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.

As a non-public sector worker may I just say how delightful it is to know that the people who I depend to look after me when I'm sick are being exploited and overworked.

I nearly, nearly burst in to tears at work today. I have too much to do and my manager speaks continually of the need to focus financially. I am aware of this and have been doing it all year. I understand my local priorities far more than they do. Today I was asked for something that I had already provided them with months ago - we discussed it at length but they had forgotten. So I told them again. It's now coming up for 2 years since I was told my band would be submitted for rebanding. It's a year since I spoke iwth this manager about it. It still hasn't been done. If it doesn't happen soon I will have to raise a grievance and then if I get it doubtless I will have to raise another one to get the back pay I'm entitled to because it hasn't been acted on quicker. I'm so fed up.
I'm looking elsewhere.

Oh yes Northernlurker. Getting back pay was a whole other battle for me once the regrading finally happened. I hope you are successful with your rebanding - I had to do a lot of badgering.

I really hope that this thread is proving a big eye opener to people who don't work in the public sector.

Changeisagoodthing,

Just saw your post. I'm a school governor at a primary school that needs a new HT. We have been categorically told we cannot appoint at any higher than the midpoint of the pay scale. We are looking at ways to make the post attractive including relocation packages, but we are hampered.

In addition, I too work in the public sector. I have lost one assistant to cuts, and we are facing more work. Problem is, most people have bought into the media-pushed idea of civil servant = penpusher (or desk polisher), and believe me, most of us are anything but.

Our department is setting up a voluntary redundancy scheme. I plan to apply, I'm getting so tired of being dropped on from a great height.

Darts. You can add recruitment and retention and you can set the scale at the maximum for the group size. These are schools that have set the range at the bottom or middle of the group and then can't recruit which is madness.

Relocation doesn't usually help unless you are very rural. Recruitment and retention usually reduces as the ht salary rises but yes if the range is18-24 a new ht can't start at 24 as there is a requirement to be able to have progression.

In fact, can I please ask that anyone who comes on this thread and thinks "Gosh I didn't realise that about the public sector. Perhaps it isn't as cushy as I thought" could actually say so? It would make a such a nice change from all the "lazy, overpaid public sector worker" bashing that goes on.

Another fed up public sector worker here! I have a specialist job that is in high demand and results in very long waiting lists. In most businesses I would imagine that this would prompt looking at increasing staff resources as well as increasing efficiency but of course this never happens. There is a huge emphasis on targets, very little on patient need and none at all on staff wellbeing. My service has had a manager above me removed, her work devolved onto my and a colleague's shoulders but no other tasks reduced to accommodate this. Due to lack of admin support we also spend hours on typing, filing etc which is not a good use of our time to say the least.

I could go on and on but won't as I'm starting to bore myself!

In case anyone suggests the private sector, there are absolutely no jobs like mine in the private sector. I also feel some loyalty to the health service and patients who don't have choices, anyway.
I hate to see the way things are going just now. I feel like crying, too.

I'm wondering what to read into the continued silence. Could it be that many Mumsnetters will only bother to type if it's to say something derogatory? Surely not . Or perhaps people really don't want to acknowledge the sacrifices some are making for the sake of low taxes and "reducing the deficit"?

I should say I am not in health, many would say my job isn't essential, but it's public sector and I can certainly appreciate what you are all going through. What a shame others can't, or don't want to.

Rant over.

I could type millions of pages of things that are going on in unit work in, but I am so disgusted and heart sick of it I just can?t bring myself to even go there on MN, below is a quick example of what has taken place recently.
On duty working with my colleague (only two on night duty) and person in charge who is a senior.
I?m approached and asked by the Senior if I would help with a client, I replied yes and followed her asking who it was to which she told me, I then asked what was wrong with the client and was shouted at that I had not need to know and grabbed by the arm, I asked the person to remove their hand from my arm (three times)
I reported this to my manager ASAP, within 3hrs an allegation was lodged against me from another client; I was not allowed to return to work but not SUSPENDED and told an investigation would take place.
I submitted a sick line with work related stress and have only found out what the allegation is 19 days later (all lies)
ALL THIS after 21yrs working in the unit with no complaints of my work in the past.
My colleague witnessed all of this and we work in two at all times, investigation still ongoing.

I work in the public sector. I don't feel exploited yet.

My job - and the service I work for - is at risk. We'll find out what is going to happen mid Feb - but at the moment we are all being hurriedly trained so that all of the workers in the team can do all of the roles - so there will be no specialist workers for specific areas (of which I am one). The service will be diluted and those that stay will have to perform two or three roles instead of just one and it will be extremely stressful. Also we work with lots of other agencies at the moment and most of them probably won't exist or will be struggling along in the same way we will have to.

So I hear you loud and clear, and I face the future with much trepidation.

Well I never thought public sector workers were a load of useless, greedy, lazy pen-pushers (and have no illusions about "pen pushers" aka admin staff being pointless).

But I'm still horrified to hear how bad things are for some of you. :(

there's only so long you can rely on people's decency to hold things together. Eventually they will get too tired, too stressed, too demotivated, too angry.

I pay my taxes so that people who work in the public services that keep our country running will be paid and treated well enough to do a good job.

People who think eroding pay and conditions for low and average pay grades in the public sector is a good idea are either bosses who want to force their own staff to accept poor pay and conditions, or fools.

Hands up here!

I work for the NHS (frontline patient care). We're understaffed, morale is at rock bottom. Every shift someone has rung in sick which just makes it worse. The ward is like a production line and I feel so sorry for the women who aren't given the care they deserve.

