"Public sector - so no"

[OhpoorMe]

Anyone else get quite frustrated seeing this on threads about Christmas parties/ bonuses / staff perks etc

The public sector isn't one homogenous organisation. I've only ever worked in PS organisations and have always had a paid for staff party, sometimes bonuses, sometimes perks etc.

It's not a given that public sector = badly treated!

What is your role? Genuinely interested as I didnt realise some public sector jobs could afford this

I've only ever worked in PS organisations and have always had a paid for staff party, sometimes bonuses, sometimes perks etc.

Where the fuck do you work?

Are they hiring?

I have never had a Christmas 'do' in a PS job or bonuses

Don’t find it frustrating. I’ve worked in several public sectors and never experienced this. Usually the Director or SCS2 fronts up for some bottles of wine - which is nice - but I wouldn’t expect to get a Christmas meal paid for. What budget would it come from?

When I’ve worked in the private sector, comped drinks were more like once a fortnight. Happy days.

I've always worked in universities. Always been some paid for parties on site but never anything paid for off site. So would never have a meal in a restaurant paid for (like the thread I suspect started this one where OP's husband paid for his team).

I'm interested in where in the public sector you've worked that paid for staff dos and bonuses?
I've only worked public sector and the best "perk" is a bottle of wine from your boss at Christmas.

I’m NHS and we don’t get a paid-for Christmas party, or bonuses. We got the back pay but that was it. The only real perk of my job is the flexibility with shifts.

I’m public sector and no, I’ve never had any parties paid for.

But I don’t believe I’m badly treated. It’s very flexible, they bend over backwards to keep people happy, we get expenses paid etc. And I get a good salary and excellent pension.

But parties? No, we don’t get that lol.

Where do you work op? I never had any bonus or paid for do when I worked in it for 12 ish years

Im in public sector policy outside of central gov. Have worked public funded non profits before too which have bonuses (up to 10%) based on performance

Oh come on! Obviously the best perk in the public sector is the pension?
I work in the charity sector and we get no bonus or paid for "do" and a crap pension 😂
(Well actually Christmas 2020 we did all get given a box of sweets and some Christmas socks, but I'm pretty sure there was no budget for that and my boss just paid).

I've worked in our local authority for 13 years, and never had a paid for Christmas party. Anything Christmas related has been organised/arranged by one person, and we've always had to pay our way.

That they paid for themselves out of their own pocket.

Civil Service (MoJ). Never had any kind of paid for do. Ever. DH, NHS, likewise. This must be a reverse, surely?

University here too, a paid for departmental party (budgeted for in the yearly budget, by me as it goes...) but no bonus, wouldn't expect one. Some depts had no parties, it was up to individual dept budgets as to whether it was valued and included, for staff morale we thought it was.

Really?
Which part do you work in, I've been PS for 25 years and never had anything like a bonus or paid for night out! In fact myself and colleagues have been known to use some of our pay to buy basic supplies and give back other bits of pay by working lots of free hours. I don't do that anymore but would love to work in your department. Are you HR?

That's interesting. How are universities funded, I don't know anything about it, thought that the only PS with paid for parties etc was Houses of Commons & Scottish Parliament!

Been with local gov ( a few different ones too) for over 15 years. never had any bonus or paid for staff activity
Like PP said, I've received back pay. But that was earnt and owed

The last time I had a paid-for staff party in the public sector was 20 years ago. Since then I've always had to pay.

I've never had a public sector job that came with bonuses. Performance-related pay, yes. But that's completely different to a bonus.

A 'bonus' is profit-related and as public sector organisations aren't profit-making, I don't understand where a bonus would actually come from.

Perks - a few, yes. An OK pension, membership of a employee discounts scheme where you could get 10% off a few shops/leisure outlets, an employee assistance helpline, a free flu jab, that sort of of thing. Nothing major. When I worked for a transport authority, I got a free bus and metro pass, but that was also cited as a reason for us having lower salaries than the equivalent staff at the council, and given that I walked to work and rarely used it, I would rather have just had the money.

Your department is either incredibly niche or has a management tier that doesn’t mind justifying signing off a bit of creative budgeting.

When I first started in the NHS a couple of decades ago training days had lunch catered (just a few sandwiches), that went down to just hot drinks which also went about ten years ago. Never had things like tea or coffee (or a kettle) supplied.

Funnily enough training for middle and upper management kept their catering and hot drinks for a long while after it was withdrawn from everyone else.

Yeah I’m currently back in the private sector after a decade or so in the public and third sectors. I get a couple of (non-cash) gifts during the year and an annual bonus but no contractual entitlement to sick pay, no death in service benefit, minimal pension and poor leadership. I’m considering a move back as I’d actually forsake the higher salary for the reassurance of having some of the other benefits I’ve listed, and to feel valued and like I’m doing something worthwhile again.

I do realise these sets of qualities don’t necessarily always go together though, and it is quite possible to be poorly paid and poorly treated.

i should add that I’ve worked in about five different trusts over the years.

Universities aren't public sector, though. They are private educational institutions, albeit they do have some government legislation around them (e.g max fee levels etc).

I don't know anyone who works in NHS, Local Government, Police, Fire or Civil Service who has had a paid for by the organisation Christmas party. I'm pretty sure it would be seen as an abuse of public funds.

Public sector policy outside of central gov? Not government then? NHS? Who funds you?

Non profits are completely different.

I would say your experience is quite rare - I've also only ever worked in public sector (mix of arms length bodies, civil service and LG0, but most of my family also work there, teaching, police, NHS, etc and none of us have ever had a paid for staff do. And tbh I don't think we should - working in PS I know how many better things there are for that money (which is basically just our own taxes anyway!) to go on.

YABU for drawing the equivalence between not getting a free party = badly treated though. The t&c in my current job are great and I don't think having to pay £30 for my own christmas party meal (and therefore have the choice about whether to go or not) makes me badly treated - I'd rather have flexi time, fairly decent pay, lots of AL, good maternity leave etc. than a party once a year
(obviously I know lots of private/third sector orgs also have those things).

A party funded by the organisation is hardly the only way to appreciate staff at christmas - most places do things like a christmas quiz, managers buy staff presents/a drink a if they want to, send a card or do a speech thanking staff for their hard work, etc. My current job gives us the friday before christmas half day off as discretionary leave, and another gave a day's 'christmas shopping' - all of which I'd prefer than a few bottles of cheap wine and a slightly cold mass produced 3 course meal at a local hotel, tbh!

The only thing I'm jealous of with private sector friends/family is the Christmas bonus - but again if I could only have one I'd prefer to have my guaranteed increments and union supported pay rise each year
(again, the 'not all' argument - my last PS job had neither but my experience is most do).

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