To think Local Government is full of pointless jobs that exist just to justify managers’ roles?

[NimblePoster]

I worked in Local Government for years and while some teams work hard and deliver real benefits to communities, there are also entire roles - and even teams - that serve no real purpose.

Managers accumulate staff because having a bigger team gives them status, justifies higher pay, and probably makes their own jobs feel secure (especially given the mass job cuts in LG over the past two decades). With little oversight, managers keep people on even when their function disappears. I’ve seen whole teams sitting idle, their jobs now pointless, yet still being paid as if they’re essential.

AIBU to think a huge chunk of Local Government is just wasting taxpayer money?

I'm in a unitary authority.

Adult social care has four social workers to cover 150,000 people. Community occupational therapy has two OT assistants to service the community. People and departments like this are at breaking point.

The authority recent mothballed one of its offices, a massive building, meaning the other building has everyone squished in like sardines.

Apart from the registrar who has an enormous office all to themselves (you could fit 20 odd people in it comfortably each with their own desk), and only takes customers by appointment. And really doesn't have a vast amount of work to do. They are full time when 4/5 would be plenty.

I completely agree with you OP.

If they weren’t so useless?

I'm yet to see 1 post that specifies exactly which roles are useless. Which tells me there aren’t any examples to be found.

Just vague generalisations that contradict actual facts like the reduction of council workers/jobs.

I think what we have is just too many layers of management. In a small department there are team leaders, each with a team of 4-5. Then a layer above that managing a team of 20. Then a layer above that managing a team of 40. Then layer above that managing 80 or so . And then assistant directors and directors
There must be almost as many managers as there are technical specialists, and this is for a highly professional part of the organisation where people don't need much "hands on" management or guidance. A lot of the actual supervision and support happens below team leader level.

(and the team leader role pays around £80k plus pension etc)

Yes, there are. One on here is virtually word for word of one I saw the other day. I'm sure it's just a cut and paste job. 🤔

Yes, this is what I see, some roles where people are utterly broken and burnt out and overworked and others where people spend a lot of time and energy justifying their own existence

We had highly paid "business managers" at my old work. Their job description was wildly vague and they didn't need any skills experience beyond GCSEs. I think the concept was that they would help facilitate communication between different departments but it was just insanity as they had no technical knowledge and it worked much better once we finally got rid of them and managers etc just spoke to each other. They would constantly be asking me for reports and data but then do nothing meaningful with it. But you could earn more wafting around throwing vaguely corporate catch phrases around than you could as a highly experienced technical specialist

Every time I went into a meeting with our "business partner" he looked like he had just woken up from a good nap

Lol@team leaders earning 80k. 80k is top end of a head of service salary.

Not in my department

Then I’d like to come and work where you do, @madamweb 😁

We do all get market supplements though

Absolutely not my experience in the three departments I've worked in. We were absolutely swamped with work that we didn't have enough staff for, the work increases and the staff members don't and it looks like supervisor roles are going to be reduced as well very shortly.

The public sector is, by and large, extremely bloated. I’ve largely worked in private sector but have worked with the public sector. There’s a lack of understanding of how to budget and manage costs. My favourite example was a council that outsourced some services to the business I worked for, didn’t make the existing staff redundant (which was part of the business model) and then complained they were spending too much money on that service. What can you do?! The NHS was as bad, if not worse, their solution to every problem (non medical roles) was more people, we need more people. I re-engineered some processes for them, took them through it all, even sat as part of the team and demonstrated how to do it better and they still refused to see it and wanted more staff. My output, as a member of that team they hadn’t even done the job before, was far higher than anyone’s but no, more people was the answer.

I do love a nice generalisation. You obviously know nothing about local government or the work they do.
I don't know about you but I think that removing a baby from a house where it was raped by an older sibling (who also raped the family dog) is a worthwhile job. Similarly, sectioning someone who tried to commit suicide; arranging for someone with dementia to go into respite care to give their family a break; the environmental health officers who check the restaurants you use; the trading standards officers who, for example, alert people when dangerous toys covered in lead paint flood into the country; the planning officers who stop your neighbour from building an extension that will affect your property...

In short, yes.

We got our council tax bill yesterday. It comes to just over 10% of my annual gross salary. And I genuinely don't know what the fuck they do with the money they receive from local taxpayers. I work in accounting by the way, so I do have a considerably better than average grasp of finances and economics on a large scale. I reckon you could walk into that council office building, get a list of names in salary order and cross of 90% of the top 50, and nobody would even notice they were gone.

I think most jobs are like this. I asked a lawyer fir clarification on a fairly straightforward matter, send thr document, highlighted relevant paragraphs. I need probably a four sentence paragraph back. We've now had five days of back and for, background checks on me, DH, the other party. ID checks. Terms of engagement, introduction to the ''team' terms and conditions of course, payment schedule, plan for future action. Just answer the fucking question. TBH, the issue may well resolve itself before I get a yay or nay. This is not a complex legal issue, it really is very straightforward clarification of wording that is likely common in all title deeds.

But is that all they do? I am not in local government but I am in a role where I line manage 6 people but managing them is only about 20-25% of my job, there's a lot more I am also responsible for doing myself.

They are required by law to do the ID checks for money laundering. It's not for fun.

I do think some of the teams that aren’t responsible for statutory services are over inflated, too much hr ( talent development consultants, reward consultants ?!) lots of duplication in things like data, business planners, transformation teams ( that rarely transform) absolutely room for improvement and trimming down but I’ve never worked in a team that isn’t absolutely exhausted , completely overworked and still always striving to make people’s lives better.

I have worked in the private and local government. People idealise the private sector as efficient and value for money - it is subject to the same egos and mismanagement as the public sector. People just enjoy moaning about the local government.

This!!!!

YABVVVVU.
Local authorities are on their knees since the Conservative Gvmnt tried to break them up completely between 2010 and 2024. Funding was slashed massively to pay for the Bankers' gambling.
Services have been cut to the bone and staff teams decimated. Most people seem to be trying to do the job that used to be done by 3 or 4 people.
The Youth service in our authority lost 95% of it's budget during that time - and they wonder about why there is so much knife crime now

I wasn't suggesting it was fun for anyone. The point is it's bureaucracy, it costs money, grinds down productivity and is utterly soul destroying for all involved.

But it's the law, it's protecting us all etc etc. That's where we are as a society - we can't answer a simple question. A huge proportion of jobs are bullshit jobs that achieve nothing. Yes it's the law, it doesn't mean it's not a problem.

I worked for a small district council for nearly ten years, everyone worked incredibly hard and I cannot think of a single person/ team/ function which isn’t essential. I’m so sick of people’s views that public servants just twiddle their thumbs all day. I now work in the private sector and honestly I work less for more money (but less pension) now

ive worked in both and couldn’t disagree more. Public sector is incredibly inefficient in comparison

Bloody hell