To think the public sector will get worse under Labour

[MeadowL]

Long term sickness is already nearly double of that in the private sector, aibu to think that this will get even worse under Labour?

https://www.statista.com/statistics/290241/uk-sickness-absence-rate-public-vs-private-sector/

So the eight weeks my colleague had to sit at home waiting for her shoulder op after being hit by as car has totally wiped out my great stats by working from home with a cold??? Bloody hell, I’m going to have a right go at her for that I’m telling ya, for making me look unproductive and lazy. How bloody selfish of her eh? She should’ve operated on herself and got her lazy ass back to work.

Wow, the bots are out in force now. You can smell the Tory desperation.

My friend waited in agony for weeks for a gallbladder operation. Her sick leave was awful. She was desperate for the operation though.
A functioning NHS is vital for a decent economy. It keeps people healthier and working longer.

Just had another look at OPs graph. Can anyone shed any light on why absences in both sectors were generally tracking down until 2011 and then started tracking up again. What changed do you think?

Can they afford to run offices given the slash in government funding?

Are public sector workers expecting a pay rise under Labour? If so, how will this be funded? If not, will they just go back to striking?

It's difficult to see how things are going to improve🌈

@cupcaske123 our local authority called all office workers back to the office after the pandemic and the scare about people wfh. Then had to reverse it a few months later as they ended leases on office buildings to prop up their budget.

Why would "throwing money" at healthcare make productivity drop?

That makes no sense at all.

Its a Labour government that would be improving peoples health and reducing sickness levels. So of course it must be wrong.

My public sector job has quite often placed me under a lot of stress. Because I'm doing multiple jobs that we can't recruit for due to budget cuts. Caused by reduced central funding and austerity......think again op. Sickness has increased as people are doing too much. WFH also means I can do more instead of commuting 2 hours daily.

You don't seem all that bright.

@Blackhorse32 I'm a public sector worker and, whilst we do have good terms and conditions compared with the private sector, we also have lower pay. So it balances out.

So do most local councils and have done since the pandemic, whether they're Tory or Labour. So I'm not sure what your "fgs!" quote is all about. How can you possibly not know that WFH is pretty much the norm in both the public and private sector? Or are you very young and not yet at work?

My local Lobour run council still all work from home fgs!

So? It cuts down stress and avoids wasting time commuting. Also means a better quality of life.

They wfh because councils have been ending leases on offices to save money. Staff in offices have to wfh if their office is no longer there.

My salary in the public sector has increasingly lagged behind what I used to get for the same job in the private sector. I’d like more money (who wouldn’t) but I’d rather campaign for a return to the one job I was recruited to do and get the vacancies filled for the two other jobs I picked up 3 and 5 years ago.

My DP works hybrid in a private company. They have an office, but they have reduced the size to cut costs. They do not have a desk for everyone if everyone turned up.

@VickyEadieofThigh
Are you seriously suggesting that people shouldn't be entitled to paid sick leave?

As a public sector worker, I'm asking if full pay for sick leave means that SOME people take the piss and take longer off than they would if they weren't getting full pay.

Not sure why people think working from home is public sector?! Lots of people do hybrid working and working from home in the private sector. It cuts down on office costs. And it also enables workers to work longer hours due to cutting down commuting time.

@MeadowL I wfh because our LA has flogged off most of its offices to plug the deficit caused by 14 years of Tory cuts.

When I worked in an office, I always left by 6.30pm because that's when the doors got locked. Now, I quite often log on at weekends or work into the evening because staffing has been cut to the bone, I'm doing two peoples jobs, I work in Adult Social Care where the budgetary pressures are huge, so lots of people are very stressed.

Nope. People would just find another excuse to get signed off sick. And of course the Unions are chomping at the bit, so they can dig their claws in to dissatisfied workers and get them all lined up on picket lines. They’ve waited a long time for this. I just don’t see, reading their manifesto, how they’re going to sort everything out that’s wrong. They’ll play the ‘but it will take a long time to get us out of the mess the Tories have left us in’ card for a few years, like they did with Thatcher. So I’m expecting that to mean we will have to go down first before we go up. But let’s see how long the British public will accept that for this time round.

The key word in this is ‘dissatisfied’

Why do you think they are dissatisfied?

Sickness levels in the public sector were on a downward trend until the Conservatives had been in power for a year. OP look at the facts. The last Labour government reduced public sector sickness. This conservative government have increased them.
Start from facts.

No it won't.
Because people will be able to get more timely treatment for their health.
People won't be as fucking stressed as they will have more resources and respect from a government that values public service and public servants.
Improved working conditions will lead to less ill health.
The public sector is not bloated it is stretched to the end of it's rope right now and the only reason it's it barely functioning is the good will, hard work, dedication and public service mindedness of the majority of it's employees.
GTTO

Sickness is up in every sector
What has whf got to do with sickness anyway? In theory that should reduce the numbers calling in as its easier to plough on at home.

Maybe if NHS was better funded across the board people would be overall healthier?

Its retired people who think wfh means everyone is skiving. They are out of touch with the modern workplace.
The equivalent 20 years ago would have been someone complaining about people in offices on computers playing computer games all day. And yes there were people who used to think that.