"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!

@ScentOfSawdust yes, it's entirely normal to have fully stocked kitchens. How is this a surprise? I've worked at places where there are complimentary snack fridges, all sorts of juices, beers on a Friday etc

Back in 2021 the ICO, or someone working there anyway, spent £6000 buying 254 chocolate gift sets as Christmas gifts for staff and later had to apologise and say it wasn't in line with civil service spending policies. https://www.civilserviceworld.com/news/article/not-in-line-with-spending-policies-ico-apologises-for-buying-6000-of-chocolate

I work for a NDPB (not the ICO) and we don't get anything for Christmas from our organisation. Taxpayers Alliance would pitch a fit if we did!

Can you tell us more about the organisations you worked in that provided a bonus?

Lots of the civil service gets bonuses. I am a public servant, which is slightly different. But it's still public sector and tax payer funded.

In the public sector?

I'm public sector (local council) and we paid for our own work do and organised it all ourselves out of working hours.

In which agency was this? Sure as fuck not a normal one. Cabinet Office again?

That's interesting. I'm trying to think of an equivalent situation in Ireland, and can't (someone might be able to correct me though!). I'm a public servant too, essentially, I have a teaching / management role in a university.

I can think of publicly-funded bodies where bonuses may apply - though there is significant change in this sector too, not least due to the RTE shenanigans in the recent past.

Worked in public sector for over 20 years. Never had a Christmas party funded by the employer. Why would you think it’s acceptable to fund ‘jollies’ at the expense of the tax payer, or out of the council tax that a lot of people struggle to pay ?

The only offsite paid for Christmas Party I’ve had was working for the local authority, meal paid for at a (premier league) football club, drinks included until a certain time too.

Another department in the same authority paid for lots of booze and food for their staff party too. Though that was in the venue we worked.

This was both circa 2005/2011

I’ve worked in the PS for most of my working life, and have never had a bonus in the PS. You get a fixed salary and pension, that’s it. I don’t feel badly treated and I don’t think most of us feel we’re badly treated. The only slightly annoying thing is that people working in the private sector sometimes assume that we get annual bonuses just like they do, or that we can negotiate salaries and pay rises in the same way as they can, which we can’t, because salary scales are fixed and criteria for increments and promotions are rigid.

I don't think any central or local government organisation provides anything for Christmas from taxpayer funds - this wouldn't be an appropriate use of the money. Our place all staff pay for a Christmas meal and us in the senior leadership team cover the drinks from our own pocket.

I also take my mini team out for a lunch as well to say thanks for the hard work all year.

In the civil service there is often a pot specifically for performance, it is separate from pay and can be distributed differently, I think this is why some departments have performance related bonuses and others don't. And the further you are from the department, eg an ALB, the more freedom they have to deviate, one ALB I know decided to just split it out evenly between everyone that was at least "meeting expectations" which meant £200 flat rate or so.

Probably works in no 10

14 years public sector

10 years charity/voluntary sector

15 years NHS

Never, not even once had any paid for Christmas do or any other "perks". When I worked in Commissioning we were allowed a half day for Christmas shopping for 2 years but that was stopped in a round of reforms and cut backs. Any do was booked in our free time and paid for by the staff who attended. I must have spent 39 years of my working life in the wrong public section of the public sector.

I’ve worked in the Cabinet Office (Not No10) and it’s been no different to any other dept in terms of coffee/tea making facilities.

I did go for an event at a suppliers once and it was amazing…snack drawers, drinks fridges, company mugs. Of course all still ultimately paid for by the taxpayer but it explains why the cost of contractors is so high!

I’m NHS (Corporate) and we usually just do a meal that we chip in and pay for ourselves. None of us expect to have a paid for Christmas party - that would be absolutely scandalous giving the current state of the NHS.

It's more that it would not be seen as an appropriate use of funds by the Daily mail or the Tax Payers Alliance.

Public sector but not civil service. No paid for Christmas party or Christmas bonus. We do have provision for "celebrating success" and personal achievement awards in our area, but these are specifically suspended during December to avoid the appearance that we might be celebrating Christmas.

What we do have are extended department meetings where everyone wears Christmas jumpers and has to bring in their own food.

This idea that public sector organisations should not be able to show any appreciation of their staff beyond their basic pay because "tax payers" is just part of the general propaganda that public sector workers are just a lazy drain on resources. They devote about half of each edition of the telegraph to bashing the public sector so you can see why it is such a widely held view.

Of course if you insist on making the public sector an utterly joyless, underpaid place to work then you end up with the huge vacancy rates and loss of skills we are seeing now. I am guessing that is the plan.

@CornishPorsche @ScentOfSawdust nooooo private sector! In response to "does the private sector provide mugs?"

Network Rail gave us a bonus, a great Christmas party each year plus tea, coffee etc as standard.

It sounds so depressing working somewhere you don't even get a cup of tea included

A mince pie and coffee from the work canteen for onsite workers in the NHS a couple of years

But parties etc no never paid for by the NHS, not seen as a good use of public funding

Your employer being financed by public funds doesn't make you public sector. You're not employed by national or local government. So your employer can use their income as they like, whether it be profit or non-profit driven.

Curious (as a public employee ( with many years service with a local authority, Ministry and Arm's Reach Body) and a tax payer) to know which public body in spending tax money on staff parties - are you in the Cabinet?

Indeed and deciding employment policy based on the perceived reactions of shadily funded Tufton Street lobby groups and their client media operations is as rational as it sounds.

I don't think people are likely to disclose their actual employer on a public website, do you?

@Eleganz yep, which is why civil servants are being called back into the office 3 days a week by hook or by crook, because of performance? No. Gammon voters who read the Daily Mail.