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?

Huge numbers of roles were "key worker" roles in the pandemic.

For instance, @HollaHolla how would the care workers get paid if there wasn't someone running the payroll?

How would they be managed if there weren't people running the HR and management functions?

And then there were all sorts of highly paid (and not) roles in other industries/sectors - national security, food production, energy and infrastructure....

I think it entirely depends on the nature of the organisation/business....

For example, I, and most of my direct colleagues were working flat out, because we were responsible for the medical students, who were being advanced out of final year study into the NHS. Also, the medical students were one of the groups of students that were allowed to be able to attend University in person.
It didn't mean that everyone in the University was required to work - and many didn't.... The in person services were paused (in general), and lots of people with young kids at home were effectively furloughed.

But all those people still got paid? So the payroll function was still needed. That's why it seems obvious to me that a fair few finance people in every organisation were going to have to keep working.

I don't work in finance but was very senior in a public sector organisation and my role meant I was more flat out than I had ever been. Meanwhile yes, we had some roles that were essentially not needed until normality resumed, but many of those people were redeployed to help with new pandemic response work

I’m conflicted. I also worked through Lockdown doing accounts and payroll for a private company that provided essential supplies to the Utilities and public sector organisations. We were onsite all through the various lockdowns. Whilst what I did was no where comparable to public facing roles and I have close family who are frontline NHS workers and teachers and I am aware of the stressful nature of the work I did feel possed off with several friends who worked in admin in the NHS. They worked mainly from home yet took advantage of every concession for NHS staff.

Life in the private sector varies from companies who have fantastic benefits to those that are pretty poor only providing the bare minimum they can get away with, many not providing any pension scheme until they were legally forced to.

I would not be a teacher for any money. Thank fully some are still prepared to do it

Yet another goady thread 🥱

I don't think we're disagreeing.
My point is 'key worker'. I saw key workers as those who were having to be frontline/working in a covid-related capacity. I was working, but I certainly wasn't a key worker. My Mum, who was a nurse, certainly was.

If you can't beat em, join em. Come and be a teacher and you too can take part in the cushy holidays, sick leave and all the rest of it.

There's a recruitment crisis on at the moment (for reasons that are really unclear given what a doss the job is...) so you're guaranteed to walk into it.

That's how you perceive it. But the legal definition was far far broader than that. DH and I both fell within the category of key worker due to our roles and could send the children to school if we wished

(we didn't, we juggled to manage them at home because two have asthma)

I have worked in public and private sectors. I think that some public sector workers, who have never worked in the private sector, take their perks for granted.

Boring boring boring.

So because people provide a service to the public, they should accept less pay? Nice.

I'm a nurse and single parent - during Covid I didn't even have a chance to fart........you doing your accounts and payroll sounds a lot less stressful! Stop moaning!!!! If you think public sector workers have it easy go and get a public sector job?

Ps I was an accountant before being a nurse!

Please do explain to me the perks I get because I think I’m missing something.

Btw I don’t include basic terms and conditions such as minimal annual leave and pension contributions or a couple of months sick leave that I try not to take because the fallout is so tedious.

Surely all jobs have different perks.

As a teacher I recognise I have decent holidays but also recognise I can't take half days for assemblies and sports days like many friends can.

Can't believe people are still bitter about furlough all these years later?

Maybe you should have emailed BBC Points of View.
Why does something that you have absolutely no control over, from years ago, that can’t be changed, that will probably never be seen again, grate.
If that’s what bothers you then you’re doing ok.

During the pandemic my DH was in the shielding group, 3 teens were at important points in their schooling & I was a frontline NHS worker turning up every day to a hospital full of Covid patients ! Yeah what a cushy time for us public sector workers that was 🙄🙄🙄

I won’t get my nhs pension till age 67, how I will manage my very active role at that age? well I’ll find out I suppose !

I haven't read the whole thread, but I take exception to lumping all public sector workers together. DH is a public sector worker. His pay rises have been negligible for about 10 or more years, nothing like the pay rises teachers got over the same time frame. His take home monthly pay is only a few hundred a month more than it was in 2010.

I am not bashing teachers, good luck to them, but they are in a different league to other public sector workers, including their own TA or office colleagues.

What a load of nonsense! In my NHS trust absence management meetings occur if you have 3 absences in a year ! That could be 3 days if they are all seperate absences! We catch things from patients (who seem to never cover their mouths when coughing) & drag ourselves in when we should be at home recovering!
HCPs can be struck off if they don’t meet the standards of their regulatory body. Might be the case that other areas of the NHS / public sector allow incompetence but in regulated HC professions it’s not the case !

I’m NHS & those on benefits can apply to not receive their pay rise as a lump sum. We will get our backpay in November but if on UC can opt to receive it split over 3 myths/13wks.

My employer refuses to do that. They say to take it up with UC - knowing full well that UC will say tough luck.

Why do these threads always end up being about a race to the bottom?

Those of you working in the private sector thinking that the public sector treats its workers so amazingly and how unfair that is - come on over, there's plenty of vacancies!

You do know that teachers weren’t furloughed either? That many of us also had children at home during that time too?

What pay rises? Teachers have had pay freezes/well below inflation pay rises for the vast majority of the Tory government?