Why are public-sector administrators so crap?

[longfingernails]

Recently, out of whimsy, I decided to interview a couple of ex-public sector types for a new company I have recently started.

I am not talking about nurses and policemen, I am talking about back-office jobs.

LOL.

No wonder the public sector is so rubbish at everything.

The private sector is going to grow a lot over the next few years - but unfortunately, the ex-public sector employees won't get these jobs. They will go to immigrants, or for new positions, graduates.

They are simply too lazy and in general, too unmotivated. They just don't understand why they should go the extra mile - probably because in the public sector, they never have to.

A pity for them - ah well. They can always march for their "entitlements".

Maybe the couple you met were crap - but the majority aren't. All the admin folk I work with DO go the extra mile and are working under very difficult circumstances

I blame the union culture.

Based on a sample of two?

Oh dear.

Perhaps you're not very good at screening cvs?

Not just a sample of two. The productivity surveys over the years; the statistics on number of sick days.

However, I would not be so quick to dismiss anecdotal evidence. Impressions are vital.

have another

Sorry - a question to those of you who have said that public-sector administrators are brilliant.

How many of you actually work in the private sector?

The difference in quality is palpable and self-evident.

Of course, there are crap people in the private sector too - but they inevitably get fired, eventually.

It is next to impossible to get sacked for incompetence in the public sector.

Were you happy that the people you interviewed 'out of whimsy' confirmed your stereotype of public sector workers? The people that you interviewed may not have been very good (in your opinion) but that doesn't mean that they are representative of public sector administrators as a whole.

And if the public sector was so rubbish at everything, nothing would ever get done. Yes, there does need to be reform in the public sector, and it wouldn't do them any harm to take more a private sector attitude towards some services and their delivery. However, some private companies could also learn a lot from the public sector too - particularly in regard to being a good employer. There's good and bad points to both.

"The productivity surveys over the years; the statistics on number of sick days"

Wow, you did that much research on two job applicants?

Well, it's the Internet eh, I guess truth is what you make it.

Have also worked in both the private and public sector.

I currently work in the public sector and the amount of unpaid overtime they get out of staff is amazing. You'd be shocked at how some of us bend over backwards to help people.

I have worked in both. There are good and bad employees in both sectors.

FWIW the public-sector I.T systems were a nightmare though. Upper management choosing what software we were going to use so we had to put up with something that wasn't up for the job. Whereas the I.T systems I have used in the private sector have been much better, we were actually allowed to have an imput in the final say.

MrsKwazii - pretty much nothing does get done in the public sector, given the colossal amount of money thrown at it.

And to be honest, it sounds like you'd already made up your mind about these two people before they'd even shook your prejudiced hand.

Used to be nearly impossible to get sacked in the public sector, yes. Then some years back 20% of it got made redundant which got rid of most of the incompetents, and with lots of redundancy exercises since the people left seem pretty competent. Often more so than private sector workers I know (I've worked in both sectors and large bureaucracies are very similar in both)

However since they've got rid of most of the admin staff in my area the standard of admin has gone downhill simply because Ministers demand new policy and there's no-one left to do admin. I took on a backlog of letters recently and no, I didn't personalise every one because if 40,000 people write in on a topic, given we're obliged to respond to them, they aren't getting individual replies when I've got another job to do.

On the contrary. I would be delighted to help the country out of the mess it is in by employing people who are having to lose their jobs because of Labour's economic catastrophe.

Unfortunately, the ones I saw are unemployable.

Wow OP you sound like a lovely person. I reckon those people you interviewed had a lucky escape. I wouldn't want to work for someone as narrow minded, prejudiced and nasty as you. I wonder what other prejudices you have...maybe ones you wouldn't get away with airing in public?

Let the left's classic smear tactics begin.

You're the one with the smear tactics you div