AIBU Public sector workers generally

[Privatesectorworkers]

I’ve changed user names for this…..

I read a post today regarding public sector workers & how hard done by they feel. This instance its Teachers (just an example). I feel increasingly frustrated how these workers (general, not just teachers) harp on about how hard done by they are.

I appreciate it’s a hard job but you couldn’t get away with it in our sector.

I do also know that a lot of my hostility lies over being an unrecognised key worker during covid so perhaps this is tainting my view.

I don’t understand how much they get away with. In terms of absence, pay etc.

Some people work unfortunately in not so well paid, qualified positions (as I do) but there are other factors that keep me in my place of work. I am lucky to have good colleagues, work close to home etc.

Can they not just find some consolidation that they are in the career of their choosing, I would hope they wanted to have a positive impact in the education & enjoy the caring nature of this role?

I don’t understand what has changed so much AIBU?

What do you do?

'They' is a very big range of people and this is obviously a teacher-baiting thread.

Also WTF is 'get away with in terms of absence pay etc'

If you haven’t worked in the public sector how could you possibly comment or pretend to know what it’s like. Yes there is a handsome sickness package which some people abuse, and yes some ‘cushy’ roles but generally high workloads, high stress for very little reward and the pay is nowhere near as good as the public sector.

Maybe ask A&E doctors and nurses, police officers getting their heads kicked in for £28k a year or teachers who are overworked if they agree with your sentiment.

Also in some public sector organisations, people in senior roles work ridiculous hours with no overtime and loads if stress for less than half what they’d get in the private sector in terms of wages.

Both public and private sectors have pros and cons.

Can they not just find some consolidation that they are in the career of their choosing, I would hope they wanted to have a positive impact in the education & enjoy the caring nature of this role?

So this is a whinge about public sector workers in general, eh? So building surveyors, or environmental health inspectors, or occupational therapists, or refuse collectors?

Or was it just a goady attempt to have yet another go at teachers?

Why hide behind a name change? What do you do? I am sick of people lumping all teachers together. I would never lump other professions together in the same way as teachers are.

I do Accounts & Payroll (for approx 300 employees all furloughed while’s I wasn’t), Hence I do realise my perspective might not be the same.

I also had a teen at home preparing for GCSE’s at the time.

So you’re pissed off because you weren’t furloughed? Is that what you mean?

My experience of working in the public sector for 10 years... I'll never go back.

Decisions involve 20 meetings, senior management have 30 "catch ups" a week via teams, staff go off sick often as its full pay from day 1, money is wasted, they spend months (and many meetings) to get anything through the system, then once it's done so they've justified their jobs they don't give a fuck about it/forget about it until further down the line and it hasn't gone as planned/ignored warnings from staff doing it/ they look bad then suddenly they're like flies to shit in a flap trying to do stuff in retrospect.

The public sector is full of dead wood unfortunately and those who genuinely want to make a difference get sucked in, burnt out then spat out.

Campaign for better working conditions, don't try and drag everyone down to your level.

"Can they not just find some consolidation that they are in the career of their choosing, I would hope they wanted to have a positive impact in the education & enjoy the caring nature of this role?"

For far too long, this has been an argument for why it's ok to underpay teachers -- it's their calling, it's a vocation, etc. How about we pay teachers a good wage and invest in the next generation?

I think you would have benefitted from a little more education so that you could write a comprehensible post.

I'm really unclear what point you are trying to make ?

Another one wondering why you name changed.

I think you should consider where is this coming from ? Why do you feel resentful about certain public sector jobs? Is it because you feel your job doesn't have enough kudos ? I don't think what you describe is genuinely unfair because public sector roles are getting that well paid, you have little control over work environment and choice of leave due to stretched services and are generally managed by the organisation ( nhs).
You are hating on public sector workers and I think it's best to think why - are you jealous ? Or are you in the wrong job?

TBF I work in the private sector and it's exactly the same as you've just said.

I don't even bother talking in the meetings anymore I know they will fanny around for another 40 instead regardless even if I just give them a definitive solution right away.

I think that's just what happens if an organisation gets too big.

@Healingsfall in the public sector organisation I work for the vast majority of people care a lot about what they do and the service we are delivering, it's why we stay even though most of us could earn much more elsewhere!

Why don’t you retrain as a teacher then?

I personally think teaching is the one of the most important jobs there is and I could never do it so I’m glad others do. I’m absolutely amazed we have any teachers left though hearing about the job, pay, conditions, children and parents and I’ve no idea how anyone can say anything negative about teachers (as a group) or their jobs.

Ridiculous

So you sat at home doing accounts during lockdown
With a teen kid

You had a VERY easy time compared to many, many public sector workers

Very easy time

You're just annoyed you weren't furloughed. The end

This, really. I work in an arm’s length public body delivering statutory work on behalf of the government. I am in a very niche specialism, with only about 30 people in the country doing the same work I do, which can be done nowhere else. That number has fallen by a third and yet we still have to deliver more work than ever. It is totally knowledge and experience based, and all these roles are in the same pay band, so no meaningful progression is possible. The closest equivalent private sector job would pay me almost twice as much. My pay is worth about £15,000 a year less than it would have been if it had risen even with inflation over the last ten years. I had zero pay rise for seven of those ten years. My public sector pension has been revised three times in the 25 years I have worked here and will only pay me about half of my current salary if I can manage to make it to my retirement age of 67 (which has risen from an expected 60 during my working years). I am still not getting close to being a 40% income tax payer. There are some good conditions in our organisation, such as sick pay and maternity pay, but these should be the norm everywhere - it’s not a race to the bottom. And they don’t give me more money in my pocket to keep up with the cost of living, or ensure I’ll have enough pension income to heat my home. Meanwhile, people like the OP like to continue to show huge ignorance about what public sector workers do, how we are paid and what we are depriving them of (nothing, actually). But they are also the first to moan when public services fail because they are stretched too thinly. We can’t win, can we?

If you want to swap with my dh who got PTSD after being seconded to ITU during lockdown please tell me again how cushy public health workers had it

What has people being furloughed got to do with it? As far as I know, not a single person in my public sector organisation was furloughed, we all worked from home, or if that wasn't possible we worked in our normal workplace.

So you’re still bitter about having to work in Covid?

How do you think all these so-called moaning slackers in the public sector feel about what went on in Covid eh?

Do bore off (and I say that as someone who’s always worked in the private sector).

I couldn’t do a teaching job for all the tea in China and, I suspect, neither could you.

In the public sector the people "on the ground" usually are the people you describe. Go higher and its a whole different ballgame as I found out.

I’m a nurse. in the last 12 months Ive taken 3 sick days. 1 because I had anaphylaxis, 1 because I had a menopause related migraine (& couldn’t see), and 1 because I lost a litre of blood from my vagina at the start of my clinic and it was everywhere (& I had to go to A&E which was downstairs). I was then put on a sickness management program with meetings and punitive check ins. I don’t feel like I’m’getting away with’ anything