Public Sector workers - are you feeling as exploited as I am?

[TigerseyeMum]

This is not really an 'issue' as such but more of a whinge however I am genuinely interested in how much work other people do within the public sector given the amount of cutbacks plus increased targets we have.

I suppose at the moment I feel exploited by the fact that I get paid less than £20k per year and at the moment am blocked from moving up to a grade higher as although I have completed my training the money has been spent elsewhere so I must remain at a trainee band :(

I have also been given 2-3 projects to run on top of a workload that is already higher than recommended. In some regions this work is only carried out by people 2 bands higher. I seem to end up doing overtime every week, TOIL is strictly limited so it is hard to get it approved, and besides, I do not have time to take it!

I am technically qualified to 3-4 bands higher than I am but most of those posts have been scrapped so I had to take what I could get. I took a paycut on the understanding I would go up at least 1 band when qualified and now it looks like this is not going to happen. Meanwhile we get shorter and shorter of stafff with higher and higher targets....When we complain we are told we 'should be grateful we have jobs' and apparently the plans are to close the service next year unless we impress them all with our productiveness and give us a reprieve

I wonder if my experience of working in public sector (I work in health) is similar to others? I am seriously considering jacking it in but I doubt the grass is greener

Are all areas struggling like this? I am considering jumping to another region but it could be a case of frying pan - meet fire.

yes, work in health also, and have found the same thing - also working to a higher grade without the extra pay - i am not one of lifes complainers i.e. not a jobsworth - would do anything to help out a collegue/boss, but have found lately that workload had gone from difficult to impossible and also threats of "at least we have a job"

I'm in Social care & often covering SW work as they don't have the time for their own work. Mine just doesn't get done when we have busy times. I'm on mat leave & dreading going back as we're heading for paycuts on top of redundancies & major cuts. Will be running on bare minimum staffing & not doing much work beyond stat stuff. Watching families struggle & not be able to help :(

I work in education. My boss left last April, they didn't replace him, I took on his work. The other team member left in September. The didn't replace him, I took on his work. I have a short term contract. It expired. HR, reluctantly, issued me with another short term contract. They are not allowed to issue permanant contracts any more, only 6 months at best.

So now I'm doing 3 people's jobs. I am the only person who runs a business critical system. I can no longer take holidays. Well, technically I can, but when I do I am rung ever single day of my leave with queries ranging from the critical (in which case I have to come in and work durning my leave) to the down right trivial.

The system I work on is tempermental and held together with bits of number 8 fencing wire. It seriously needs a rebuild from the ground up but, because of funding cuts, that ain't going to happen. So I use my knowledge of how the bits fit together to keep it up and running. It's a delicate business and you really, really need to know the pecularities of the system or you end up making it fall over in a screaming heap and need to spend frantic hours restoring it. This, typically, happens whenever I am on leave.

But hey ho, my contract ends soon. They don't look like they are going to renew it (no money) so I am looking at having to walk away.

Tigerseye - I reckon you should definitely get your CV together, show off the amount of extra skills and experience you've gained, and start looking for new jobs, both in the private sector and in other regions.

Your expeience definitely isn't what it has to be like in the public sector - I'm in the public sector (education) and tbh, at our organisation, we're seeing very very few cuts, and hours haven't got longer. My sister's also public sector, and things aren't particularly bad for her either - in fact, she's welcoming an upcoming shake up. If the shake up doesn't suit her, she'll move to the private sector.

TBH all the things you complain about happen a lot in the Private Sector too, blocked promotions, recruitment freezes, taking on work because other people have left, no pay rises despite takign on more work.. It's horrible when it happens, but it isn't exclusive to the public sector. And in the private sector it can be even worse because in many industries there is little union support. I remember walking into work one day and being told that my role was paying too much and I was now going to be paid 25% less salary....

And it can be even more because even when they pinch the workers, and drive productivity 'improvements', they still seem to be able to increase the dividends for the owners

Hi, as a former public sector worker myself, I sympathise with you and understand what you are saying.

Junior level workers are treated like shite, overworked and made to feel like nothing, whilst you have an arrogant, lazy, overpaid senior management level who wouldn't last 5 mins in the private sector (and they know it, that's why they don't leave)

So much money used to get wasted (taxpayers money) and it used to make me so mad. The public sector is full of people that have worked there for 20 -30 yrs and are just sitting it out until they retire, they don't like change and a lot of them can barely use a computer. I also found that a lot of people in the public sector are very political. I used to work with lots of bleeding heart liberal types, who were, in fact, nasty pieces of work who were only out for themselves.

It used to bemuse me how much these so called 'socialists' used to earn.

We are having job reevaluations at the moment & everyone is being told 'that's not your job don't do it'

CJ yes that is exactly how it is, I am junior grade despite 3 lots f postgrad qualifications and a privately funded course costing in excess of £20k, my managers are mostly lazy people who were floating around the system who are not anywhere near as knowledgeable as I am...I used to work for the private healthcare business but they were tight-fisted with expenses, and inefficient, though I was paid more.

Interesting that there are sectors in Education that are not badly hit -my OH is a senior education manager and is going to be made redundant later this year, he canot find another job to go to.

We have both got home after a 12 hour day so he has poped out for takeaway and I am in my jammies

It's crazy, and unsustainable. And I bet we get more flack once the cuts really kick in , as we are the faces of the public sector and when things fail it is all our faults.

Grendel

Do you work directly in a school?

At every other level education is being decimated.

Schools will survive for another 12 months then support staff will be slashed.

Education is about the worst place to be unless you are a teacher or head teacher.

