Government jobs

Anyone here work for 'em just now?
What's it like?
I know that's a vague question, with many possible answers depending on sector/position held/location and so on, but I'm pretty miserable in my pointless private sector 'job', and thoughts of joining up for something like….Border Control for instance….hold an uninformed appeal.

I'm probably being silly, especially with next week's events to decide the next four years at least, but there's no harm in asking around, eh?

Whilst I'm here, I'm watching Reservoir Dogs on Fiver USA at the moment – I'd forgotten how good it was.

Heh, where do I start?

Right, so I've been private sector all my live. Very fast moving, very hard work, high pressure, quite well paid, great. Then the pressure got to '**** hell!' and then escalated to '3 miles down in the sea'. I worked hundred hours weeks, more than once. A normal week would be 60-70 hours. Good pay, good overtime, but scary. I see people exploding around me all the time.

Eventually I have a few emotional episodes and decide it's time to leave.

Get a job with the DWP.

Now everyone is very nice and there are lots of very bright people around the place. It's also astonishingly difficult to make anything happend. All the processes are crap, all the systems are crap, all the suppliers are crap, everything is crap and everyone accepts it because that's the way it's always been. There are so many grey, dull people who just exist it's horrible. I've given up asking people what they're up to at the weeknd because the answer is always either 'not much' or., 'I might take the dog down to the newsagent on Sunday to get a paper', and that would be their highlight.

I could complain for hours actually, it doesn't suit everyone. Especially not me. I'm getting out.

To summize then. Public sector, in my experience is very frustrating, not very well paid, very political and very boring. I have reasonably security clearance and that still only gives me access to fairly dull information.

samuri +1

I actually checked your location to see if you worked in my neck of the woods 🙂

If you want security, don't care about progression and are happy just turning up to work do your 7 hours and go home go for it.

strangely I'm finding the public sector very stressful as I can't get anything done….well not in any thing like a reasonable timeframe

DT – there's something about that setup you describe that sounds appealing. Makes me wonder about the kind of excitement one might seek outwith work just for a bit of balance!

What is your involvement?

We do work for public sector and quite honestly actually getting stuff done is like pushing water uphill with a rake.
I could not work in public sector having sat in one for 12 months – I was suicidal and i didn;t even 'work' there. What Samuri said + 10000 and I think we are in the same field of work …
plus points people think its solid and safe, not so with govt cutbacks etc

I work in local government. Either you can't get stuff done because of management/process, or councillors are giving you grief for not doing something that can't be done due to legislation.

I'm with Samurai on this one. I find it stressful/frustrating. The water uphill with a rake comment is spot on. Oh, and the security and cast iron pension people take about, both gone.

That all sounds pretty similar to how my boss described his 'worst job ever' with the office for national statistics.

Maybe it'd be an ideal sector to work in if you wanted to concentrate on developing your out of work social life though??

+1 for Samurai. Public sector for a very easy but possibly very unrewarding job. Private for more pay, more excitement, more prospects and more pressure.

You often can't get stuff done in the public sector jobs, but you just have to learn not to care about it, and before you know it you'll be 65 and off with that nice fat pension.

Been in the Local Goverment business for 18 months now and It suits me.

I understand the comments about nothing getting done and thats not quite true, what people have to remember is that we are spending the public's money and we are reviewed at every turn so yeah it may take time but things eventually happen. Biggest problem for me is the equipment I'm a civil engineer and my work pc struggles to run ACAD and I have a crappy 15" CRT monitor and were not allowed to buy new kit because of spending cutbacks

But at the end of the day I dont live so I can work, I come to work do my best, complete my projects and then go home to spend time doing things I WANT to do

Samuri just described the public sector beautifully and many of it's employees.

When I joined a Govt Dept I actually had a criticism from one of the 'old school' along the lines of "why do you want to change that, we've been doing it that way for 30 years"

You soon realise it's not worth trying to improve/modernise/change 'the system' so either join the conspiracy of mediocrity run by under achieving pension chasers or just skive away the week and milk the OT and expenses – money for old rope 😆

Oh you can change things some don't like it mind but it gives then something new to moan about. And yes the 30 years claim isn't an uncommon one.

Well after the election there's about to be a whole world of pain heaped on the public sector. Pay freezes/caps and probably pension reform also, so be warned 🙂

Having worked all my life with private sector firms where everything was driven by really tight deadlines, and of course costs, I briefly spent some time working for a Northern City Council

I genuinely couldn't believe the culture. It was the polar opposite of what i was used too. There were a lot of people sat around who's purpose for being there was difficult to ascertain. Their idea of a pressing deadline would involve having to have something done some time this year. Projects were started, then just petered out and nothing came of them.

