To wonder if the private sector is better than the public sector?

[BreezySwan]

I work for the civil service and have done so for five years, I'm wondering about moving to the private sector, partly due to more money.

People say those in the public sector are lazy, that's not my experience and I work really hard, however I do work within my paid hours I get paid around £57k working in corporate services.

If I move to the private sector is it much more work? A work life balance is important to me. I also know the civil service pension is rather good. Have you made the switch? One of my reasons for moving is because I think I do work hard in my role, I want more money as the kids get older and the department is under resourced with 20% of people on sick or there are open vacancies to save money, and therefore I think can it be any worse or am I mistaken?

The private sector isn't one homogeneous entity, every job is different there's no way to generalise about pay or working conditions

True, I guess neither is the civil service. Anywhere you would recommend or think to avoid I was possibly thinking about Lloyds Bank, although there wasn't a vacancy there, it would be non london-based

I’d think long and hard before giving up one of the best pension schemes in the country.

The pay may be lower in the public sector but the benefits especially sick leave and pension make it well worth staying in my opinion.

I have read that you would need to be earning 20-30% more just to make up for the loss of the pension.

Ime the following are common to both:

• vacant roles to save money, or policies where you don't replace leavers for 3 months to save money
• in a normal large corporate lots of people do just work 9-5.30.

More unique to public sector ime:

• higher proportion of people off sick for longer periods
• people working from home with under 10s & no childcare (this is really not tolerated in the private sector)

Don't underestimate what the pension is worth in £ terms. If you earn £57k your pension contributions may make your salary equivalent to more like £70k with a poor DC pension scheme.

I would have no way to recommend an employer, in my experience that's not how people get new jobs.

They know what they do and they search for jobs of that thing and decide whether to apply based on the factors that are important to them

I may be wrong but my impression of the civil service is that it's a huge overly regulated rigid organisation, my working life in various private sector jobs has been none of those things

But horses for courses

I’ve worked mainly in the private sector, but briefly in the public. My job in the public was not identical to the positions I held in the private, but with an overlap in skills. Basically, from my point of view, I find the private sector is more concerned with what the work I produce, there’s a flatter management structure and personally I found I had more autonomy. I found the public more about box ticking and presenteeism. They were obsessed with management but it seemed to place obstacles into actually achieving anything. It was a ‘large, complex organisation’. I do think my department was particularly awful. When I left and employment agencies told me it had a bad rep and I should try other public sector roles so 🤷‍♀️.

Thanks for all your comments, I think one of my frustrations in my job is lack of more senior managers / directors making decisions, which ultimately produces more work. I also think there's a big disconnect between the public service they offer and what you actually end up doing, which is much more internal focused.

Really I'd like a job where they encourage innovative and creative thinking, without this actually being seen as a disadvantage or threatening

My DH is now a civil servant. His pension is really good. 26%:ish employer contribution and his circa 8%.
Apart from military, there's not many pensions that can match it

It really depends where you are. I have only worked in the private sector but have temped in the public sector and found no difference in terms of “laziness”.

I have decent work/life balance now but have previously had terrible and amazing work life balance in the private sector.

The money offered has consistently been better in the private sector for me so that’s where I shall remain.

Yep my brother has an amazing pension too at his public sector (ish) role. Mine is ok but nothing like your husband!

My bonuses are really good though (target 20% of salary up to 40%) so swings and roundabouts.

I took voluntary redundancy from CS and moved to the private sector. Only experienced one organisation but so far I have found it more hierarchical and slower than the CS (I know- that was NOT what I was expecting) and quite a lot less stressful. People do their hours and take a full hour for lunch most days. This was not my experience of the CS at all.

However it may be a difference in seniority as I've gone from G6 to a trainee! Or the area that I now work in as I've also moved from a policy role to something more technical. Not sure I'd take my sample size n=1 as indicative of much but I've been surprised and it's taken me a while to adjust from working very very hard and experiencing quite a lot of stress/people politics stuff in the CS.

Just like govt departments and roles within the CS, the private sector isn't homogeneous either.

I do worry about the pension a bit but I'm putting in quite a lot to my now private pension - and I do have quite a few years in my CS one which of course won't be wasted. It's not like they're final salary now anyway...

Really I'd like a job where they encourage innovative and creative thinking, without this actually being seen as a disadvantage or threatening

I expect you're more likely to find that in the private sector. But its role / company dependent.

I suspect to get this it's more the difference between large corporate (whether private or public sector) and smaller scale, more innovative start ups. Or maybe sector- tech/arts/creative maybe more of this and finance/traditional business less so?

Thanks everyone, it sounds like it's swings and roundabouts. I think moving between departments might make quite a big difference as well I've gone between one very large department, and a couple of ALBs, my experience is you work harder in the latter and become a little bit of a jack of all trades.

I’ve just been offered a job in the public sector after working in my current private sector role for over 16 years.

I worked in the public sector in the early 2000s and wish I’d stuck at it, but there we go.

My own personal experience where I’m currently working has been shocking and I could kick myself for not quitting earlier. This is all to do with the owner of the business though, and not all private sector companies will be the same.

No pay rise, no sick pay, new employees being employed on much more lucrative contracts, sacked a member of staff without going through the proper processes. 20 days holiday per year (public sector starts at 26 plus BH), although I do have more for long term service (set up by previous owner). No stability basically. No HR, no union. It was the shock sacking that made me start to look elsewhere. He can afford to pay the unfair dismissal claim.

Better for what? You are making sweeping generalisations here.

People say those in the public sector are lazy

That's a very unimaginative stereotype. There are over 6 million people working on the public sector, pretty sure they aren't all lazy.