Leaving private sector choppy waters for Civil Service?

Hi SCURRY,

Have you checked out publicjobs.ie.

I entered the category Information Technology and subcategory ICT other.

page was returned.

It might be worthwhile to keep an eye on this as something may come up that suits you.
 
I must applaud SCurry for his contributions here. I know he hasn't jumped to the Civil Service yet. He appears to be a forward looking person too. He might have been led into some kind of sense of security. I bet his transition will not be as smooth as he might think. Sixteen years ago I made the transition from the Private to the Public sector. It was bloody difficult over the first six months and lots of blood was spilt, especially my blood.

I have spoken to others who made the same journey and none of them had a soft ride and lost some blood too. You do not know where you are going. You don't know the habits of your new work colleagues. You might think you do, but you do not know the work either. In all jobs cliques are built up over the years. Cliques can be good or bad (don't forget). A new broom needs time to settle before it is capable of sweeping clean.

I advise SCurry to tread carefully because the minefields around Stalingrad in WW2 were small compared to what is ahead for him. I hope he keeps in touch here.
 

Ah steady on Leper would you, you're laying it on a bit thick there!

I ran out of my last job in the private sector, practically cried with joy the day I got offered my position in the CS, and I've had a hugely positive experience in the years since. A bloodless coup, to borrow your analogy...

A bit of humility, respect for the experience of colleagues who've been around the block, and a good work ethic, will go a long way - no different than anywhere else.
 
Sophrosyne said:
Hi SCURRY,

Have you checked out publicjobs.

It might be worthwhile to keep an eye on this as something may come up that suits you.
Click to expand...

Thanks yes I am signed up to the alerts. I keep a good eye on them. Nothing doing ICT wise in my area for the last 18 months, I did do interview with an IT for an ICT role and came first on the panel thinking it would lead to an offer only to find out the role was being given to a guy who had already been in there on a 2 year rolling contract, fair enough but pretty frustrating when you hear it after all the prep I did!

Anyway, I digress.
 

Sounds like that might be going a bit OTT Leper?! I'm not the blood spilling type by nature I have to say

My ability to get on with people is one of my best qualities so I'm not anticipating any blood-loss for anybody! I'm world wise at my age and know how large orgs work (in the private sector anyway) and I have found people in the very large part to be helpful, friendly and welcoming if you make the effort to be the same with them, life is easier that way.
 

You know SCurry, you're as near a clone of somebody I know who made the transition from the Private to the Public Service as a Clerical Officer. She was outgoing, friendly, she could have made friends with even Hitler and Stalin, in a nutshell she is probably the most inoffensive person in the country. She did not know it for quite some time but she was systematically marginalized by her new female colleagues. This went on over several months. Eventually, nobody would speak to her. Her life was turned upside down. They refused every co-operation with her. Let's call her Mary (not her real name) a hardened trade unionist who could weed out any argument and seperate wrong from right. Her work rate was good and her stamina would equal anyone's.

Mary approached each of her colleagues who smiled back sarcastically and would not engage on what was happening. She approached her Line Manager and asked that an especial watch would be kept on happenings. She herself recorded everything on emails which she sent home immediately thereby having a time and date of what was going on. She knew of no reason why was was happening, was happening. Neither did her Line Manager.

The bullies were approached by management and again only silence was the answer. One "spokesperson" advised that Mary's treatment would cease and a line was drawn in the sand. Mary arrived in work after and the silence continued and continued.

I know what you are thinking. Would somebody be sacked? Mary was moved to another location and although a fighter felt that the move would be the best result for a quiet life. The bully gang was left intact.

The foregoing is an accurate synopsis of a longer story.
 

Ah well obviously if that happened to Mary then that is typical of the civil service as a whole then isn't it...

Let's forget about all the people who get along just fine with each other and focus on the exceptions to scare the bejesus out of SCurry.

You should change your username to HyperboLeper...!!
 

I did it to public not CS and it worked out well for all the above reasons. But for some they got stuck somewhere with no salary increases, no increments and promotions due to austerity and also embargo. Which meant no recruitment, which meant no promotions. Depending where you are working there maybe people in their roles for a long time. Someone starting might be at the bottom of the list. I've seen this also and people have had to move laterally to move upwards. Move to other dept etc. I would say movement between jobs is a lot less than in private sector. Depend where you are working though. One office can be different to the next. You can hit a ceiling pretty fast. Whereas in the private sector you can move around a lot more easily. In my opinion anyway.

