Confidence in the Civil Service

I think people are taking extreme positions here and it's not helping the debate.
The idea that all civil and public sector employees can be tarred with the same brush is nonsense; there are hundreds of thousands of them.

I do think that people who leave school or college and go straight into the public sector do not know what it is like in the "real" world of private sector industry. Talk of racing to the bottom is just so much hyperbolae to most in the private sector (ask anyone of the tens of thousands of people who used to work in the electronics industry) yet it is being treated as something new by predominantly public sector unions who’s members will never be benchmarked against their counterpart in south East Asia. That's where I have a problem with the public sector. They should appreciate that the perks and security that they enjoy more than make up for any real or imagined disparity in pay with the private sector.

CN624 said:

I think there are many that fit the lazy and unambitious tag in the private sector but what gets peoples noses out of joint with civil servants is that 'we' pay them.

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Don't forget that in our capacity as consumers that we also pay the wages of the lazy & unambitious people who work in the private sector.

ubiquitous said:

Don't forget that in our capacity as consumers that we also pay the wages of the lazy & unambitious people who work in the private sector.

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But people have the perception (real or imagined) that they have a choice about who and how we fork out for goods and services in the private sector.

refuse to claim any benefit due

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Why would I refuse to claim any benefit due? I've well and truely earned it with the taxes I'm forced to pay. However, as an 's' classer, I probably wouldn't be entitled to much anyway.

What if all your taxes have been spent on the wages of a lazy civil servant?

Seriously though, back to the point of the OP - how much confidence do people have in the civil and wider public service and what is it based on? An annual phone call to Revenue re tax credits and the like or on more regular dealings?

aonfocaleile said:

Seriously though, back to the point of the OP - how much confidence do people have in the civil and wider public service and what is it based on? An annual phone call to Revenue re tax credits and the like or on more regular dealings?

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I have some close friends that work as of civil servants across a couple of departments.

One guy started to work in the department of agriculture. As it was his first job he wanted to do well so he applied himself and was told by his manager "not to work so fast, theres no rush". It was simple paper pushing so there was no issue with the quality of his work just that he was making other people look bad.

A secretary in the department of finance. There were three or four girls working there and they literally fought each other to open the 10-15 letters that came in each day for something to do. Her days were spent playing solitaire on her pc.

Lived with several teachers. None of whom I have to say I would call lazy. Some did their days work and that was it and others threw themselves into their job. Spent a lot of time creating interesting classes etc.

Another friends boss applied (and got) several local government IT contracts by applying for them in his brother-in-laws name and then doing the work at his desk during his normal paid 9-5 day job.

Currently living with 2 nurses who work 12 hour shifts and don't get to sit for 10 minutes all day. Wouldn't do their job ever.

I think you get all types across both public and private sectors but what annoys people is that there is no sanction for bad performance in the public sector. Those that underperform or fail to perform don't have to worry about losing their job.

Playing solitare all day? What a nightmare! (Wonder did she look for more work/transfer to a busier area?) Hopefully thats not the future for all those civil servants who don't want to decentralise . Tom Parlon was on Prime Time last night - he didn't seem to have (m)any of the answers.

The unions are the problem. Personally I have had good and bad experiences with the public service and would agree with CN624 that there are very hard working people there who aren't justly rewarded, and useless people who are.
But the unions act like bullys, pushing the rest of us around to protect their jobs and get pay rises that the public pay for in the end.

Look at France. The country has been ruined by unions. The government can't implement any policy. A friend of mine who was hugely involved in unions here moved there several years ago and now his opinion of unions has changed dramatically.

Long ago they served the purpose of protecting workers. Now they ruin entire economies through thoughtlessness and sometimes even pure greed. They have ruined the public service here by dulling diamonds and polishing stones.