Private to public sector - struggling to adjust

[Anxiety17]

Hello,
I was wondering if anyone had been in a similar situation or could offer any advice.
ive worked in a career in the private sector my entire life. My original job was a vocation which morphed into a field adjacent (think film making to marketing even though it isn’t quite that).

my last role was extremely intense in the private sector. I was promoted several times and ended up with a lot of work on my plate and was very well respected and regarded - until a management change ended up with me having to leave.

Ive taken quite a large pay cut to do a role of the same title technically in the public sector. I am extremely grateful for the job and how quickly I got it, plus the fact it seems at present like the public sector is a better work life balance etc.

i am hired on an FTC for a specific project. The team is 9 people large and everyone on the team is from a different area (eg project management, engagement etc) so I’m not sat in a team who all have the same role as me. I do have a dotted line to the head of the department my role would conventionally sit in.

im finding the pace of work so painfully slow. It feels like the project is taking a while to get off the ground and I’ve done everything I can do until things start moving - I’ve been proactive, provided plans and forecasts, connected with colleagues, trying to learn what I need where I can. But I can’t deliver anything yet and I feel like everyone is looking at me like I’m twiddling my thumbs.

im used to doing so much that I didn’t look up from my desk all day, spinning lots of plates and being good at it despite how it ended. It feels here like there’s a lack of speed and although I want to enjoy the slower pace as I know the last role was unhealthy I’m struggling to not feel guilty day to day about not doing anything? My manager is fine, I regularly communicate what I’m up to but I can’t shake the feeling.

anyone else had this?

The task and finish groups! I have no idea what their purpose is!!

currently I’m doing a lot of background research and pulling together plans but one task here which would take me a day in my
old role is taking weeks

I worked in the civil service for years. Departments vary. I found the Foreign Office, MOD and parts of the Home Office efficient and decisive. DCMS and DFID were only interested in wasting money. DCLG, DBT and the other second and third rank departments were slow and indecisive. I’m now in the private sector and am finding it chaotic and indecisive. And also very much lacking in diversity - I’m the only senior woman and the only person over 50. No ethnic minority staff at all.

In some (not all, but some), this is quite normal. In my experience it has been they

1. are so worried about funding they don’t want to look too good as there will be less funding / redundancies. Going slower protects their jobs for longer.
2. some of the older generation are ingrained in this and have one gear. its not impossible, I would go all super sunny and positive mode, that and the odd biscuit and a lot of tenacity. New employees are breaking the mold.

Public Authorities are painfully slow and inefficient in a number of ways. Huge culture shock. Decision making a bit like Ents in Lord of the Rings let alone Project Implementation… obviously 😉 every employee therein will assert how flat out and busy they are…

Man alive, I feel your pain! Entire career in large international companies. Employees in the 100,000s. Now working for a private sector company with <3,000 staff and the customer is public sector. I’m HATING IT! They think they are Billy Big Bollox but have a tiny budget and tiny estate. The CIO behaves like a manager with what feels like pre-war behaviour… screaming anger, wants to approve decisions down to the equivalent of choose the colour of the plates etc etc.

But the job market is bad and the money is good. So “smile and wave boys, smile and wave”

@toomuchcrapeverywhereDiversity? Yep! Snap! I have to wonder if they ran out of white middle aged men in the county when they took me on! They compromised with white middle aged woman 🤣😫

Try moving from US owned companies to a French owned company.

Simple decisions took YEARS!!!

Yes! Before I was in a large cut throat US company but on the European arm, meaning we had a lot of autonomy and scope to get things done.

im also hired into this role I would say a level or two more senior than the role needs - but I think this is because they have the money so thought why not spend it on a senior person. It’s a strategic role too which seems to equate to a lot of thinking rather than doing tasks.

feel like everyone is in a thousand not really relevant meetings but not much progress on the whole

@Anxiety17 The purpose is the task! What is it? What’s to be achieved? It should be in a document or why put the group together? Where’s the minute or agreement setting it up?

At a university, which is very similar to public sector, a small IT project had to be delayed because one of the many academics on a decision making committee was on sabbatical..... for a whole year...
Unnecessary, frustrating, slow.

What’s holding the project up? Funding? Lack of resource from another necessary team? Decision needed from a minister? There must be something concrete holding the project up. Perhaps once you figure that out you’ll be less frustrated as you’ll understand the reason why. Ask your manager?

