to think all public sector workers

[ChuffinAda]

Should be chained to the job, not allowed time off for personal reasons and should pay us, the tax payers, for the privilege? That they should not be permitted lunch breaks and shouldn't be able to claim expenses?

Or am I being ever so slightly maybe possibly unreasonable in my expectation that they are robots?

My husband was shocked when he saw me pack some teabags to take to work... 'Your mean they don't offer tea and coffee ?!' Hah- I wish! We also pay for the milk!

Most of these things apply to private sector workers as well. Hot desking, clock-watching, shortage of resources, bullying bosses.

It is not easy for anyone in the world of work - it erally isn't. Try being a freelancer or on zero hours for a warehouse. You are less likely to lose your job and more likely to have longer holidays, more sick pay and a pension plan than in the private sector.

No-one is saying that nurses don't do their jobs well, or nayone else in the public sector. And there are some horrible people in the world, but those people are horrible in shops, on planes, in banks - everywhere..

People do want public sector jobs - I know I have applied for a lot of them as I yearn for the security.

Security and public sector no longer go hand in hand. You're at huge risk of losing your job or being put on a temporary contract now. Permanent full time contacts are hard to come by.

I used to be a councillor. I did one term and stood down recently (name changed). A high performing council, my ward in a relatively well off area.
I was dedicated to my case work. I worked very hard and treated all the (mainly) lovely residents with respect. Apart from the cunts who started the phone call with "I pay my council tax, you know ...". Yeah, unlike me, all the other residents and all the people who work for the council.
One man emailed me incessantly about ONE tree, on private land, which he felt was blocking the light from a lamp post. On an A road with full lighting. It was endangering his journey to work on foot. I lost the plot when he started complaining that if his 18 year old daughter was attacked there it would be my fault. And the council's fault. It was light. It was a place I walked through regularly at night and knew was safe. It was just nice to have a tree in a built up area. He started every email and every call with "I pay my council tax ...".
I loved local government. I think what it does is amazing. Our staff were mainly great - yes a few tossers but a smaller proportion than anywhere else I've worked.
I helped put on a cultural festival. I got one email of thanks and more than ten emails complaining that the programme was 1. too high falutin' 2. not challenging enough 3. not enough jazz 4. not enough traditional classical 5. not enough local musicians 6. the local musicians were not up to scratch.
I regularly had emails from residents claiming the planning officers were corrupt and in league with . One resident was being truly vile so I rang the planning officer to apologise, and say that although I was leading the campaign against the development I was very sorry at the aggro it was causing, and for the personal abuse the officer was getting. He was resigned to it "comes with the territory".
And the number of retired baby-boomers with time, money (from the late-lamented gold-plated pension schemes) and energy to spare who think they could run it all better but NEVER stand for the council themselves, preferring to snipe from the sidelines.
Oh, and remember, no matter how senior you are, or how qualified you are, you should never be paid more than £50k.

If its job security you want, orange stay well away from the public sector. It doesn't exist anymore. And the cuts to come will only make it worse. Honestly, I think Joe Public has no idea how most of our public services are going to fail over the next 5 years.

I do need a job - and everything else I have done has had no pension, no paid holiday and no guarantee of any hours other than the ones I am doing at that point.

I know it is worse now than it was in the public sector - it must be soul destroying in some jobs with the cuts that are being made. I know people are horrible but it is like that in the private sector too.

The "I pay my taxes" is just replaced with "I know my rights", "I pay my bills". I see people shouting at the lovely staff in John Lewis insisting that something they have bought, used and no longer want is "faulty". I see people complaining in banks and to travel companies and screaming at check-in staff becasue they won't hold up an entire airliner for them. "I pay your wages".

Them v Us doesn't help anybody.

Orange The public sector has and continues to be hit hard, the thread is just a place to laugh about things, it's not a dig at people working in the private sector. It's just a lighthearted thread.

Or it was anyway.

OK - sorry. Didn't mean to spoil it. And did appreciate the humour. Just felt that the other side should be put.

Tough for us all, really.
No hard feelings - Carry on!!

My workplace kindly allow me to spend some of my wages buying paper, pens, posters and books and allow me to use them at work.

Yes well there isnt a public sector worker alive who hasn't heard the words 'you have it so much better than the private sector'.

I think a good efficiency method would be to make staff sit on the laps of a particularly handsy and creepy member of the opposite sex, just to make them work quicker so they can go home.

I will never forget the six months we had with no sellotape, treasury tags, paper clips or staples. Boss said she had no budget for it. We refused to buy them.

Six months of not been able to attach reports to notes securely, etc.

We failed every notes audits known to man for years after down to those six months! Plus we lost so many test results!

The number of public servants Is contracting enormously and while a lot if the work the people did has been contracted out to private companies eg Serco, those remaining public servants now find their workloads have increased significantly.

Civil servants used to enjoy some perks - day off for Queens Birthday and Half day Maundy Thursday, first class rail travel at
certain grades, subsistence allowance for nights away from home, non-contributory pension scheme, day release training for under 18s. Those perks have all gone now.

I took voluntary redundancy from the civil service. I can now enjoy the benefits of the gold-plated index-linked above-average-wage pension that I sacrificed decades of my life to earn.

Notes audits?????

I get to work into the night to meet arbitrary deadlines on pointless subjects. And then get criticism and rudeness from certain well known political figures Boris

My pension better bloody well be gold plated after all this.

We used to have a nazi admin lady who controlled whether you were allowed s new notepad or not.

She would take your old one, make sure every side of every page was covered. If halfway through the book there was a half page unused she would tell you to go away and finish the notepad you have before allowing a new one.

I took over from someone like that, Fairy13. It was very bizarre, I was the youngest and most junior person in the entire building and had directors in their 50s nervously arriving and doing a pitch worthy of Dragons' Den to get a plastic biro.

Every 6 weeks, DH does one night shift in a different station to his usual three because he has to provide county cover. They hide the kettle overnight and refuse to let him have it unless he contributes £7.50 to the tea kitty. He takes in his own coffee and milk. They just won't let him have hot water.

This is why he needs Pret. The Kettle Nazi also reported him for parking in the completely empty car park. He has a permit btw. Oh and she complained about his tie. It was Christmas Day. He was wearing a Christmas tie bought for him by his DC. It was unprofessional apparently.

This is what the public sector does to people.

I remember hearing a story about someone who started in the civil service in the 1960's - they were given a pen. Just the one. And that pen had to last them. They could have as many refills as they needed, but had to keep the same pen. I have no idea if that was true!

One of the things I love most about academia is the ability to raid the stationary cupboard.....when I worked in the NHS everything had to be accounted for!

Makethatadouble - you sound like the type of councillor who are lovely to work in. In the 40 or so seats on most councils there are perhaps 5 of you.

Well amazingly I discovered today that the oncall doctors at work can ring the kitchen and order a free meal.

I heard one of the Drs ringing for her lunch today. Don't agree with it. she knew she was going to be at work today, same as I did. So should bring food in or go to the staff restaurant and buy something.

MrsDeVere, my MIL had a similar job but has moved into management (which she loathes in terms of the increased tension, paperwork and not seeing the children anymore). She used to buy toys from car boot sales and we bought her a diary for Christmas every year. A lovely one. So she could do her job come January 1st.

I'm glad I'm not the only one having to buy a diary - we were told that they (the powers that be) weren't buying appointment diaries because we should be electronic.... Not entirely sure how community workers without anything but the most basic mobile phone could arrange electronic appointments, but hey ho.. Diaries were not provided, so we all just had to buy one seeing as they are currently essential for work.