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?

And please could I add, myself and my colleagues often did far more than was actually in our job description. It might have been under the 'any other duties' section, but we regularly sorted out so much more than what was in our job description. Often because there was no other individual or organization that could do it. If I could not do it, I did my best to find someone who could.
I wasn't allowed to take gifts either. I didn't do the job for that. But no extras, no bonus, nothing extra. When I read threads on here where people get bonuses I just don't read or comment. I've never, ever had that. In fact after an assessment we were all given a pay cut at one point, years later were were placed on a higher band. No backdated payments though. My work hadn't changed at all. It made no sense, but there you go.
And I contributed to my pension for nearly 40 years. Now I'm knackered.

I’m not unhappy. I love my job, I wouldn’t leave for a million quid. It isn’t easy, but I never thought it would be. I agree that if public sector workers cannot tolerate the conditions of their work, including pay, then they should leave. But most continue doing what we do because we love our jobs and don’t do it for the money.

Cost of living and salary stagnation has long been a problem in the public sector. Long before it became a factor for the majority of people. Most of us are on set salaries, we have no room for negotiation unlike the private sector. 10s of thousands of people had their salaries frozen for years. Our pay never caught up with the rate of inflation and we are still taking a real terms pay cut, as we have done for years.

Here’s an interesting article from the IFS if you have the time.
ifs.org.uk/publications/recent-trends-public-sector-pay#:~:text=Average%20real%20pay%20in%20the,%25)%20in%20the%20private%20sector.

Teachers weren’t furloughed. We had to go in to work to teach children of key workers. I don’t recall gripes about layabout private sector workers sloshing away our tax money for laying about at home .

Health and care workers are in the public sector- they had the hardest time of anyone during Covid.

DH freshly retired two weeks ago was an academic and had to teach from home it was awful, some support staff were furloughed by his University and had pay topped up to their full wage.

Oh it was hell. Especially when you factored in childcare and home schooling.

My university only furloughed estates and catering staff. All academic and professional services were expected to carry on as normal but with hugely increased workloads as the pandemic created all kinds of issues!!

Some pps have mentioned the danger of lowering standards in both public and private sectors and I do think there is something in that. There is no doubt, eg, that the reason many private firms now have better employee benefits, facilities and working conditions is because they need to offer that to compete with the public sector for staff.

I also wonder if it might be better if more teachers DID leave the profession. I know that sounds counter intuitive but atm it seems to me that some teachers are going off sick for long periods just because they are pissed if with the job/ the head teacher politics etc. Their job is kept open all that time which means a succession of temps, which is rubbish for the kids. If long term sickness wasn’t an option, maybe those teachers would leave and at least then there would be a proper perm job to recruit to.

I am so confused. Is this thread about how annoying it is that teachers complain and don't understand how good they got it? Or is this about all 5.94 million public sector employees in over 300 different occupations lumped into one?

I work in public sector. I've also worked private. Pros and cons with both. I don't feel hard done by and while my work was relatively vital during covid I did not get or need a hero treatment. I have quite a good pay but I don't get away with absences. Whatever that means. It is also not a career if my choosing and while sometimes I feel like I need to constantly teach stakeholders I'm not sure in this generic public sector role I can claim to teach and claiming this bureaucracy to having a caring nature is quite funny. But we are not talking about public sector employees...are we?

I don’t like to teacher bash as they do a fantastic job, my child is in special school and the teachers do an amazing job I couldn’t do it, however don’t rewrite history where Covid is concerned. Teachers were not all in school every day teaching children of key workers during the first Covid lockdown unless you were at a school where all the children were in then it was done on a rota, my sons teachers (he was at a mainstream at time) were only in a day every couple of weeks which was similar to most schools of other children I know, there was no online teaching in the first lockdown for most schools, we got one phone call to check we were ok in the 8 weeks (child with ehcp so classed as vulnerable child). Not everyone in the private sector was furloughed it was only in jobs that couldn’t be done due to restrictions, hairdressing, leisure services etc. We both still had to work full time even though we are private sector, one could wfh and the other worked in a warehouse so was out at work every day during Covid.