And any form of motivation was just some abstact concept. I lasted two weeks. When you work in that kind of environment every day seems a fortnight long. Unless you really are truly an idle sod with zero ambition

At the place I used to work, there was one guy that everyone knew was absolute rubbish, and a liability on any project. He thought he was mr professional though, and came to work neatly done out in suit tie etc. They just passed him from project to project, no-one wanted to work with him.

Why was he still in employment? In the private sector he'd have been fired.

Worked for 3 different Depts. Not DWP which has a terrible reputation for greyness.

If you work to live and have a full life outside of your job you won't get a better employer in the UK, if the location is right.

If you're senior enough (rather than admin support) the opportunities for getting involved in good projects are excellent.

There's quite a difference between working for the Dept (political as has a Minister to pander to) and working for an Agency/Quango (less politics, closer to the actual delivery of stuff.

Ha ha LOL, rake, water – brilliant! I used to work in one of the agencies of a central gov department. Everything that has been said above, it ripped my soul out, and that was in a relatively dynamic team, working quite long and stressful hours on policy and parliamentary business type stuff. That said it suited some people down to the ground – the pension collectors. What made me sad was young people coming in with energy & enthusiasm and within about 6 months they had become institutionalised to all the stuff people mention above. I now work in the private sector and whilst times are hard and this still isn't really what I want to be doing either, at least I know I've ruled out a major sector for good!

What made me sad was young people coming in with energy & enthusiasm and within about 6 months they had become institutionalised to all the stuff people mention above

Yup, that's the real killer – seeing bright enthusiasm turn to cynical disillusionment 😥

Been in the public sector for 6 years, 2 with the national blood service and now 4 with the audit commission, ok the commission is more anal than any other place as we set the benchmark, but getting anything done is a nightmare, I work in procurement and even getting an 8k contract through is pure politics, most contracts take around 8 months to sort out or even up to a year. but its flexible, pretty safe and friendly. Downside is the pay.. im around 10k underpaid for my role. so very flexible and safe vs money… its not an easy decision

Working with the vast part of the civil service I am currently with makes me want to kill more than in any previous job.

Ah the pay thing, obviously it depends on the sector etc, but that really doesn't wash as much as it used to. If I'd have stayed in the public sector I'd have been on a yearly increment, and would be earning a min of £4k more than I am now – in fact I was on a promotion ladder so actually would have been earning over £10k more. Add on to that the 30days holiday + random extra days like the Queen's Bday (FFS!) , oh and the 13.5% contribution to a final salary scheme and the money starts to look not bad at all. Lots of public sector employees are in la la land, and have no idea. This 'we need our pensions cause of our low pay' is actually crap, cause in the field that I work in public sector wages easily outstrip the private sector and that's before all the benefits. Don't get me wrong, I left for my sanity which was worth more than the money/ promotion. But the planned 'cuts' being talked about are waaay way overdue, and will be a wake up call to many.

Oh yes, I should have added avoid anything to do with IT or procurement which seems to be nightmarish. I've only ever worked on policy.

Mike – of all things I work as a project manager hence why I'm finding the whole 'can't get anything done' so frustrating. Nearly threw the towel in last year, but instead I decided to do my own thing as the management is so weak and if that failed then to leave.

I've effectively taken over a small seperate part of the building, filled it with my hand picked team (only the people that give a chit about doing a good job) and spend the rest of my time fighting off all the jobsworth middle management tick box morons. It's actually going pretty well at the moment.

It's definitely a place where if you are rubbish/work shy you can just hide and no one will have the balls to sort you out. Average tenure is 16years – kind of says it all.

Oh – I get 25 days leave and pension wise, I had a better deal when working for the banking sector so put it in perspective – I think it was a pot of gold a few years back but not anymore.

Oh I'm looking forward to the cull as well. Although sadly usually with these exercises the ones that stay are the ones that cling on because they couldn't get a job somewhere else.

They have just announced capping peoples severance payments to 2 years salary. Last year when VER/S was announced I heard of a few people being paid £300k to leave which frankly is obscene. It's cheaper to keep them on, doing nothing but making tea and moaning for the last few years before retirement.

I worked in private sector for 9 years, then 6 months in local government (that's how long I lasted !