What is happening in my OH's college is what will happen everywhere - they have been bought by a 'supercollege' that swallows them and others whole - then spits out all the central services staff like IT, HR, H&S, E&F etc etc and has one central block of staff doing the job of 3 staff each.

It is undoubtedly more 'efficient' (possibly) but it means that where 3 people were employed, now only 1 will be. My OH is signing his own death warrant by integrating IT systems...once they are integrated, he is gone Lovely.

Teachers/lecturers are also not safe - the axe swung for all the 'non-profitable' courses which were mainly courses for low achievers such as basic literacy, and adult ed - the people who need access to courses the most. Those courses don't make money. That's the private system for ya I guess.

I am also a qualified teacher so I can always go back...couldn't hack the 65 hour weeks but at least I got more goliday

I meant holiday

"Education is about the worst place to be unless you are a teacher or head teacher"

But no-one seems to want to be a head teacher - the school I work at are about to start advertising, but there are 9 primary schools advertising in this area, one of them for the 4th time- nobody seems to want to apply.
Presumably they don't want to preside over the disaster that they see coming.....

Rustybear

Primary hts about a third go unfilled at 1st advert.

I get approached every week at the moment and the schools range from outstanding to notice to improve. Teaching headships are the hardest to fill. Basically primary heads are not really paid enough in many areas of the country and governors seem to think that offering the bottom of the scale is ok- let's get away with the minimum rather than trying ton pay for quality.

Same here Rusty. Bit grim isn't it?

I'm under-graded too and have no chance of getting regraded. No budget. Might work to rule. That'd go down well. Not.

I have also been in the Health service for nearly 30 years (21 yrs. in present job) I?m a band 2 care assistant working with the elderly, to say I can?t believe how things have changed in the last 10yrs would be an understatement.
Both myself and other long term members of staff have been blocked at every opportunity for training to enable us to go up our banding, but the people who are coming in and working at a band 5 level are getting away with murder (for want of a better word)
All management seem to be interested in at the moment is who or what they can discipline people for. IT?S A TOTAL DISGRASE the way our Health service is going and I can?t wait to get out of it to e honest.

Sympathies OP. I spent two years working at least at the same level as my colleagues for two thirds the pay. I was very fortunate to have an understanding manager who was prepared to fight a re-grading appeal on my behalf, which was ultimately successful. I considered working to rule many times along the way, but pride in my work prevented me. But all of us are being shafted because our immediate manager left and hasn't been replaced, so none of us are being paid for the additional management-level responsibilities we are all picking up on a permanent basis.

The public sector makes a huge thing of flexible working, flexi time etc. As far as I can see this is simply a way of getting more work out of people without ever having to pay overtime. Nobody I know ever gets the chance to take the time off that they accrue.

I am a frontline local government worker (careers adviser) facing redundancy, along with a third of my colleagues. Those that remain will have to cover the work of those that leave. Meanwhile, our entire management team have protected themselves and escaped redundancy.

The cuts and how they have been applied in local government has been a real eye opener for me. The public sector is and will remain full of overpaid managers, serving time until they retire, with the power to get rid of those of us who actually do the work. Most of these managers would call themselves socialists but they have proved just as corrupt and self-serving as the bankers who continue to award themselves massive bonuses.

I'm going for voluntary redundancy - I like my job but I can't face working with such people any longer and I want to get out before I become eaten up with bitterness.

Wish I could get voluntary redundancy, but that?s not going to happen as far as we can see, Health service has no money for such things but has loads of money to pay for stupid nice paintings to hang on walls within hospitals that could do with a good cleaning and trained staff to operate our needy people who lie in A&E for up to 48 hours waiting on a bed.

The grass is not really greener then...

I am so frustrated, the work I am trained to do is so specialised, and needed, but there are no posts, I could cry, I love the work but it's all cheap, quick, patch'em up type work which is amin and target-heavy and not very rewarding.

I had a patient make a good recovery today so that cheered me up at 8am, but it's few and far between.

I am committed to the work but it is such a struggle, I could have curled up and slept on a bed of nails this morning instead of driving in for another shift

Very unMumsnetty (((hugs)))

Thank you for the :hugs:

:)

Another health worker here, being paid for 30 hours and working 40-50 each week, paid on a grade lower than the work I am expected to do, not able to take holidays because there is no one to cover my work, called-in out of hours and phoned constantly. If I didn't have a mortgage I would walk away as I know I am being exploited. But at the moment there really aren't any other jobs out there, and as my DH (also health) is under threat of redundancy I have no choice but to put up and shut up.

Another health worker here, 30 yrs, educated to Masters level. My work is less and less about patients,more and more about targets. New posts being advertised at lower band (quite specialised job) and generally astonishing lack of concern by Senior Managers unless it is target related.

I am beginning to hate it. A job I used to love. This gov cares very little for the thousands of public sector workers who every day clear up the sick, wipe bottoms, take children into care, comfort the dying, teach our children...could go on and on but you guys all know this already. It's awful.

i'm in the public sector too - doing the work of about four people, my boss is off sick with stress (since november) due purely to her workload and lack of support from senior managmeent and blame culture. she was/is a good manager with 25yrs of service and the organisation has just chewed her up and spat her out.

i'm working with no manager, no support and far too bloody busy.

got thrown out of the building at 7pm as we have overnight construction work going on... had to leave 21 unread emails in my inbox all requiring me to do quite a lot - of course we're not trusted with remote access to email.
got to try to get in as early as possible tomorrow but i am incapable of getting in before 8 due to family commitments.

Another healthcare worker here. I agree with fedup about the disciplinary culture, see my thread below.
I work a ridiculous number of hours but the first time I make an error whilst rushing out of work 2.5 hrs late I'm hauled infront of a disciplinary investigation!