Am also out of pocket as I have to buy stuff for work which is needed but no longer provided. So I buy it myself. Also on a pay freeze even though I've been promoted.

Local government worker. Have been through merger and redundancy - both badly handled, while we watched wanton amounts of money being spent on irrelevant Team building days and one day workshop things that we all despised.
No pay increase anywhere on the horizon- hasn't been over for two years now

I burst into tears today. I had an email from a senior manager this morning asking me to produce a piece of work, which would take many hours even if I had all of the information already gathered, and it was needed by Monday lunchtime. This would be bad enough if I had nothing much on, but I'm already way over the limit of what I can possibly deliver. I never manage to get through my emails or job list each day, I'm permanently running to even keep within reasonable levels of behind-ness, stressed beyond endurance, and then I was asked to produce the impossible. I nearly resigned on the spot but annoyingly just sat and cried instead. Then I went out and bought chocolate, and today for the first time in ages I went home at 3pm, which is the time I'm paid until. Still answering my phone though . . . .

Oh that's just horrible. Why was it requested at such short notice jynxed? That's the kind of thing they use as an exercise on assertiveness training - how to say no to unreasonable requests. Is it really important, or just important to the manager in question?

I remember a time when I had so many things to do that were not in my job description that I could give no attention whatsoever to my actual job. I was already being paid so far below the grade of work I was doing, even without all the extra stuff, it nearly sent me over the edge with stress and frustration.

Thank you Spidookly it would be nice to get an accurate reflection of how it is in the media and over the internet, so much of what has been said about public sector draining the public purse like we're all greedy inept bunglers is so inaccurate I don't wonder people can be so scathing.

I had a patient today who was horrible, rude, condescending, arrogant...could go on but I won't! Not her fault to some extent - she is unwell - but negative publicity directly affects frontline staff who have to juggle waiting lists, targets and lumbering protocol.

And then people tell you to be grateful you have a job I have worked all my life, not exclusively in public sector, and earn my keep thanks, my pension is not draining the public purse and believe me if we paid a decent day's wage for a decent day's work we would all cost the public a hell of a lot more!

We are currently going through single status evaluations. Most councils did this 10 years ago & we are pretty much last in the country. This is involving lots of appeals against banding & we get pay scales soon. Not interviewing everyone appealing as there are so many but those who have been are generally told 'dont do that it's not your job' so potentially going to be a lot of 'work to rule'

On top of that the consultation period for redundancieshas just finished & now we will be waiting to see if we have jobs. Although thereay not be the money for vol redundancy.

My partner's education establishment has just formally announced their review - they have just been bought out at need to cut 20% of jobs (or expenditure on salaries).

Let the interviewing commence....

So this time next year we could both be doing something totally different....

I'm a senior clinician in CAMHS, RMN trained, 2 post grad qualifications as well as numerous other bits and pieces. We're running on less than 50% because of no backfill for mat leave and posts being frozen/removed when people leave/retire. More referrals, more emergencies less staff. Am on a band 7 am anticipating being downgraded to a 6 soonish.

All the job descriptions on the NHS jobs website are changing you'll notice. You know have to have ++++ level qualifications to apply for low grade jobs, or unqualified staff are being expected to carry out complex interventions on a band 3 or whatever. CPNs are now being started on a band 5. You have to have a Masters for a lot of jobs now but there's no funding to do the training. And a lot of the training institutions can't afford to run the courses.

I'm thinking of leaving CAMHS as it's very specialist and I think it will be dissolved soon. The work will be absorbed by adult mental health/community paediatrics and primary care, who're also all demoralised short staffed. Parenting courses will no longer be run by supervised professionals but well meaning volunteers. There are no other services to refer struggling families too anymore they've all had their funding stopped, connexions, family support all of them. It's really really horrible.

Minx I understand entirely where you are coming from, I'm qualified to band 7-8a but am employed at 4 and blocked to moving up to 5 at the moment.

Tried to refer to the Early Interventions Service for a young woman suffering episodes of psychosis - as she is not actively self harming and suicidal they cant take her, they are prioritising only active risk cases at present. We cannot work with her as she s under our age threshold, and CAMHS can't work with her as she is too complex.

It's madness!

Our area consistently advertises bands with a spec formerly a spec for the band above. I should not be running projects at band 4

Bad things will come of this, you mark my words...tragedies will happen, heads will roll, careers will come to a swift end and the government wil call a 'review' and implement more meaningless changes without the finances to back services up. Look at our websites advertising all the great work we do already - we don't do it, we can't! But so long as people are fooled into thinking services are there, it will all look ok. Until something happens...

It's frightening, really, it is.

I do admire those of you who are sticking to your public sector jobs through thick and thin - but I think from my own experience that there's a point at which you need to jump ship for your own well-being and mental health, and that of your family.

I think that it's well worth having a look round now to see what other options you've got, whether it's moving into the private sector or to another region - even if you don't apply for new jobs, I think it's reassuring to know you do have alternatives to fall back on.

As I say, there are some public sector areas which seem much less stressed at the moment, and where people are even hiring. Things seem to be rather uneven.

So sorry to hear about your DH, but I can only say well done to him for having the courage to recognise the problem and leave. It's really not an easy thing to do.

We're all public sector workers in my family, and my sister is retraining in her own time at the moment, which is making her feel far more confident about upcoming restructuring at their Dept. She's gone from being worried about the plans to talking about a range of options she might have.

He is much happier! He Would never have seen dd3 and she's his first baby. Also meant he has been around to help me when I was ill

We have plans to relocate to a cheaper area and rent properties which would enable us to do consultancy and private work as well.

Its like a fantasy safety net