1st Public Sector gig... what to expect?

[SuperZ]

I've never understood why public sector work pays such good rates whilst the employees get crap?

1. The pension is hot (my private pension has lost about 45% in the last year). Civil Servie pension pays out no matter what.

2. For the work many of them do, they get paid enough.


I`ve worked with a few public sector clients and had some interesting experiences. For example, imagine having one person to the left of you constantly asleep and another in front of you - everyone knew but nobody did anything about it. I used to hear synchronised snoring. One would start work early each but fall asleep - i arrived really early one day and he was already asleep at about 8:15am. The person used to leave at 4pm also.

Some other experience I can`t talk about just in case I find a horses head in my bed and receive a good

[pmeswani]

Just got my 1st Public Sector gig having only previously worked in the real world.

The only public sector people I've ever met before have been complete and utterly useless muppets with no regard for timeliness or budgets.... is this common?

Anything else I should note before I go in and upset the civil servants and get my gig cancelled?!

Get use to complacent staff, management incompetence and crap canteen food at expensive prices.

Try and make as many friends as possible and don't try and show them up. It doesn't matter if they are tulip, you need them more than they need you.

Unless you are buddies with them, don't offer to buy them drinks... it will get their backs up.

[Peter Loew]

You seem to get more empire building than in private sector, and people do seem to be more willing to stab you in the back.

Also a lot of wastage, I used to work for a company that managed a public sector network, another managed the desktops/servers, yet they still had the need for a network manager. Never understood what he did as the contract management stuff was done by another department.

I can agree with that.

2 months into my new gig, and I already have an idiot questioning what it is I do and what the scope of my role is not to me, not to my programme manager, but to the director of the programme.

It is full of muppets who just sit around and complain and have no idea of what the outside world is really like. They need micromanagement and handholding constantly otherwise they loose direction, lol.

[cupidstunt]

I can agree with that.

2 months into my new gig, and I already have an idiot questioning what it is I do and what the scope of my role is not to me, not to my programme manager, but to the director of the programme.

It is full of muppets who just sit around and complain and have no idea of what the outside world is really like. They need micromanagement and handholding constantly otherwise they loose direction, lol.

The rest of your post just lost all credibility with that effort.

[Manic]

Chipping in to the brew kitty... but where would you stand with IR35 on that one?

It sounds just like I imagined... its going to be interesting.

The commute is a bltch as well so I'll be getting into the office about 8ish to beat the traffic chaos... which should give me plenty of time to post on CUK before everyone else shows up!

They'll all be there at 7.30 before you, however the office will be dead by 3

[zara_backdog]

Just got my 1st Public Sector gig having only previously worked in the real world.

The only public sector people I've ever met before have been complete and utterly useless muppets with no regard for timeliness or budgets.... is this common?

Anything else I should note before I go in and upset the civil servants and get my gig cancelled?!

How did you mention that then, all roles in my area at the moment states Must have Public sector experiance ( worked at the revenue in the past but does not seem to count) - I could have extended lunchbreaks at stretch out a project if that would help?

[Not So Wise]

How's it like in the good old public sector? Can vary a bit, basically depending if you have a tin pot dictator above you or not but in general it can be a good gig as long as you are not a compulsive overachiever and efficiency maniac.

You know that old development rule of "calculate how long something will take you and then double it"? In the public sector it is best to quadruple it if the project does not involve anyone outside your department and if it does involve more than your department times it by ten…and still expect it to run late

While there are some good people, majority (especially permies) are just stiffs putting their time in until they get their pension, in the meantime they are basically amusing themselves by enjoying activities like back stabbing, interdepartmental politics, fiefdom creation, coming up with 101 reasons "why not" so forth, while having their long lunch breaks or one of the 101 days off per year or their 50 sick days (both normally planed to occur on key project delivery dates)

Oh yeah and most importantly, expect very very very few good looking women

But if you can live with all that, public sector can be quite a good gig and rates are generally pretty good as well

[Peter Loew]

The rest of your post just lost all credibility with that effort.

Why, you a PS worker?

[NickNick]

It's been my experience that things just take a lot longer than in the private sector. There are a lot more processes and procedures to be followed that no one will break or work around.

Apart from that, the gigs can be long (last was a year, the current one looks set to be a couple of years)

It's different, but I dont think I coul dspecialise in this sort of work, it would drive me mad.

[chris79]

I've worked several years in both the public and private sectors, and from my own experience I can say the following:-

1. There are some very highly motivated individuals who work in the public sector, who do actually know their stuff. Equally there are a lot of people who don't work hard and do the minimum to pickup their payslip. This is true of the private sector too, the only difference is the person doing the public sector job has a lot more job security, and it would be a brave person to try and force them out the door without bringing a lot on themselves in doing so.

2. Time constraints and budgets have different meanings. In the public sector there is no requirement to make a profit, there is no threat to job security for under-performing (or at least very little). In private things must be done on-time and within budget for a reason - job security, pay awards, profit, competitiveness.

3. In the public sector being good, or exceeding yourself can be seen as a threat to those in the hierarchy around you. When playing dead mans shoes in the public sector nobody wants to see anyone around them positioning themselves for the next slot up the ladder - especially when it's linked in to final salary pension schemes etc. In private you are rewarded for this as you bring profit to the company and give over and above what you are being paid to do. That's why in the public sector nobody cares if you declare "I'm looking to move on" - they wish you good luck and all the best.. where as in the private sector you would never tell anyone and just drop it on them the day you got the job offer. I've often heard people use the term "he's over qualified for that post" in public sector, but never in private sector. How can you be overqualified to do the job? It simply means you can do it, what's the difference? (The answer to that is you are a threat and it's an excuse).

4. Public sector usually comes with flexi-time and generous holiday entitlements. If you stop back until 6.30pm you can be guaranteed that you will be finishing at 3.00pm on the Friday. Your average working week will only be 37 hours a week regardless. In private it is expected that if there is a surge in workload or deadlines must be met, then it comes at your own expense.

In summary I would say that if you are highly motivated, want to achieve high, and are a leader in your field then the private sector is probably more rewarding. Public sector can offer this too but probably more so towards the top end jobs.. middle management would be the areas suffering from the problems highlighted in my points above. Again don't get me wrong, I think it can vary from place to place - it depends on the people, culture, and who's driving the ship.