What does "civil servant" mean to you?

[MrsTingly]

If you hear someone is a civil servant, what image comes to mind? For me, Sir Humphrey etc- I imagine someone with an important and senior job (or on the track to one) working at the heart of government. DH says for him it conjures up someone working in the dole office.

Obviously it's a very broad category and encompasses both, but where does your mind go? (Context is we just that we were watching Mastermind and someone gave their occupation as civil servant.)

A civil servant is anyone whose salary comes directly from tax rather than from the profits of a business or the income of a charity, excluding the national health service. Even employees of nongovernmental administrative bodies are entitled to join the civil service pension scheme. Yes employees of the jobcentre are civil servants. You'd need to be described as a "very senior civil servant" to be Sir Humphrey.

Someone that works in the council office.

I'm a v senior civil servant. I have national policy responsibility for a number of key areas in Energy. I have also held national policy roles on Climate, SDGs, Broadcasting etc..I work v close to the political system and advise relevant Ministers regularly, in person and through submissions. I have drafted many pieces of legislation and brought them through the different stages of parliament. Stakeholder engagement and consultation are also a huge part of my role and cross government and interdepartmental collaboration is also central. I love my job.

It is an umbrella term for those employed by a central government department. Could range from a diplomat working overseas to a policy advisor in Whitehall to a job centre officer in the regions to an intelligence officer in the security services to a border force official at Heathrow. It is very broad and very vague!

I just think of someone employed by the government could be in the local council or a ministry, could be a receptionist, manager, call centre or MP.
The only sure thing is it's a job for the government and wages paid for by taxes.

@Gobolina actually, technically someone working for council is not a civil servant as they work in local government

Oh no maybe not local council. I dont know anymore!

Someone who works in the Child Maintenance Service would be a civil servant. I was one for many years and resent being called a pen pusher. My job involved writing policy and liaising with MPs to enact new legislation.

Myth.

There is a Civil Servant ceremonial uniform from the 1900s in one of the DEFRA buildings in London, it is truly fabulous and definitely would have been a role for the upper crusts back then.

I've been a civil servant for over 30 years at "mysterious" HMRC. It's alright actually, despite having been shafted over my "gold plated pension".

A bowler hat , briefcase and rolled up umbrella and John Hurt

A government employee. Probably doing something extremely dull and boring. My parents were civil servants.

Admin in the Council, Land Registry, Inland Revenue, DWP.

It's just someone who works for the council or a government department isn't it?
I always think it sounds very, very dull and makes me think of overworked men in suits falling asleep on trains at 5.30pm.

I knew all of these except NEPOS, and Google is defeating me on that one. Something Something Point of Sale. (Surely not non-electronic?).

But in my defence I've never seen it written down before. You've been getting letters from HMRC since forever. And that's fine, nobody knows everything, everyone overlooks something they see everyday, but it's not that obscure. It's not like DEFRA (Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs) which you'd only come across if you were in farming or in a flood-prone area, (or listen to Rory Stewart's podcast where he keeps saying "when I was at DEFRA").

There are so many people on this thread speaking weirdly authoritatively about points on which they’re entirely wrong 😂 it’s okay to not know what something means or not to respond a question you don’t know the answer to!

I would like to point out that now it's been said what HMRC stands for my brain was "ohhhh....of course" - I just didn't know off the top of my head 😂
Still a bit "mysterious" though because I imagine it covers dozens of different roles and if someone says "I work at HMRC" it still actually means nothing to me in terms of what they actually do all day.

@IlsSortLaPlupartAuNuitMostly yes NEPOS means Non Electric Point Of Sale - basically an old fashioned till where the sales assistant types in the amounts rather than scanning the barcode and you had to figure out the change yourself 😂

I am also a civil servant and do what @MysweetAudrina does but for a different department and at a less senior level. (I’m middle ranking) When I think of civil servant I think it could be anyone!

Oh I see, thank you. I didn't get what the distinction was.

I'm a civil servant but I hold a specialist technical role in civil engineering

I generally refer to myself as a "civil engineer for the Department of x"

DH Grandfather was a very senior civil servant in Whitehall. He was responsible for contributing and rolling out a National policy in WW2 and was involved with organising the Queens Coronation. There are certain Government departments that are part of the civil service but it’s really small compared to local government.

Local government workers are not civil servants, they are public sector workers and called local government officers.

My lovely friend who worked at a dole office used to describe herself as a Shrivelled Serpent at the Department of Stealth and Total Obscurity.

@MiddleParking the question was asking what people thought the staff in the civil service are like. You can't be incorrect in answering a question on what you think even if it turns out that lots of people don't know what the civil service is or does and that's ok.
How boring if everyone just came and said the same answer with no room for discussion.