Public sector watch
Discussion
About time we had a central repository for the stories from our public sector which you just couldn't make up.
I'll start with today's Essex County Council ban on triangular flapjacks
I'll start with today's Essex County Council ban on triangular flapjacks
chrisw666 said:
Problem - We need to save an additional £32million.
Solution - £95k a year transformation manager.
http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/20...
But why recruit that position internally? Better to have someone you can get rid of with 24 hours notice, surely? Not to mention 'fresh pair of eyes' etc.Solution - £95k a year transformation manager.
http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/20...
ewenm said:
Just overheard a conversation about how to claim flexitime credit because their train was late this morning. 
Flexi-time is the biggest piss-take I have come across. It's basically an uncontrolled licence to do anything but come to work.My boss accrues flexi credit at both ends of the day because he 'thinks about work from the moment he leaves the house in the morning and doesn't stop until he gets home'.
sd477667 said:
V8mate said:
I'd remove the word 'Labour' from your statement to spare future blushes. Incompetence knows no party boundaries.
Labour waste more, that is a fact, why else was Poll Tax so much cheaper in Tory boroughs?Not saying Tories don't waste, they do but not in the same league as the jumped up Nu Labourites who seem want to play Billy Big Bol*ocks and act like captain's of industry without the pressure of actual results.
So no blushes here.
One day, I'll tell all.
Rovinghawk said:
Countdown said:
Shouldn't make any difference - they provide X services, they charge £Y. If they are providing the same services more efficiently than their Labour counterparts they should be charging LESS £y, not more.
Higher values= nicer area (in general). It costs more to keep somewhere looking nicer. Also expectations of services provided might well be higher in such an area.turbobloke said:
eccles said:
You are making the same mistake as Turbobloke. You both seem to think that public sector staff should be subject to some sort of higher standards of discipline than private sector workers.
Your own personal mistake is to think we're wrong.Users / consumers of other people's money in officialdumb absolutely must adhere to higher standards than users / consumers of their own money. That's the sort of higher standard which covers everything, since every minute a public sector worker is (supposedly) at work they're spending other people's money, if only on their salary and pension.
Some time ago, I asked my team to think of every bit of expenditure in terms of how many houses' council tax it took. (For assumption purposes, I used £1k per house per annum, as being that part which ends up with this authority).
And whenever we caused or saw others cause waste, I suggested we imagine how many houses, streets and even towns annual contributions had been squandered. Further, that they should have to call together the residents of the required number of houses and explain to them why and how the money they had been forced to hand over had been wasted.
turbobloke said:
V8mate said:
turbobloke said:
eccles said:
You are making the same mistake as Turbobloke. You both seem to think that public sector staff should be subject to some sort of higher standards of discipline than private sector workers.
Your own personal mistake is to think we're wrong.Users / consumers of other people's money in officialdumb absolutely must adhere to higher standards than users / consumers of their own money. That's the sort of higher standard which covers everything, since every minute a public sector worker is (supposedly) at work they're spending other people's money, if only on their salary and pension.
Some time ago, I asked my team to think of every bit of expenditure in terms of how many houses' council tax it took. (For assumption purposes, I used £1k per house per annum, as being that part which ends up with this authority).
And whenever we caused or saw others cause waste, I suggested we imagine how many houses, streets and even towns annual contributions had been squandered. Further, that they should have to call together the residents of the required number of houses and explain to them why and how the money they had been forced to hand over had been wasted.
iphonedyou said:
Very little mention of the younger public sector worker; graduates and the like.
Most public sector organisations now have graduate schemes in place, the requirements of which are as onerous as any in the private sector. Generally 4 stage selection with assessment centre at the end. This doesn't guarantee anything, but does suggest a broadly comparable class of graduate to those moving into the private sector.
The intention being, of course, that the organisations gradually become filled from the bottom with younger, degree level individuals, in much the same way as any large, structured private sector organisation has been doing for some time.
