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

[TykeMerc]

My latest gig is back in the public sector. I've been there a week and so far I'd say I've spent (no joke) 80%+ doing *nothing*. Nobody wants to give me any work even though I've asked, the few tasks I've done have reminded me how different the mind set is.

So far I've come up against:-

1. Can't do it for 'health and safety'.
2. Can't do it as there's nothing documented on a ticket for it.
3. I was told on one particular issue if problems persisted the lady in question would end up on sick leave because of the undue stress it was causing, and potentially claim constructive dismissal if nothing was sorted out.

On the one hand I'm pleased to be back in a job, but it's really scary to see how inefficient and wasteful our taxes are used for.

I did a very simple roll-out project for a South Yorkshire council a while back, new multi-function printers/copiers, some new workstations and servers, some switches and a bit of cabling and power, pretty trivial task to be honest. I had a team of decent techies (all contractors from box shifters to tech support) who knew their jobs and got on with it. What threw the schedule right off was the 75% of council staff who were utter jobsworth pelicans who were unable to read the clear simple English emails, flyers left on every desk and posters on most walls. We came accross some 50 desks where the people were absent on long term sick (3-18+ months) and an unbelievable amount of utter bone idle slackers.

I had done Public sector stuff in Education, Libraries and Government departments before and since and while they're poor this council took the biscuit (biccy tin, tea towel and kettle too if truth be told) for sheer idleness. We were congratulated that the project only went 3 weeks over schedule as they expected 13 weeks, it would be funny if it wasn't our money they waste.

[Ruprect]

On the one hand I'm pleased to be back in a job, but it's really scary to see how inefficient and wasteful our taxes are used for.

Well said

[chris79]

My latest gig is back in the public sector. I've been there a week and so far I'd say I've spent (no joke) 80%+ doing *nothing*. Nobody wants to give me any work even though I've asked, the few tasks I've done have reminded me how different the mind set is.

So far I've come up against:-

1. Can't do it for 'health and safety'.
2. Can't do it as there's nothing documented on a ticket for it.
3. I was told on one particular issue if problems persisted the lady in question would end up on sick leave because of the undue stress it was causing, and potentially claim constructive dismissal if nothing was sorted out.

On the one hand I'm pleased to be back in a job, but it's really scary to see how inefficient and wasteful our taxes are used for.

[Muttley08]

Just about to quit a public sector role (I know what with current market and all - but got plenty tucked away!)

It really is awful, after six months cannot get the lazy permies to commit to actually starting anything, the documentation is horrendous and everyone has a comment on everything! I could say it's six months pay for sweet FA...but sometimes you have to move for your own sanity!

Just upsetting all the civil servants drain your taxes!!!

[tino]

I <3 Public Sector work,

Hopefully got a new one in a couple of months

[NiceUpNorth]

first gig in public sector (housing) and been in it now for 15month. Started as a 3 month gig to 'cover department transition'

Spend most of my day on the net doing sweet FA.

I'm the only contractor in the department, all the permies seem to get stressed at the least thing, even though i know their workload is roughly the same as mine.

there is always 'projects' going on in the business, but they never seem to produce anything realy apart from a another 'core value' added to some pish poor poster stuck on some tatty notice board.

but ho hummm.... the beer tokens are still received greatfuly each week

[mailric]

Ok, so I'm now 1 week into this gig after the start date kept being put back whilst they awaited the purchase orders to be processed. (Brilliant start)

What a long week... all of the usual questions I ask when I start a new contract have been met with people looking at me as if I've just arrived from Mars. The budget question really seemed to throw them.

JoJoGabor's summary above puts it perfectly

Having said that, reasonably secure public sector gig in these times isn't something to moan about... funding for the project has been agreed so there's less risk of it getting canned.

But no doubt this is going to be a long few months

[swamp]

Any meals out like Christmas dinner, leaving dos etc. will be really cheap Pizza hut/Wetherspoon style affairs. And you'll have to pay for all of your food and drink. All the permies will consider it a special treat to be dining out, but the contractors will keep quiet about their dinner the other night at Claridges/Nobu/Fat Duck etc.