The public sector can often feel like 10 people trying to decide what movie to go see in the cinema, and bringing granny along was a bad idea. She'll pick "Daniel in Convert Live" every time. That can get tiring. If you get into somewhere that's more progressive it will be closer to a private sector experience.

That said your experience in the private sector is very static. Mainly due to location, but perhaps due to your own choice. So it might suit you. I've done both moved around, contracting but also stayed in one spot too long, because it suited. Both have the pros and cons.
 

Come on Jon, you're a better poster than this. I never said everybody in the civil service is a bully or anything like it. I merely posted to ensure SCurry would not have to endure what Mary did. Incidentally, what I posted is a mere fraction of the experiences endured by Mary. . . .and if I change my username I'll decide, not you.
 

My point was quite simply that you're scaremongering, one is no more likely to run afoul of a clique or be bullied in the public sector than in a similar sized private sector office.
 

Lovely sentiments, lovely to read, wishing you continued happiness and success!
 

I'm not sure why we are down this route Leper? I can't recall making any statements that the CS will be a glorious land of milk and honey without any sort of issues, I'm not that naive. Are you venting some kind of personal issues as a proxy in this thread? 16 years on the bloody beginning hasn't faded a little? Everywhere has its problems I'm sure, the problem where I am now is no pay increases (no other benefits including pension provision) and being undervalued for what I do with no sign of change on the horizon hence I posted here to gather opinion on the merits of changing to the PS should the offer I am hoping to get materialise.

Most people I know in the CS seem pretty content and I don't see any of them leaving. They seem to have a much better work life balance than many I know in the private sector who by and large do longer hours for sometimes less money. As the General Election seemed to show, most people outside of Dublin have not seen this fabled 'recovery' that the capital has so people are worried about their jobs (those that have one) still.

If I was 18 years old I might be susceptible to a clique of bitter little female bullies but I have broad shoulder and thicker skin now and in short would not give a crap.

My aim with this thread was to figure out the financial and career pros and cons of moving and I have got lots of good feedback. Yours is just a horror story that could happen in nearly any office on the globe and has nothing to do with the CS really. I've been in 5 or 6 private sector jobs and seen bullying occur in some of them, it ain't confined to the CS believe me.
 
Scurry - very true, plenty threads on here to do with workplace bullying. It can indeed happen anywhere.
 
Unsure how the cs is reduced to a significant discussion on workplace 'bullying'. Surely this accounts for a % of grievances in both public and private sector. Also, a job in cs presumably have much positivity and opportunity for would-be future employee.
 
Hi SCurry,

Big decision! As you are currently working in IT it may be advisable to think long and hard about your skills. If these skills are technical and more importantly marketable, you may well do yourself a disservice in the medium / long term by moving into the role you mentioned as you will become more & more dependant on one employer and your skills will, over time become stale / obsolete. However, if the role is a match for what you are currently doing / where you want to go, then I think you could do a lot worse, particularly if there are not many employment opportunities where you live.

HTH

Firefly.
 

This is the crux of it for me Firefly. There ain't many opportunities where I live in IT. Its demoralising at times looking at jobs advertised and 95% of them are in Dublin. I get that's where almost all of the industry is (and its only getting worse) but not all of us can/want to live in Dublin for reasons well known. That said I don't feel as if I can only do IT or would be unhappy with a career change hence I went and did the EO competition. I also did the EO ICT comp and came 2nd on panel but I have been offered (wait for it, a role in Dublin). I'm top of the list of a role comes up in my region in this but I'm told the chances are pretty small as most of the CS IT is centralised to Dublin. Thanks for the input.
 

You know best yourself by the sounds of it. All things considered it sounds like a good option to be fair. And don't mind Dublin, sure they know nothing up there!!!
 
Have received call from PAS for final clearance stage (current employer reference) and once checked there is a vacancy for me in the Dept of Social Protection in Sligo, my local town. Assuming my current boss doesn't shaft me with the reference I have decided to make the change and keep my IT side work going for the time being anyway. Thanks to all who contributed to the thread
 
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