tit.

MrsKwazii · 26/03/2011 15:48

Pretty much nothing gets done - Grin. Have a Biscuit

BetamaxBandit · 26/03/2011 15:43

You're the one with the smear tactics you div

Mutt · 26/03/2011 15:43

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
longfingernails · 26/03/2011 15:41

Let the left's classic smear tactics begin.

OP posts:
BetamaxBandit · 26/03/2011 15:39

Wow OP you sound like a lovely person. I reckon those people you interviewed had a lucky escape. I wouldn't want to work for someone as narrow minded, prejudiced and nasty as you. I wonder what other prejudices you have...maybe ones you wouldn't get away with airing in public?

Original poster
longfingernails · 26/03/2011 15:39

On the contrary. I would be delighted to help the country out of the mess it is in by employing people who are having to lose their jobs because of Labour's economic catastrophe.

Unfortunately, the ones I saw are unemployable.

OP posts:
notcitrus · 26/03/2011 15:37

Used to be nearly impossible to get sacked in the public sector, yes. Then some years back 20% of it got made redundant which got rid of most of the incompetents, and with lots of redundancy exercises since the people left seem pretty competent. Often more so than private sector workers I know (I've worked in both sectors and large bureaucracies are very similar in both)

However since they've got rid of most of the admin staff in my area the standard of admin has gone downhill simply because Ministers demand new policy and there's no-one left to do admin. I took on a backlog of letters recently and no, I didn't personalise every one because if 40,000 people write in on a topic, given we're obliged to respond to them, they aren't getting individual replies when I've got another job to do.

StuckinTheMiddlewithYou · 26/03/2011 15:36

And to be honest, it sounds like you'd already made up your mind about these two people before they'd even shook your prejudiced hand.

Original poster
longfingernails · 26/03/2011 15:35

MrsKwazii - pretty much nothing does get done in the public sector, given the colossal amount of money thrown at it.

OP posts:
Meglet · 26/03/2011 15:34

I have worked in both. There are good and bad employees in both sectors.

FWIW the public-sector I.T systems were a nightmare though. Upper management choosing what software we were going to use so we had to put up with something that wasn't up for the job. Whereas the I.T systems I have used in the private sector have been much better, we were actually allowed to have an imput in the final say.

StuckinTheMiddlewithYou · 26/03/2011 15:34

Have also worked in both the private and public sector.

I currently work in the public sector and the amount of unpaid overtime they get out of staff is amazing. You'd be shocked at how some of us bend over backwards to help people.