What's the point of attracting 'green' graduates when their mentors/role models and colleagues will still be the same old Most public sector organisations now have graduate schemes in place, the requirements of which are as onerous as any in the private sector. Generally 4 stage selection with assessment centre at the end. This doesn't guarantee anything, but does suggest a broadly comparable class of graduate to those moving into the private sector.
The intention being, of course, that the organisations gradually become filled from the bottom with younger, degree level individuals, in much the same way as any large, structured private sector organisation has been doing for some time.
s? All we'll end up with is more highly qualified s.iphonedyou said:
V8mate said:
What's the point of attracting 'green' graduates when their mentors/role models and colleagues will still be the same old s? All we'll end up with is more highly qualified s.
All I'm saying is that eventually, those older people - there's no need to use that word once, never mind twice - will, eventually, leave. If they've been filling the place with younger graduates for 40 years, attitudes should change.s? All we'll end up with is more highly qualified s.I work for one of the better authorities. Apparently. I don't think that word even begins to describe the incompetence and waste exercised on random whims, on a daily basis, by officers and members.
iphonedyou said:
V8mate said:
How will they? The working environment will get to them a lot quicker than your 40 year plan (there's a chap in the next office who is 76; joined the council when he was 18)
I work for one of the better authorities. Apparently. I don't think that word even begins to describe the incompetence and waste exercised on random whims, on a daily basis, by officers and members.
I don't work for an authority, and the average age around here is probably 30, 35 maximum. Your experience sounds very different to mine, so I can understand you're jaded.I work for one of the better authorities. Apparently. I don't think that word even begins to describe the incompetence and waste exercised on random whims, on a daily basis, by officers and members.
We buy trains and build stuff, and I'm confident we're really very good at it. It's not a paper pushing exercise as there are tangible assets produced at the end of it, and the technical nature of the work requires a good mix of skills, abilities and experiences, and therefore ages.
randlemarcus said:
turbobloke said:
There would need to be a very unusual context for anyone remotely resembling dead weight to be kept on in a private sector enterprise.
Not wholly sure on this one. Private sector my entire career, mostly large IT Outsourcers, and we seem to, as an industry, breed a peculiar middle-management layer of non-revenue, non-exec types. Mostly filling in capability matrices, or in some form of knowledge management. I have occasionally thought it was infection from TUPE on public sector contracts, but it seems to affect the Indian pureplay SI companies as well. So I am putting it down to your standard issue human being a lazy sod, and bigger companies being more tolerant of this than smaller ones (and yes, this includes companies who shave the bottom 10% of staff on a normal basis).
And you're right, that it is as damaging in the private sector as public sector. It doesn't really kick in until a business/organisation reaches a certain size, so many private sector employees will never have seen it.
It cripples our businesses though; it caps the upward flow of innovation and resists the downward flow of change.
chris watton said:
I never cease to be totally gobsmacked by the huge sums of money involved ...
One day last year an opportunity arose which would have saved my authority £2.5m in anticipted capital costs alone, i.e. ignoring any avoided future revenue costs for operations.I suggested it to my boss; he did that thing with his mouth where someone is thinking and realising that you've got a point; thn breathed out and said "Probably best if we just do it the way we said we were going to do it". And then walked off.
The actual capital cost of 'doing it the way we were going to do it' landed last week. £4.5m. Plus about £200k per annum over the next 15 years.
mercGLowner said:
V8mate said:
One day last year an opportunity arose which would have saved my authority £2.5m in anticipted capital costs alone, i.e. ignoring any avoided future revenue costs for operations.
I suggested it to my boss; he did that thing with his mouth where someone is thinking and realising that you've got a point; thn breathed out and said "Probably best if we just do it the way we said we were going to do it". And then walked off.
The actual capital cost of 'doing it the way we were going to do it' landed last week. £4.5m. Plus about £200k per annum over the next 15 years.
Whistleblower?I suggested it to my boss; he did that thing with his mouth where someone is thinking and realising that you've got a point; thn breathed out and said "Probably best if we just do it the way we said we were going to do it". And then walked off.
The actual capital cost of 'doing it the way we were going to do it' landed last week. £4.5m. Plus about £200k per annum over the next 15 years.
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