A lot of care workers are in the private sector, people working in nursing homes and in the community also had it very hard in Covid. A lot of nhs had it very hard but I also know people working for the nhs who worked exclusively from home

'And please could I add, myself and my colleagues often did far more than was actually in our job description. It might have been under the 'any other duties' section, but we regularly sorted out so much more than what was in our job description. Often because there was no other individual or organization that could do it. If I could not do it, I did my best to find someone who could.'

Yes, this happens all the time. The job I do was downgraded from a Grade 4 to a grade 2 (before I started so I was aware of the grading/salary) Yet we still do all the same work as the grade 4 role plus plenty of additional tasks way, way above our pay grade. Safeguarding, risk assessment, cash handling, event organising. Mugs, we are. I stick at it because it took me months to get a job after closing my business - finding a job at nearly 60 is hard. But we are definitely taken advantage of.

I have to agree about the difference in teaching across the country during Covid. I know some were excellent but our primary was particularly poor. We had four children with SEN at home, we got one phone call, were completely unable to home educate and received a lot of videos of teachers sitting in their gardens pretending to throw a ball to each other - that was galling when I was going out of my mind! But I understand other schools went way above and beyond. Moral
is that Covid was pretty dire for all of us in a variety of ways I guess.

That sounds similar to ours, we got some nice videos of the teachers at home playing an instrument or doing some crafts but no practical teaching or help or even checking we were ok except for the one call about 6 weeks in. Meanwhile we both were working full time dh out of the home and me wfh whilst trying to supervise an autistic child

@Morph22010 I was in every day. From day 1 of lockdown. Because my school is in area of huge deprecation and the vast majority of mothers had to continue working in supermarkets, care homes, hospitals etc as low paid workers. So we remained open for these kids, feeding the ones who were at home from our own pockets. Because government refused to.

Dealt with many many bereaved students over the 2 years too - I've never been trained for that. But I had it so much easier than the parents working in the front line. I am very grateful people were doing the work. People sitting at home on furlough pay moaning about having to look after their own kids really need to think about why they then feel it necessary to bash teachers.

Don't tell me what I did. I was there, you weren't. Take it up with your school if they were rubbish.

I taught a full time online timetable. Bloody hard work.

Kids with ehcps or Sen pretty much got pushed to the bottom of the pile in the first lockdown as many couldn’t access online learning, not that online learning was available first lockdown anyway for most schools, we just got a few printed worksheets and his maths book sent home and left to our own devices. Then when they went back to school becuase kids with ehcps often have ta support the tas were used as extra staff to,supervise classes when other staff were off. It is easier to send one child home constantly as no ta than a class of 30.

We werent keyworkers but we did have a key role and, I think, some accounting work was considered key work at the time.

I was in accounting too, in a firm with a payroll department - peoples businesses were taken from under their feet. Whilst furlough was announced almost immediately help for the self employed wasn't. I spent the first few days studying the announcements that were coming out thick and fast, and taking phone calls from scared business owners as they literally had to close doors and had no income. It was an awful time (although I agree I wasn't dealing with dead bodies although at times it felt like I was helping prevent more). Once the full packages were announced there was a lot of work involved in understanding them.

Furlough calculation by the payroll department were particularly complicated and remained so throughout as the rules and calculations changed.

Their roles were very important but, equally, could also be done remotely. Furlough wasn't a right - it was there were vulnerable people needed protection.

At the time I think people thought it great t be paid 80 percent to be off of work but I think most of us are made to be active and the impact of being furloughed wasn't all good.

I work in a similar role and I recall a lot of the government guidance for businesses said at the end about asking your accountant if you had further queries!

Yes, I think it does no favours to defend all public sector staff as if they are saints. Teachers often seem defensive of their colleagues. I absolutely know that in the NHS there are people who take the piss. Who want their annual leave and sick leave ‘entitlement’. They are the first to shout that they are being bullied or discriminated against when they simply do not pull their weight and leave the rest of us to carry the load.

We do get good pensions and sick leave. There is no harm in admitting that. Obviously working on the wards in the NHS is pretty horrific at times, but that is the job that I signed up to do. I deal with issues as they arise, rather than whingeing to others.

