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?

I’m seeing evidence that project after project after project hasn’t completed. So while project B might have been signed off as a replacement or improvement from project A, project B never fully complete or project A is never fully removed. So they end up paying for 100% of project B and still ongoing 50% of project A. Then project C comes along….. so far I haven’t spotted the (lack of) governance which makes this possible.

Oh and here’s an odd/funny one. I’ve been called “middle class”. Twice. It wasn’t meant as a compliment. It was kind of banter. I didn’t know how to respond tbh. I guess I am. Whatever. But the way it was thrown at me left me speechless in that movement 🤣🤣

Projects in government can be painfully slow, so much red tape and often you can do a lot of work then funding is cut and the whole project is scrapped. I work in the public sector but lead an operational team, so it’s very fast paced, especially at times of crisis. It was quiet over christmas and I said to colleagues i’d struggle to work at that pace.

I was told that I shouldn't be working in local government because my DH family had money. The jobs were for people that needed to work. We were very poor newlyweds at the time.

I left a very full on high pressure high stress role in the private sector and have moved to another role in the private sector, but this one is very aligned with part of the public sector and a lot of staff have moved from there.

It's bizarre. I'm being paid the same (high) salary, but my workload has gone from including all the evenings and weekends, to not having enough to do to fill the days. I've had weeks at a time with very little to do, but people are happy with me and I got a good bonus.

I would prefer to be more productive and I don't think this is good for my career long term, but for the moment I'm just taking the extra time and spending more with my kids and on stuff in the house, and I've taken on two new non exec/board roles for charities!

Apologies, I do recognise there are some service areas that are massively overworked and underpaid.

• Looks at some of the large private sector organisations I deal with as a public servant.

• Reads the claims of hard work and efficiency in the private sector on this thread.

• Pisses self laughing.

I think some people just aren’t cut out for the public sector. I did 2 years in a public sector job and it was well more than enough. Never again

The stealth boasting is nauseating on this thread. I think special medals should be offered for those who tap away at their keyboards faster than anybody else.

This is f**king brutal reading for those of us who work on the front line. Be careful what you say, the daily fail will be lapping this up.
I'm really disheartened.

From my pov definitely not meant to be a bashing thread - the team of 7/8 others I work with closely on a daily basis are all skilled, highly intelligent people, the people on the wider project are too and we also do weekly site visits so exposure to more skilled people. It’s my own patience I’m up against

I think there is a big difference between front line workers and back office ones.

The finance division of the LA was so overstaffed by people who had seemingly never actually learned how to do their job. I finished all my work for the week in half a day and no one would let me do anything else.

I know the social workers were run off their feet as well as most of the other key services.

Exactly. Imagine spending decades of your life ruining your health for your vocation in unbelievable conditions, only managing to firefight and sort the absolute tip of the iceberg of the highest priorities, never going home thinking you've done a good job or you've done all the urgent work that needs doing, with less and less support staff... To hear that there's bloated teams sitting around twiddling their thumbs, teams whose existence should be to support you and the front line work you are doing... But are actually haemmhorraging funds that could be spent on more front line workers that are desperately needed.

I work in a part of the public sector that does attract a lot of ex private sector people. What I do find is some cannot cope with the multplle levels of sign off (or accountabiloty if you will) and the many different priorities that we have to manage. Ultimately there is one key priority for the private sector - sell more of the stuff/services you make. The public sector has to deal with all sorts of clashing prioties and spin loads of different plates and keep sometimes completely unreasonable stakeholders happy. It's like havi g 300 different versions of the Chairman's unqualified nephew consantly interfering in your work.

That said, some of the criricisms on this thread are valid - lazy and incompentant staff can hide and thrive better, things can be slow, the public sector can be risk adverse and wasteful.

I think from my experience one of two things will happen:

1. No one actually cares much about your project - there was some initial big burst of enthusiasm for it (and, it sounds like, some external funding) but this is fleeting. It will slowly die. What will be particularly frustrating about this is that no one will actually say 'we're not doing project X', just all the senior people will move to being excited about 'project Y' and mentioning project X will slowly become to seem a bit out of place, a bit gauche even. Where I work is littered with these half-completed projects that make more problems, particularly if they get to the point of partial implementation, then they ever solved. If you mention it and ask whether anything could be done about, say, the system that one project introduced but that doesn't actually work then senior management will react like you reminded them of the time in their teens that they were a goth; that was the past, it belongs there and it's embarrassing that you bought it up.
2. Your project is important and necessary, and there will come a point where suddenly everyone wants delivery tomorrow and it doesn't matter if it's a bit shoddy and could have been done much better at a reasonable pace, this is the number 1 priority (suddenly) and we must have it now. This may be the outcome of the sign-off from above that allows you to move forward - that not only have they signed it off, they think it's such a good idea that they want it straight away! In my experience, this happening then leaves all sort of loose ends that then, over time, become their own scenario 1 projects.

Ha ha! That is so true.

It's due to all the over- governance and people being risk averse due to it being public money they're spending. It can feel like they'd rather deliver nothing than deliver the wrong thing.

Im not sure this is a public sector thing
I work in the public sector and I'm rushed off my feet all day. I've never been so busy. I used to work in the private sector and did naff all. I was bored to tears, like you are now. Its more just how your workplace manages resource.