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?

That's a big "if"...

I'm not in that job anymore (it was literally intolerable).

My understanding is very few public sector jobs are fully remote now.

I spent 18 months in the public sector (central govt) on a FTC in a similar area to yours. It drove me absolutely mad. There were too many people who’d been there for years, were downright lazy and/or incompetent and who were content with dazzlingly low standards but who were protected by the PCS union and were virtually unsackable.
I ended up trying to move mountains on my own which was exhausting.

The other issue I found difficult was the politics. Not just the usual office politics you get everywhere but the fact that it was a revolving door of ministers and of priorities. You’d be told that X was mission critical, absolutely top strategic priority and would plan/budget resources for it, then there’d be a reshuffle and the new person in charge (who usually knew zero about the subject area) would say s/he didn’t care about X, it was all about Z. So dispiriting, as well as an utter waste of tax payers’ money.

I'm private sector but work a lot with a public sector client and they drive me crazy. Everything is supposedly urgent but no one can ever make the decisions or get the systems in place for things to happen as quickly as they're supposedly needed. There's meetings about meetings about meetings where no one ever takes any actions or follows up on them at the next meeting. So people seem to be really busy and everyone is apparently so stressed but I think it's all for the wrong reasons.

True. I'm just going by my neighbours who are both Civil Servants and seem to work from home a lot.
Also someone in NHS procurement and he works exclusively from home. I'm guessing it varies.

This thread would be a very difficult read for any frontline public sector worker. But they're too busy to go on Mumsnet!

I know doctors who are overwhelmed and on the brink of burnout with terrible psychological and physical symptoms. Most worryingly, they have stopped not working, i.e. even on annual leave they are reading emails and checking results because they simply have too much to do and have lost the ability to relax.

They are completely unable to undertake any service development because of the kind of dynamics you describe, OP. Which they would do and could do, because they can see where the opportunities for greater efficiencies are.

There is no support for research or even professional development, so there is intellectual stagnation too.

They attend meetings with management, without agendas and without minuting. And without any outcomes or decisions. In the meetings, they are essentially told that they need to do more with less.

They are completely and utterly powerless.

It is the most horrifying and unethical spectacle and desperately dysfunctional.

It is not an exaggeration to say that, when it comes to the NHS, lives are at stake, not just the patients' but the doctors' too.

And I will echo a PP who said that changes in government are also responsible for changes stalling. Even at local government level, a change in administration from 1 party to another will result in changes in the way departments operate. Often turning things upside down. And while I'm at it, councillors would phone or write to me with pathetic comments, clearly demonstrating that they had no understanding of legislation or policy. And demanding that I do something that wasn't permitted under either. I wasn't sure if I should cry or hit my head against a wall.

I'm just here to join the collective bafflement at task and finish groups. I run a small charity and was invited to participate in one by the local council. I can't remember the topic but (as someone who can't bear meetings) it seemed worth joining as it would make real change etc etc, and I thought I'd have something to offer.

You can guess the rest of the story.

And at the end of that task and finish group, they set up another three task and finish groups, to continue the good work we'd done.

Does anyone know what they are actually for or where they have come from?

@QuinqueremeofNiveneh honestly I agree with you and just to reiterate I am not referencing anyone working front line - I appreciate entirely the workload and stress, more from other departments. I also appreciate that this is the way the system is, it isn’t the immediate fault of my manager, his manager, several managers before. Just wanted to get a scope of if it was a universal experience

@Anxiety17 absolutely. I should have added that I also entirely sympathise with your circumstances. And although the day-to-day realities could not be more different, the root causes, ultimately, are the same.

At the height of the British Empire the state didn't run a national health service, administer pensions, provide mass education or welfare/disability benefits, run an immigration and borders system, allow people to set up companies, manage their taxes or apply for passports online, regulate nuclear power, environmental standards, food standards, aviation standards, oversee a complex planning system, manage data protection, counter-terrorism and cybersecurity, transform manual processes into accessible digital services, deal with post-Brexit governance and on and on...

The private sector does not prop up the public sector, they're interdependent. The public sector provides infrastructure that the private sector couldn't function without. Like the court system (to enforce contracts etc), the education system (creating skilled workers), the regulatory systems (allowing market trust) to name a few.

How many private sector jobs only exist in the first place because of the public sector? Eg, jobs in construction, pharma, care, tech, consulting?

As I said earlier I worked 27 years in the private sector, managing multi-million pound budgets and working to insane deadlines. So I bristle at the idea that 'I haven't got a clue what it's like in the real world'. I'm now a civil servant and yes there's waste and yes the pace is slower and yes sometimes it's very frustrating having to go through the multiple layers. But as a PP said, you are constantly aware you're dealing with taxpayers' money (I'm also a taxpayer by the way) and in digital services where I work, a simple mistake or oversight can cause real issues and swathes of the population real pain if something goes wrong. The services I design are used by literally millions of people. There's just a lot more at stake and it takes longer.