When people say that a nurse or doctor have done something wrong, I always encourage them to report. I don’t get defensive and try and blame the patient or relative. If someone has acted improperly, it needs reporting so that the individual has appropriate feedback and consequences if needed.

I absolutely hated the clapping that went on during the pandemic. I did not want a clap for just doing the job I was paid to do. I found it patronising and irritating. The whole ‘heroes’ thing was just embarrassing.

I never clapped. Not because I didn't appreciate your service but because there was no exit strategy. When would you end it - I still.appreciate NHS workers today for all they do.

I'd rather say thank you and pop in a box of biscuits for their staff room when I'm involved than stand and clap once a week.

The same at my University. All the rules for the calculation of degree classifications had to change (as final exams were cancelled) and then be implemented into the systems that auto-calculated these decisions for thousands of students. Workloads massively increased and people were starting work at 6am and working until midnight to meet the deadlines.

Again no one forces you to work that job and if like you say highly skilled go work somewhere else, all this is so boring , find another job you have a choice ! Fgs
Sick of the whinging on here about public sector workers and how hard they have it, it isn't great in other careers neither, but you can move jobs, we have a lot of overseas workers in some parts of the public sector who are happy to work for
Your pay and Conditions, so just move on , no need to feel guilty.

Really? When the BBC did its montage showing everyone who had been out on the frontline, did you not feel a little disappointed that they couldn't find two seconds of time for you amongst the shop workers, refuse collectors, police, NHS staff and dozens of others who were rightly commended?

So you're annoyed lots of people where you work were furloughed during covid, but you weren't? And you had a teenager?

The vast majority of the public sector continued working during covid. Some, like me, had the privilege of being able to WFH at that time - and I had colleagues who were juggling toddlers and primary school aged kids to try and still do their jobs, never mind a self-sufficient teenager. Many other public sector workers had to go to work in public facing roles.

I think you're just displaying jealousy here.

The public sector have had below inflation pay rises for years, that's why pay is such a battleground. Yes, we generally have better pensions and sick pay and holidays - but this does come at the expense of lower salaries (I accept that some people forget to include the value of these when complaining about their pay, and it is fair to point this out e.g. personally I memtally "gross up" teacher salaries to cover their holidays over 30 days plus bank hols when considering whether they are fairly paid - I still think they deserve more than they get, but I don't think you can compare their salaries directly against someone getting 30 days plus bank hols and expect parity).

Maybe try applying for a public sector job if you want all the benefits, all public sector depts have payroll functions...

"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."

You do realise that public sector workers were not allowed to be furloughed as these funds weren't made available to public sector organisations? Instead, they all had to work either at home if practical or in their usual places of work if not, or they were sacked.

I work in a Whitehall department in a post dealing with SCS, Ministers and external stakeholders. I could never get away with saying how hard done by I am, complaining about the 60% office attendance mandate (which is 40% in reality due to capacity issues), and general complaints, especially those drifting into political. It isn’t on and, in truth, I’m not hard done by at all. I guess it helps I enjoy my post a lot, and I know I have exit opportunities the majority do not.

I do agree some people should take solstice in the fact they chose their career, they knew what to expect, and they are free to move on to other posts in the wider public service or private sector. And once in the private sector, I hope they enjoy the massive culture shock and the difficulty of getting back into their original career. Some of the complaints are honestly so grating and I can’t wait for some to experience the other side. The grass is not always greener!

Tell me you know nothing about teaching without telling me you know nothing about teaching.

When I started my public sector job they money wasn’t great but ok and you knew what you are getting into. It hasn’t gone io with inflation and so now the money is shit. I deal with other peoples shit all day long, do courses on a “person centred approach” … but when I had a miscarriage I had to take the day off as annual leave to avoid having disciplinary over my sickness (I had a week off a few months before for sickness and that was it)

last year my pay went up by £2.30 a day and at the same time they bought in a daily car park charge at £2.50 a day

meanwhile my sister works corporate and has a bar with free beer (wtf right?) from 3pm in their office. They have an on site barista, can work from home, work from abroad for three months, has a therapist on site….

I don’t expect the same of course, but a bit more acknowledgment that we are people too would go a long way. I look after other people all day long but no one seems to give a hit about me