Jump to content
House Price Crash Forum

Newsnight - Public Sector Workers


Recommended Posts

0
HOLA441

Anyone watch the show tonight.

Public sector workers, due to lose their jobs, meeting private sector mentors to advise them on finding work.

Anyone else watch it ?

Seemed like a bunch of paper pushing middle managers with exaggerated assumptions of their worth.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 101
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

1
HOLA442
2
HOLA443

Anyone watch the show tonight.

Public sector workers, due to lose their jobs, meeting private sector mentors to advise them on finding work.

Anyone else watch it ?

Seemed like a bunch of paper pushing middle managers with exaggerated assumptions of their worth.

Were those the public or private sector middle managers?

I have yet to discern a meaningful difference between the two apart from total, lifetime income.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3
HOLA444

mate in recruitment told me they'd stopped bothering trying to place ex public sector people in the private sector on the whole-says it's gonna get very tough for them.

adjusting from flexitime would be hard.

...how does flexi time work in public sector in practice and how is it supposed to work....?.... :unsure:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4
HOLA445
5
HOLA446

...how does flexi time work in public sector in practice and how is it supposed to work....?.... :unsure:

When I worked for the council you could work up to 8 hours overtime extra per month and then take a day off a month. You could also come in an hour late and leave an hour late in some departments on a regular basis (or some variation there of), but being in core IT I had to be there in core hours to make sure things kept running, so I always had to take the day off a month option.

So, 12 extra days holiday a year in addition to the 29 days I got as standard. If that makes you sick, then you'll love to know I always fiddled my time sheet to gain the flexitime hours, as I hardly ever worked overtime.

How's that for sense of entitlement?! :lol:

If it helps I only stayed there a little over 2 years, as it was a soul crushing place to work, but I'm glad that at least I got a little piece of the ponzi pie :)

Edited by General Congreve
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6
HOLA447
Guest The Relaxation Suite

...how does flexi time work in public sector in practice and how is it supposed to work....?.... :unsure:

I have worked at a university where there was no flexitime at all and the boss would monitor the clock whenever you came in or left. In a previous PS job I actually worked in HR and had to deal with people's flexitime requests. Interestingly, everyone who worked where I worked had to drive past my office to get out, and I was able to watch them come and go and I can tell you that the flexitime sheets seldom matched up with the actual hours they came and went - and the senior mgt were 100% the worst abusers of the system.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7
HOLA448
8
HOLA449

...I can tell you that the flexitime sheets seldom matched up with the actual hours they came and went - and the senior mgt were 100% the worst abusers of the system.

Virtually no-one here would predict any different. What point are you trying to make? Is there class war within the Public sector too?

How very complicated. It must lead to deep soul searching when these managers are given the boot, are they 'them' or 'us'?

I suppose it depends on which party is in power when the firing is done. But then even if it is Labour, you can always blame Thatcher.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9
HOLA4410

In the tiny amount of time I worked at a council flexitime meant getting my mate to clock me in for data entry at weekends. It was theft pure and simple. Not nice and jacked it in.

Sounds like pure entrepreneurialism to me, its good to see such dynamism working through all levels in the workplace, public and private sector alike, its whats making the country great

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10
HOLA4411

It was comedy watching that.

With the exception of the younger girl, they were institutionalised paperweights. Imagine the total cost of each of them including salary, pension, training etc.

There must be a few hundred thousand like them that we can get rid of. But what to do with them?

It's like having some old redundant machinery in a factory - sell it to the 3rd world, or for scrap?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11
HOLA4412

I hope they enjoy the job centre experience. As an aside, JC's are trialing a system where they give you four forms, you sign on at home and just drop the form off every fortnight. There is no more job seeking assistance and I have heard that they are stopping throwing fake job print outs at people too. You are on your own.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12
HOLA4413

Anyone watch the show tonight.

Public sector workers, due to lose their jobs, meeting private sector mentors to advise them on finding work.

Anyone else watch it ?

Seemed like a bunch of paper pushing middle managers with exaggerated assumptions of their worth.

I think the saddest part was the sense amongst the private sector people on the programme that public sector staff are somehow second rate. At my NHS Trust, we have pioneered a robotic laparoscopic surgical technique which is now being demonstrated worldwide by our surgeons via video links directly from theatres. We are leading the way in novel medical imaging techniques, far in excess of anything private sector hospitals have locally (the private patients have to come to my NHS Trust to be treated on our machines by our staff. All of the staff have been trained in the NHS; there are no private sector training schemes).

We could all go and work in the private sector on higher wages (2.5 times in my case if you compare my salary here to that in private healthcare organisations elsewhere in the world) and then the public wouldn't have access to all of this without paying through the nose through it.

The public need to get real about this; I don't think when I see programmes like this that people realise what they are in danger of throwing away. Deborah Meaden et al sound great, but they will provide you with a product which is cheap relative to price.

If you want the NHS to do the same then go for it. I'm sure we'd be delighted to carry out routine operations with high profit margins more, and give up on complex cancer treatment,

Edited by Analysis
Link to comment
Share on other sites

13
HOLA4414
14
HOLA4415

I was slightly baffled by it all. You couldn't find out what they did or what they were capable of, due to all the management buzz speak. Also the Microsoft mentor seemed to contradict himself. He stated that they were getting a lot of older applicants wanting to go on their apprenticeship schemes in order to retrain, then told the older guy this wasn't a good phase in his life to acquire new skills. Point is a 57 year old has quite easily another 13 years working life ahead, as no doubt the retirement age will be raised again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15
HOLA4416

It was comedy watching that.