Anyway, that's the end of my 30-min lunch break so back to work. But I would love to hear which public services people would like us to completely eliminate in order to go from 500,000 public servants back to 50,000.

Ps. Do you get coffee and tea at your work? I have to take in my own mug, teabags and milk. We are allowed hot water though.

Excellent points. Thanks, @EricTheGardener 👍

Yes, the population of the country grew and the state exploded is size along with it. That's a no brainer.

However, where does something like the NHS get it's equipment from? It doesn't make it's own MRI machines does it? Private companies like Siemens make MRI machines, don't they? So there's a portion of the public sector that relies on the private sector to function. Let's force the public sector to compete with the private sector and make it's own equipment.

Thanks for this, I'm sure there is lot's of waste but as I noted earlier on in the thread I am a Social Worker & I can assure you there is not sitting around waiting for work here. It's interesting as my son has started work (private sector) & he cannot believe that I have no tea, coffee etc at work, no Christmas party, I buy my own paper & pens! He thinks it's funny!

There is some change, people can get better with our support & that gives me some hope.

My late husband worked in local government, as did I. One year he had a freedom of information request. ' How much money did the local authority spend on Christmas parties every year for staff?'. He took great delight in responding that the local authority had spent zero every year and he hoped that answered the question fully. ( I think there were subsequent questions based on the assumption that the local authority funded lots of Christmas events for staff).

I have worked in public sector company for 10yrs and I also found the change a little hard at the start however I much prefer it. Yes things take longer, I still work at my pace and with my free time I cns actuslly do training! Teaching myself to use new tools like powerbi, building powerapps as they actually help with work. I start on time, finish on time I am rarely stressed out because its a good balance. I work to live and being stressed out isnt healthy so yeah I dont look back and wish I was back in private sector running about haggard, theb having to squeeze in training or not at all and working later hours to catch up on work.

I dont dread going away on holiday or coming back cos most likely not much has moved on in 2 weeks. So all that relaxation from holiday isnt then lost on day 1 back in the office.

Not wvery one is lazy or no a go getter. Sometimes its just bureaucracy or having to wait on other organisations or people etc.

I have gone back and forth from private to LA and the difference is that private is stressful due to work pressures but LA has no work pressures but is frustrating. I debate going back to private but I fear I’ve got used to the slower pace and I won’t be able to keep up in the private sector but I do miss the processes and efficiency of the private but not the stress and the less annual leave/flexi leave.

like a pp has said its laughable how people in LA think they are stressed and overworked!

I think you will find that it depends entirely on the type of work you do in local government. Try being a homeless officer for 25 years and then tell me it's not stressful.

Yes.
It's taken me years to get my head round but I still have WTAF moments.
Too many "decisions" makers, too many knee-jerk/political decisions, too many individual fifedoms, lack of clear direction and not enough planning .

Could not agree with this post more! I have worked for years in the private sector and now at a university - I can't related to any of these posts about the public sector at all. I work just as hard if not harder and so does everyone I know here. Decision making can be slow precisely as someone said that you have to have a lot of accountability when spending government money. I don't think that is always a bad thing. Really hate the bashing of public sector workers that goes on in this country. I've already seen three senior people brought in from private sector who have since been sacked - promised the world, didn't understand much to anything about the environment or sector, failed miserably.

I genuinely genuinely don’t believe it’s laziness - there’s people there like my manager who has worked there since he was 26, moved roles and done amazingly well. He hasn’t know anything other than the way LA works and as I said, the structure isn’t his problem or the manager before him, it’s systemic. I know I can’t and won’t change it and I also know that the pace of work will be good for some brains and get the most out of them. I need a bit more instant gratification and to work effectively autonomously I need the pressure of having to get stuff done, show it and move on. That’s genuinely not a value judgement on each way of working, and I will say it is lovely not to worry excessively about work outside of working hours. But I am anxious that I’m not doing enough and that will lead to bad performance reviews and losing my job, basically. I know rationally as long as I’m meeting my objectives set by my manager it will be fine but I’m used to going a million steps beyond basically

I agree this doesn’t apply to frontline workers (and btw classroom teachers are routinely managed out, don’t worry about that!)

A colleague went from teaching to working in education for a local authority. He was absolutely shocked at the change of pace. In teaching you work at full speed all the time with constant anxiety and stress and lots of deadlines and things you’re held personally accountable for. He went from that to what felt like almost no work at all! He once scheduled four meetings in a day (two in the morning, two in the evening) because they were an hour each and he was used to doing four 90-minute lessons a day with just a lunch break in between - his manager was aghast and told him to do two a day max as he needed downtime to plan before and process them afterwards - a luxury we never get in teaching! He said he could have done a week’s work in one morning at the start because he worked at a blistering pace.

I'm in public sector, I too moved from private. It was a massive culture shock when I first joined. Every job I do I end up doing what they would class as 3-4 people's jobs (it isn't) as otherwise I would be bored - I need to be busy to be productive.

Nice addition on the perspective front@loislovesstewiex