I am public sector and this is my experience. Everyone talking about how busy and stressed they are but I have held three roles now and all of them have had a lot of down time. Don’t get me wrong there are busy periods but a lot of it is quite chill a lot of the time.

I worked in the public sector for over 20 years. The last five were wfh (just timing of a job role change not Covid related oddly enough). I reckon in my final five years I did about six months work. I would be asking for work, to start new things, to learn… whatever. Nothing. I mean, it had its perks (also great annual leave and flexibility…. FT and logged on at 6:30 done by 3….) but I was going to die of boredom - so I have done a complete U turn and embarked on a completely different career as I couldn’t stand it any more. Soul destroying and so boring and frustrating.

When I was much younger my mum (who worked in a bureau/agency related to CS) told me that I would never be happy if I joined the government - she knew me well and reading threads like this confirms it! It sounds unbearable!

I made a move to the public sector around 2 years ago I find it painfully slow. Im not sure i can stick it out much longer (I have young children and the hours are flexible otherwise I wouldn't have lasted 6 minths)

I worked 27 years in the private sector/as a consultant to private sector, then moved to public sector in my 50s. I'm in a tech role in a big govt dept in probably the most publicly scrutinised, regularly derided and high profile area it's possible to work in at the moment.

I totally identify with all previous posts - my current project has taken about three months just to get off the ground, but the reason is because ministerial priorities keep changing, and there are constant knee jerk reactions to media stories, so things keep getting deprioritised while new priorities take their place. We're constantly being told that funding for such and such project has been signed off, then a week later it's all at risk again.

One project I worked on was absolutely mental - several months of 18-20hr days dealing with issues due to the Ukraine war. Another project I was on for a year, I probably did approx 5-6hrs of actual work per day. I've had some entire weeks where I've done next to nothing, but that's not been the norm.

But yes, getting used to the change of pace does take quite a while. I used to have daily and weekly deadlines in my previous jobs. The current project I'm working on is due to be delivered in March 2027. However, I have no desire to get back on the corporate treadmill and deal with all that bollocks. I'm at a relatively senior grade on a relatively high salary and just focus now on doing the best job I can. I feel EXTREMELY lucky to have a job at all. But that might be my age. I think the pace and overall environment would have made lose the plot in my 20s and 30s.

A few years ago I flatshared with a very bright woman (a First in Law from a top university) who worked for the public sector. Her department outsourced everything to one of the Big 4 consultancies and her job was essentially to sit in on meetings. She WFH most of the week long before Covid, taking very long breaks and arranging things like medical appointments, therapy sessions, yoga classes etc on work time. She would charge ‘overtime’ if a meeting not ran over 5pm by a few minutes. She truly believed she was overworked / stressed out despite obviously knowing what true stress and hard work looks like (to get her top degree).

I think you just need to lean into the public sector way of life. Go home at 5, meet friends for lunch and maybe get a side hustle to keep your brain working. No point trying to change it - too many vested interests people will have spent years working to get paid without doing a lot.

That’s what I was wondering. What are you doing sat at a desk in ann office if you’re in?
I once worked somewhere with not enough to do and it was terrible. I would literally sit there watching the clock sometimes

The reason it’s going slowly: we have essentially a project manager (not that job title but in essence) who is senior and doing the implementation holistically. I think he’s a bit lost as there’s a lot of technical work he isn’t an expert in and it’s a wide spanning project. Every time we feed updates back it feels like he’s treading water. We have a couple of new hires due to start which is being cited as the issue.

My role is looking after one area of the implementation and because of this I don’t have oversight of the entire thing, so can’t do anything proactively to get it going if you get me. The project is mandatory and has to be done by 2027 but this is also likely to be extended (as I said, essential and wide-spanning). I’ve done everything I can do. I know the teammates I have relating to my specialism (so not people on the direct team for the project, but those on that departmebt) want me to pick up wider work but I’ve been told not to. So I’m feeling frustrated and also antsy that people think I’m shirking

Public sector worker here (Social Worker), definitely no sitting & twiddling our thumbs in our department sigh

Yeah public sector takes forever to get anything done. Is it NHS as that is super slow and at times projects never get completed at all.

absolutely enormous and massive respect to anyone working in fields like social work etc - I know this conversation doesn’t apply to fields like that

Completely agree! I think we’re talking about jobs in things like finance, IT, legal etc here

The task and finish groups! I have no idea what their purpose is!!

Actually finishing a project, or anything else for that matter, didn't seem to be involved.