[yeahyeahwhatever]

Sounds so appealing. . .GOD i love this thread Its helping me cope with my current public sector gig. It was my first one and i was beginning to doubt how common it was. By-jeesus, it echos all my experiences to date.

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

[swamp]

To sum up my experience of public sector, think of all the things that frustrate you about your job such as politics, not having adequate resources, indecisiveness from managament etc, multiply by 10. Now think of all the things you enjoy about your job such as successfully completing a project, technical challenges etc, and divide that by 10. This is a job in the public sector.

Very well put

[JoJoGabor]

I'm working for a consultancy now, and have contracted for a couple of public sector orgs before and hated every minute of it. Its not the consultancy that creates lots of unnecessary procedure, its the public sector client that toffs around creating undue process and procedure and insists on heaps of dcoumentation to be produced at every stage, often resulting in the client project manager/sponsor losgin sight of the key deliverables in the project, and instead focusing on the swathes of documentation that they have been led to elieve is key to delivering a successful project.

Last year I worked for a org who required a simple domain and email upgrade for 350 users. I could have done this myself single-handed within a couple of weeks. They insisted on paying Microsoft over £100k in the design phase, despite Microsoft insisting that the amount of detail they were requesting was unnecessary. I think the project has still not got off the ground after 18 months of planning.

To sum up my experience of public sector, think of all the things that frustrate you about your job such as politics, not having adequate resources, indecisiveness from managament etc, multiply by 10. Now think of all the things you enjoy about your job such as successfully completing a project, technical challenges etc, and divide that by 10. This is a job in the public sector.

I would consider a move out of IT before considering public sector again

[jo99]

Its interesting to hear everyone's comments which seem all too familiar. Am working on a public sector project at the moment. Waiting for someone to realise that it is not a viable project. Ofcourse a few more consultancies will look at it before the decision to axe it is made.

The greatest problem I have is that most permies have never worked anywhere else and have no idea on how to run a project or how things work in the real world.

Although good for contractors - it is tax payers money that is being wasted!

[NickNick]

Heh, simlar here, a permie near me (and new starter) has now been two months without desk or IT kit.

[jmo21]

It sounds like we are just b1tching here but this is completely true from my experience.

I recently did some work for a local council, actually an outsourced company working for a local council. I think the staff were employed by the outsourced agency but is seems license costs were picked up by the council.

So guess what happened. Low paid, over worked staff. Loads of money spent on licenses for stuff they don't need. Staff members did get free trips to conferences in Europe and the US though provided by the sales team picking up the commission on the licenses.

I joined an NHS public sector project as a dev a while back. Was brought in and shown my desk by the contractor PM. I was tucked away in a different part of the building from the rest of the devs as they didn't have any space at that point.

So anyway, the noddy machine they gave me only had 500Mb of memory, so I told the PM I would need more. She asked how much, I said 2Gb min. It was bought and installed within 3 days (which was long enough I thought after filling in forms and arranging for some guy to come and fit it as I wasn't allowed etc)

When I eventually moved round to the dev area with the permy devs, they couldn't believe I'd gotten a purchase order through for more memory.

the contractor PM just got what I asked for, all the permy PM's, dev leads just never bothered their arses to sort things like that out

[DieScum]

they care less about carefully justifying external costs such as body shopping from consultancies, hardware, software lics etc. There is a lot of wasted tax payers money in the PS and Gov. sectors.

It sounds like we are just b1tching here but this is completely true from my experience.

I recently did some work for a local council, actually an outsourced company working for a local council. I think the staff were employed by the outsourced agency but is seems license costs were picked up by the council.

So guess what happened. Low paid, over worked staff. Loads of money spent on licenses for stuff they don't need. Staff members did get free trips to conferences in Europe and the US though provided by the sales team picking up the commission on the licenses.