Is being a Senior Civil servant an easy life?!

[LittleMissUnreasonable]

Not as such an AIBU, but just trying to understand something. I know two people (SIL and Neighbor) who have recently acquired promotions in the CS (one is an SEO - I think ...the other a Grade 7). Prior to getting these promotions they used to talk about how difficult their roles were and how important and snowed under they are.

Now the SEO says she just dials into meetings and takes time out for leisure activities in the day and noone questions it. She has had to ask for more work as she mainly ends up watching TV or sitting around not doing a lot. The Grade 7 says he manages a handful of people, just does HR related things and has significantly less work.

I don't know how much these salaries attract but they are both pretty good spenders and certainly edging towards a higher tax bracket (from what they've told me). What's the catch here...is this really what it's like? where do I sign up

They're not SCS grades.

No, civil servants have dealt with Brexit, Covid and now a war in Ukraine in the last 2 years. There has been a pay freeze for the last 10 years and the equipment available is schoking compared to the private sector.

But yeah, they do nothing

Also, SEO and Grade 7s are not SCS - there's a whole other grade above 7 before you get into SCS.

*shocking

It depends on the job, no? My friend has jumped up a grade and is run off her feet. My BIl is same grade in a completely different job and it’s stress free mostly and very flex.

They’re not senior civil servants

But in my experience the higher you progress the less pouring over spreadsheets and fiddling with power point you do, obviously. You do however have to make significant decisions and therefore be very very aware of what’s going on across the organisation and be very engaged with e.g the strategic direction / policy decisions etc which itself comes with a ton of responsibility and needs lots of brain space

Depends entirely on the role - I've had slow G7 jobs and snowed under G7 jobs. But as has been said they are not senior. I am higher grade than them and I am run off my feet every day, certainly isn't an easy life!

I’m a G7 and I think my role is slightly (but not hugely) underpaid for the stress and the hours. I used to work much longer hours in the private sector but my pay was multiples higher. As others have said though, G7 and SEO roles are some way from SCS. I think seniors woke bloody hard personally.

Ah maybe not SCS then, sorry I don't really know much about the Civil Service and jobs.

No need for the @ColgateGirl I'm just going on what I've heard and wondered what the deal was, as I assumed they're all rushed off their feet with the World's Issues

I’m not senior, I’m a G7. My previous SEO job was an absolute doss. My G7 is harder in that there is more to do, but an awful lot of my life is spent in meetings which needn’t happen - or at least needn’t include me.

those jobs would be really senior at a kind of local level, say in a benefits office or something, but in central government an SEO is kind of lower middle management, grade 7 middle management. the salary can vary a lot by organisation but I'd say an SEO might get paid up to around £40- odd grand a year, a grade 7 up to around £60 odd k.

well I am a mere HEO, working directly to an SCS. Admittedly the last few weeks have been a bit slow, ie we are now working normal office hours and take a lunch break, but after the last two years I don’ t know how she is still standing. She had her first proper break at Feb half term, but only because we are not allowed to work abroad, otherwise I know she would have been checking in.
None of us have had much of a Christmas or New Year in 2020 or 2021. Nothing of course like medical staff have experienced, but we have been non stop for two years.
I wish I knew where are all these cushy jobs where, because in 30 years in the public sector, I’ve never seen them.
In my exprience the only people dossing about doing nothing aren’t doing their jobs properly and probably have other people carrying them

I’m not sure I really understand what most civil servants do, senior or otherwise. But, I’m pretty sure if the government could have cut them back because they were just sitting watching telly, they would have done.

Do you know what organisation they work for? The CS is very varied, from central govt departments to all kid of arms’ length bodies, immigration staff at airports, jobcentre staff in local towns.

IME, SCS roles in big central government departments are very busy and stressful, expectations are you’ll work evenings and weekends if necessary, every day is very busy and pressurised.

It used to be -

AA
AO
EO
HEO
SEO
G7
G6
then SCS - senior civil servant.

As with most jobs, it depends on the nature of the role and Department.

Some jobs have a larger span of control - some SCS in people-heavy Departments like DWP might have a span of control of 1000s but fewer direct reports and some more complexity and policy responsibility with a few or sometimes no direct reports.

Wouldn’t be surprising if this was the case in the public sector, especially civil service. Public sector isn’t exactly known for efficient and high quality output.

It's certainly not an easy life in my department. I can't remember when I last worked my contracted hours.

@sst1234

why don’t you sack us all. Then you’d see what the civil service does.

I had such a busy week last week … so I finished at 3 yesterday, and went shopping.

I will , however, be doing some work over the weekend (my choice, less people mithering me).

In a similar role, I got called at 7.30 on Friday evening to do an urgent piece of work on an issue that Ministers needed to consider over weekend. I’d logged off ‘early’ at 6.00 and had been working since 8.30 that morning. That’s not unusual, in a central policy department working on high profile issues.

Yep, SEO & G7 are not senior civil service grades. In my organisation they are usually Team Leader type level, can't speak for the others in my team at that grade but I am HEO and absolutely run off my feet! When I was EO my role was quite operational and easy to measure performance i.e. how many queries/calls/cases have you closed this week but since being promoted to HEO I work on a lot of longer term projects and so the job involves a lot of reading. Sometimes I think people must assume I'm doing nothing because I don't always have results/stats to show for my work but reading and evidence gathering and meeting with other gov depts is a big part of my job and I believe the stress grows the further up you go. We had someone at SCS Director level who took a demotion down to G6 because the stress was too much!

From my experience, I think you potentially could get away with slacking in the Civil Service, at least for a while, as it seems to be easier not to be sacked - and to hide inactivity in a bigger organisation. I’ve seen this in action, but the perpetrators were always got rid of in the end.

However, my jobs have always been very busy and challenging. And not all that well paid for the workload and level of responsibility, compared with the private sector.

Well, based on my extensive experience...

... which is watching Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, I would say so.

I left the CS at SEO grade for more than 2/3 times the salary and a much easier life in the private sector. Most of my CS friends are now G7 or G6 (plus one who is an acting SCS) - I’m in awe of how hard they work.

My dh is SCS. He has often worked through Bank Holidays, weekends, evenings for two years on covid. He didn't leave the house for two weeks once, just worked and slept. Many like him.

My friend is SCS. Last I saw her she had 600 reports but was moving her family back to London from a regional role because they didn't let SCS stay in their regional roles long. She is incredibly intelligent and hard working.