With the exception of the younger girl, they were institutionalised paperweights. Imagine the total cost of each of them including salary, pension, training etc.

There must be a few hundred thousand like them that we can get rid of. But what to do with them?

It's like having some old redundant machinery in a factory - sell it to the 3rd world, or for scrap?

Yes it is.. and I am serious. A relative of mine with average iq, not great shape, early 50's.. lost his job in IT help about 7 months ago, which he had for about 20 years. He is trying to find another job, but essentially he is redundant.

Not only redundant from the job he lost, but actually redundant period.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16
HOLA4417

I think the saddest part was the sense amongst the private sector people on the programme that public sector staff are somehow second rate. At my NHS Trust, we have pioneered a robotic laparoscopic surgical technique which is now being demonstrated worldwide by our surgeons via video links directly from theatres. We are leading the way in novel medical imaging techniques, far in excess of anything private sector hospitals have locally (the private patients have to come to my NHS Trust to be treated on our machines by our staff. All of the staff have been trained in the NHS; there are no private sector training schemes).

We could all go and work in the private sector on higher wages (2.5 times in my case if you compare my salary here to that in private healthcare organisations elsewhere in the world) and then the public wouldn't have access to all of this without paying through the nose through it.

The public need to get real about this; I don't think when I see programmes like this that people realise what they are in danger of throwing away. Deborah Meaden et al sound great, but they will provide you with a product which is cheap relative to price.

If you want the NHS to do the same then go for it. I'm sure we'd be delighted to carry out routine operations with high profit margins more, and give up on complex cancer treatment,

I don't think anyone is suggesting that everyone employed directly by the state is useless or not doing a valuable job - but it seems that there are large swathes of public sector jobs that add no value and that we can easily do without. I expect the NHS is no exception.

Ps. Britain needs to provide a level of health care that the country can afford - this obviously means tough choices on drugs/pioneering treatments etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17
HOLA4418

Anyone watch the show tonight.

Public sector workers, due to lose their jobs, meeting private sector mentors to advise them on finding work.

Anyone else watch it ?

Seemed like a bunch of paper pushing middle managers with exaggerated assumptions of their worth.

I think you mean employees not workers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18
HOLA4419

snip

We could all go and work in the private sector on higher wages (2.5 times in my case if you compare my salary here to that in private healthcare organisations elsewhere in the world) and then the public wouldn't have access to all of this without paying through the nose through it.

The public need to get real about this;snip

The reason you can ( or think you can) get 2.5 times salary is purely because public sector will pay the private guys whatever they ask....in teh case of the US, this is their insurance system..which itself is sucking the life out of the US budget.

Some people think that just because they have a skill they can acheive more than the world can pay,.

Sure, for a short time, people can do this, but only at the expense of everyone else, who have to go short... In the case of the UK< 160BN short every year, and in the US..2TRN short every year.

Yes, you might acheive 2.5 times...is this sustainable?...probably not.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19
HOLA4420

Yes it is.. and I am serious. A relative of mine with average iq, not great shape, early 50's.. lost his job in IT help about 7 months ago, which he had for about 20 years. He is trying to find another job, but essentially he is redundant.

Not only redundant from the job he lost, but actually redundant period.

Having been on the job hunt myself for a good while I don't see how these managers (of what?) will make it without serious help. The flexibility and range of skills that companies require may well be out of reach for some who got too comfy. I know many like this in the private sector too, in IT in particular, who bizarrely neglected to upgrade their skills over time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20
HOLA4421

Having been on the job hunt myself for a good while I don't see how these managers (of what?) will make it without serious help. The flexibility and range of skills that companies require may well be out of reach for some who got too comfy. I know many like this in the private sector too, in IT in particular, who bizarrely neglected to upgrade their skills over time.

upgrades matter little...you start to settle down and fail to go out with the boys, you are out.

wrinkles and IT are not allowed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21
HOLA4422
22
HOLA4423
23
HOLA4424
24
HOLA4425

I hope they enjoy the job centre experience. As an aside, JC's are trialing a system where they give you four forms, you sign on at home and just drop the form off every fortnight. There is no more job seeking assistance and I have heard that they are stopping throwing fake job print outs at people too. You are on your own.

Talking of Job Centres, don't know whether anyone else saw the Times front page article yesterday, about young people looking for jobs. Featured in particular a girl with facial piercings and pink hair wanting a job as a trainee dental nurse.

It took Times 'experts' to point out to her (where the JC hadn't) that it might be good to take her piercings out and dress in something a mite smarter than jeans and a hoodie if she was serious about getting a job. Evidently that hadn't occurred to her.

Enough to make you despair. I suppose JC staff are told that it's against people's human rights to suggest that a slight effort at being being more or less conventionally presentable might help their chances of any job dealing with the general public.

The girl was happy to do as the 'experts' suggested and has now been taken on as an apprentice, but the JC was no help to her at all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.




×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information