"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!

Hang on, does that mean my taxes are paying for your Christmas party?!

I'm a teacher- even when I worked in a private school, we had to pay for our own Christmas party! Can't believe any public sector job would have a free Christmas party.

Where is this? Some quango? Worked in Whitehall for decades; this is another age. I also don't recognise bonus though this did happen during Labour's time.

It's not a given that no bonus and no paid for Christmas party = 'badly treated'. Tad dramatic.

YANBU it’s like the “I work for the NHS” even though it’s totally irrelevant to the rest of the post but public sector workers seem to constantly want people to feel sorry for them. If it’s so bad I wonder why they don’t all leave but oh wait……

Also Glastonbury where I live has an entire industrial estate of old industrial buildings that have just been left to rot and have been an eyesore for as many years as I can remember, why are they not being converted into council homes. There are people squatting in them and living in caravans round the back and have been for years.

In the academy funding rules, schools are banned from paying for staff parties (even tea or milk! Our headteacher used to buy it herself for us because she thought milk kitties were ridiculous).

So most teachers will have a similar experience.

Very dramatic. I never worked in a joyless workplace but then it takes a lot more than a Christmas party to spark joy for me.

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

I work for a university and we have to buy our own tea and coffee.
However, I do get loads of annual leave and we close for nearly two weeks at Christmas. I'll happily buy my own tea and keep the annual leave!

@bombastix as said before, I was referring to private not public sec.

I never really get the animosity towards Tufton St. I for one value having a few independently funded think tanks that stand up for the taxpayer by highlighting public sector waste

I've been a Scottish teacher for 25 years. We always pay for our own Christmas night out, no performance related pay just increments based on years of service and definitely no bonus.

I did get one glass of bubbly and a £25 local voucher at 20 years service from the LA. I'll get the same at 30 and 40 years service.

I mean I’m bitterly aware of HCPC spending plenty of money on Christmas parties while not providing an adequate service to the underpaid healthcare professionals they extract ever increasing amounts of money from so I suppose that’s public sector festive joy for some.

@roarrfeckingroar "independently funded" totally without bias or agenda I'm sure.

We did used to get a cup of tea at twilight training sessions run by the LA. Now we must bring our own flask.

I agree, but whenever I see posts from people on threads about these issues, that's always the vibe given by the scoffing 'public sector so we don't even get tea!' Posts

Public sector for over twenty years. No paid for parties and no bonus.

I work in PS and we have to pay for our own meals - though years ago there were a couple of occasions when seniors paid for food and sometimes the drinks bill, but it's not expected and quite rare. It would have come out of their personal pocket, expenses don't cover it.

I've seen some PS offices where staff have to provide their own tea bags, sugar, milk etc.

Very few PS work places can afford to treat staff to nights out, dinner, drinks.

I'm in a University - so public sector adjacent - and it's actually against our spending rules to spend money on a social event for staff only.

No they can't, our core funding is all reportable to our sponsor department and we have to justify our existing twice a year. Worse when big comprehensive spending reviews happen.

Tip of the iceberg.

• Pay freezes, substantially below inflation pay rises for over a decade.
• under- resourcing leading to unmanageable workloads
• poor management training and capability leading to regular bullying and discrimination
• lack of investment in modern processes and systems leading to failures that are then blamed on staff incompetence instead.
• lack of training opportunities
• no pay progression
• direct interference by elected officials in operational matters tolerated by senior management resulting in further bullying and harassment.
• government actively encouraging hostile work environment.
• media criticism resulting in abuse by members of the public even sometimes extending into violence.
• massive over-governance resulting in a huge blame culture and lack of ability for anyone to make any decision of substance below director level.

I could go on.

The pension is good, but Tufton Street are eyeing that up as the next way to shit on the public sector so I expect that'll become shit soon too. That will be the point I'll probably leave assuming the rest of it does not get intolerable first.

I worked in the private sector for years in different companies. Not all of them have parties and bonuses. In the first three companies I worked for we organised and paid for our own Xmas nights out. No bonuses.

I would rather have a good pension than parties.

@fpqand like left wing think tanks. Everyone has an agenda; it's just you disagree with the Tufton lobby. And that's ok; but it doesn't make their agenda intrinsically wrong.

DWP Annual Report 2022-23
Bonuses are non-consolidated variable performance related payments awarded to our civil servants below SCS* grade at the end of the year. In order to be eligible, staff need to be in post on 31 March and 1 July and must not be undergoing formal poor performance action. Bonus payments are normally paid in July for performance in the preceding financial year, therefore payments made in 2022-23 relate to performance between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022.
In addition, SCS bonus payments are based on performance assessments against the framework for SCS Performance Management and Pay prescribed by Cabinet Office.
Those that are assessed as top are eligible for a non-consolidated performance related payment.

*Senior Civil Servants - 202 in March '18, 286 in March '23

Voters would do well to understand how those running the country are rewarded and incentivised, the number of Senior Civil Servants has increased over the past 5 or 6 years and there are few penalties for screwing up. Those at the highest levels are well fed and watered from Departmental funds, albeit not routinely - I believe there have been some FoI requests for the expenditure on the Official Gov Wine Cellar in the past year or two.

I work in the public sector.

Our salary is paid by the taxpayer. Or bonus' are paid for by the taxpayer.

I get really angry when I hear about things like Christmas Parties, or days out (team 'bonding' - away day's cough home office a few years ago) being charged to the relevant Government department/ALB/Police/NHS etc.

Taxpayer money is not made to be frittered away on nice to haves which is what those things are. It is for salaries and overtime. A few other priorities, but not crap like teabags and nice parties.

Why should the taxpayer front up for public servants getting all those things? We all went into the public sector knowing what it was; flexibility and job security above all else. The other things? You get them in the private sector where the taxpayer isn't paying for it.

But as with most organisations such as academies and NDPBs etc. such rules will be able to be overriden by a director or similar.

I remember the good old days when we could get tea and quality biscuits provided at internal meetings, and sandwiches if it was over lunch. Then they said you could only order choccie biscuits if there were external invitees, and then the directive went out that you couldn’t get any refreshments at all at internal meetings. These days you don’t order refreshments for any meetings at all unless the external people are very important. Which is why we always suggest having meetings at the external people’s offices!