To think people idealise the private sector as more efficient, when it’s just as subject to egos and mismanagement as the public sector?

[MyAmusedOpalCrab]

I often see the private sector being held up as the gold standard for efficiency, cost-effectiveness and good management, while the public sector is dismissed as bloated, bureaucratic and wasteful. But in my experience, the private sector can be just as bad, if not worse, when it comes to incompetence, office politics and poor leadership.

I’ve worked in both sectors and I’ve seen shocking mismanagement, inflated salaries for ineffective leadership and decision-making driven more by personal agendas than actual efficiency. At least in the public sector there’s usually some level of transparency and accountability, whereas in private companies, things can be just as dysfunctional but hidden behind a polished image.

AIBU to think that people overestimate how well the private sector functions or is my experience just unlucky?

Have worked in both private and public sectors and tbh they are so intertwined it is a bit crazy to see them as separate things. Having said that I found working in the private sector incredibly limiting and boring. I like that I can contact someone in my profession anywhere in the country and have an open conversation/share resources as long as I credit them, rather than having to make something new just because we are separate organisations. Ironic because reinventing the wheel isn’t supposed to be a private sector thing.

Years ago, I freelanced in the private sector. One higher up took the company into a market that was spectacularly unsuccessful ( and they had been warned it wouldn't work). This person lost the company millions, and as a result, no one got a pay rise. They were given a huge amount of money to 'go away and not talk about it'.

I’d disagree based on my experience (and DH’s). Both worked in both. We both found the public sector to be significantly worse. Depends where you’ve worked, I guess.

Inefficiency is not always the same as egos and mismanagement. All three can be found in some examples in the private sector.

I left the private sector in my late 30s and have spent over 20 in the public sector. I found the fiefdoms, narcissism, bullying, archaic practices and general organisational politics much more of an issue in the private sector. I would never go back.

What was the name of the comedian who died - Jeremy something - was on the news quiz quite often. He said that public sector might be incompetent but at least it was well meaning incompetence. The private sector was greed plus incompetence.

Jeremy Hardy. A man much missed in my opinion.

That's the one. Agree 100%.

I’ve worked in both and there is no difference. You get high quality people in both and useless people in both. You get efficiency in both and inefficiency in both. Both sectors have their fair share of infuriating nonsense and incompetence. The only thing with the public sector is that getting rid of dead wood takes longer and is more difficult and process and it’s so slow with all the additional red tape you don’t have to contend with in the private sector.

Having worked in both, I’ve seen poor management (of resources, work, people etc) in both.

It’s difficult to compare financial management as the aim of one is to increase profit whilst the aim of the other is to deliver a public service - libraries, children’s centres, even some bus services aren’t profitable but that’s not why they’re important.

The biggest misconception in my view is that the private sectors aim is to be successful in order to create employment. The private sectors aim is to increase profit by shaving costs to the bone and the biggest cost for many companies is headcount.

Take a look at the job market and where/how redundancies have arisen. Supermarkets moved move to self service tills to cut headcount. Companies are racing to use AI tools to cut headcount. Those supermarkets and companies are re still turning a tidy profit and hefty dividends for shareholders - whilst making redundancies.

Thats why economic growth is not lifting people out of poverty.

The saving grace of the private sector* is that above average mismanagement eventually leads to a company going out of business. That doesn't happen in the public sector. Idolising the private sector isn't helpful, but the public sector needs more scrutiny because it doesn't have this sort of natural selection.

*Well, most of it, not the bits of it supported by monopolistic practice or government license.

I work somewhere where there are public and private health systems in parallel.

Too dangerous to work in the public? You work exclusively in the private.

There is no comparison, no matter what level of intellectual contortionism you engage in.

If private sector engaged in this nonsense the shareholders pay the price and punish the organization’s leadership.

If public sector indulges in corruption and incompetence, the gravy train rolls on, with the taxpayer continuing to be ripped off.

Have you seen the calibre of people running our public services, you wouldn’t pay them to clean your shed.