All the above is true, if dramatised, and I would add a lack of consequences for bad performance and entrenched rewarding of bad behavior.

Good news tho, there is a middle ground. I am lucky enough to work for an NDPB in the creative/cultural sector, which has some of the good and bad points of both. I work with some excellent and interesting people.

On the plus side – it is very easy to shine as organised and efficient, and with a reputation for delivering. You just have to learn a different type of politics and be very very very patient.

Re the low pay – in IT, the best they could offer me with my 10 years experience and uber-niche skills was what a general developer would get in the private sector with 3 years experience.

I've worked for the last 2 years in the NHS, and my experience is like Samuri's.

The one thing he did miss was that the useless people who don't get sacked, they just sit in a corner and others have to pick their work up..

My experience of NHS, is that no one appears to know what they are trying to achieve ie the organisation goal, this might sound daft, but there are so many objectives/goals no one actually has any clear purpose! I also have found it the most stressful job I have ever done, and I work more hours, which I put down to poor middle/senior managers who can not prioritise properly.

hmmmm

All very interesting and thought-provoking stuff. Thanks folks.
Maybe it's best to wait until the post-election dust has settled before taking this any further.

Ditto much of what's written above, and as already said, Samuri is f'kin spot on there…. 😐

I'm lucky enough to have a very different experience of public sector – on the whole job is extremely rewarding, stuff does happen and rest of people on project are sound. Suits my work ethic and since I'm employed (on a fixed term contract) to get stuff done thats what I do, without p***ing other peoples money up against the wall.

I'd say you get a better working life the further you get from big departments. Small / pioneering projects are more enjoyable.

There is plenty of feckless people in the private sector – just because its making money doesnt mean its well run.

I actually checked your location to see if you worked in my neck of the woods

Don't let where I live have any bearing on it 😉

I spend most of my time in Newcastle or Blackpool. Have I got any closer? 😉

Having worked in both the private and the public sector there are time wasters in both. In the bank it was the mortage rate that kept (trapped) people; in the civil service it's pensions and perks. The bank used to promote useless people to get them away from the trouble they had caused whereas you could be useless in the civil service and stay there for years as long as you showed some improvement before slipping back into your old ways. However, there has recently been a massive transformation and life is going to be a LOT tougher for all in the next few years.

Prison Service. More chiefs than indians, working with prisoners is actually the easy bit (as long as you don't get stabbed/punched/spat at/potted/hit over head with chair leg)the hard part is working in a system which is overloaded with prison service orders, political correctness (as most places I suppose) a computer system powered by underfed hamsters on wheels, if you can find one that someone else is TRYING to use, budget cuts (even though at our place alone we have something like 18-20 'governors' on 35K+ who wouldn't know a prisoner from a sheep)
**** it, I just get pi$$ed off thinking about it.

I work as a private sector consultant who gets pimped out to the highest bidder, which recently include one of the UK's longest standing and, err, currently most despised banks, and also currently to a large Govt dept.

Whilst most of the people I deal with in the Govt dept have good intentions, working alongside them is really difficult, mainly because they just dont work at the same pace im used to (and is expected of me) in the private and commercial sectors, and secondly, because when you need to speak to them, you find that they are always on leave, off sick, having a flexyday, training (??) or, (my favourite) simply "unaccountable"! Trying to get them to site meetings before 10am is a non starter, as is trying to contact them after lunch on a Friday….

For people that have such high expectations of consultants, they certainly don't make any effort to get close to those levels of professionalism, expertise, motivation and speed.

I had an interview for a position with our local Council.
I couldnt wait to get out of the place. Made me shudder to think I could end up like the **** that sat in front of me. Jeeeez.
Pay & security might not be as good in the private sector but I just knew the public sector was not for me.

Projects were started, then just petered out and nothing came of them.

I've worked in private sector companies where that happens too…

I worked in the real world for over 10 years doing databases but I've been in public sector for nearly 2 years now (the company cars have blue flashing lights). It takes a **** age to get anything done and I'm surrounded by idiots but I now see it as my mission in life to change things. I'm trying to make it so people in my department have to actually make decisions and take responsibility. wish me luck

I think part of the reason why things seem to take ages to get done is the constant re-jigging of priorities from central government and the endless budget cuts. One place where I worked had 6 or 7 change programmes running at the same time. All had laudable ideals but very few came to fruition because other priorities took over. Despite what people may say, a lot of civil servants do take their service to government and the public seriously and try and do their best by them.

good luck, mr chrispy