There’s been a lot of press recently about how the pay gap between the public and private sectors has closed and in fact, has swung in favour of the public sector. Although I find it hard to believe, who am I to distrust the press? Factors like better pensions, better basic pay, more holiday allowances are listed as being better in the public sector. One of the issues I did not see discussed was that of bonuses. I’m not talking about bankers’ bonuses, I’m talking about the 10% - 15% bonuses that many private sector jobs have (although these are seldom guaranteed). Even so, there’s clearly an issue here.

If you want a less stressed working environment, the chances are that the public sector is better for you. If you’re a lazy so and so who can’t be asked to provide a decent service, then the public sector is definitely for you! Why? Well its almost impossible to get fired. One of the stats written about in the debate is how public sector workers take about 50% more sick days than their counterparts in the private sector. Why? Because they can! I have a number of friends in the public sector and they complain about their  colleagues who are clearly taking the piss. The word malingering comes to mind. It’s really, really difficult to get fired and the unfortunate fact, is that in an environment like that, piss taking flourishes. So, if you’re lazy, useless or have decent skills but don’t want stress, the public sector is for you.

Let’s consider though, the job satisfaction or lack of it to be found in a working environment that is not merit based.  Of course, there are many extremely competent people in the public sector, but its draining on morale to see the piss takers get away with it. Why slave away, put in extra hours and improve your qualifications and skills when the person next to you who takes 4 days sick leave every month gets the same salary increase as you? So while the public sector may be attacting talent now due to lack of jobs in the private sector and excessive labour government spending, its hard to keep talent when the working environment doesn’t reward or even focus on performance.

There, that’s off my chest now!

Tags: private sector, public sector

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 3rd, 2010 at 8:18 pm and is filed under Student Career Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.