Yeah it’s called automation and productivity increase. It’s not exactly a controversial concept.

Absolutely this. I am surprised more people haven't pointed this out.

I have never worked in the public sector, but over the course of my career I have worked in organisations of various sizes ranging from huge, multi-national companies with a very corporate culture, through SMEs all the way to very small firms with 6 or 7 employees.

I recognise what some people describe her as public sector characteristics from the very large organisations I worked in. Some people working very, very hard while others manage to faff about doing nothing of any discernible value but keep getting promoted and paid a large salary for it. Massively beaurocratic processes and difficult to get anything changed. I only worked in this environment for a couple of years after the SME I worked for got taken over and I hated it. Moved to another smaller company when the opportunity arose.

In the very small company I worked for I would say we were extremely efficient. In an organisation that small there is no room for anyone who is not pulling their weight. Everyone has to take responsibility and be prepared to step up and tackle things outside of their comfort zone. If something needs doing then somebody has to be prepared to do it.

I remember in the big corporate environment the assessment process for applying for promotion to the next grade was almost like a full time job in itself. It would entail hours of work getting 360 degree appraisals from all and sundry, completing multiple forms on experience and training, interviews and so on. In the small company you had an in depth chat with the boss about once a year and things got done. I know which I preferred.

I work in a private sector role where we have a public sector counterpart that we work with a lot.

Its a mixed bag. They pay literally half what roles in the private sector do, and it shows. There's a lot of genuinely useless people who'd get pushed out in about 5 minutes in the private sector, but the money isn't good enough - the pensions used to make it worth it but those are less good than they once were.

They will bring 6 people to a meeting where we'll manage with 3.

There are some really bright types too, who are genuinely devoted public servants, but they can get get blinkered by working in an environment that's basically an echo chamber.

They will bring 6 people to a meeting where we'll manage with 3.

That's definitely not specific to any one sector!

They will bring 6 people to a meeting where we'll manage with 3.

I don't recognise this picture. I'm NHS and we have so much transformation and cost saving work going on that we are relentlessly cutting who attends what, with lots of cross-directorate delegating going on. We don't have the staff to double up.

This has definitely been my experience of meetings with the NHS. We had a whole series of meetings, they brought multiple representatives and multiple advisors. They couldn't even agree between themselves what they wanted so it was a total waste of our time. We were public sector too but at least showed up at the meeting with the minimum of people and a game plan

Couldn't agree more. I work in local government and it's not as if council tax payers can choose an alternative council to pay to if they are not happy with the original one, so no consequences for crap-ness like a private service provider would have.

This embeds itself as a shocking lack of accountability culture.

My personal experience having worked in both us that it's easier to be seen as a good performer in the public sector as the bar is set lower.
I started a public sector job last year and was amazed to get really good feedback more so than in previous jobs, and it went to my head a little at first, thinking wow everyone thinks I'm amazing! Then the penny dropped that it's all relative and all my predecessors had been a bit crap rather than I'd magically changed into some wunder-employee.

Maybe just where I work and not representative of the public sector overall but it's not hard to be a good worker or stand out compared to private sector.

Interesting reflection on Tesco admitting privatisation makes no sense.

It’s very difficult to compare. I run a small business where we have to be productive and efficient to remain competitive against bigger, slower businesses.

The size of the business has a lot to do with it, the bigger the more likely it is to be slower and less efficient.

But without a doubt the biggest differentiator is competition. If there’s no competition (or little) the service goes down and the people just aren’t as productive - whether that’s public (NHS) or private (trains, water), it makes no difference.

Say what you want about capitalism (and it has many flaws) but healthy, genuine competition does make companies better and more productive.

Try the retail sector for a special level of stupid too.

The public sector is vast so catch all statements are wild anyway. Generally a lot of the 'red tape' people always mention are because its spending or using public money and public resources; unless people would prefer those controls to be removed as they work for the centralised PPE efforts during covid? That worked out well. Both sectors have positives and negatives, both are varied.