Is the public sector as safe place for slackers?
No, it’s not. Public sector jobs are in areas such as libraries, firefighters, school teachers and pretty much everything else that goes to keep the country running. To say that ‘productivity’ is not on the same scale as the private sector is a bit sneaky because it does not take into account the sort of work that is done in these different sectors. How can a teacher or librarian increase productivity? I suppose firefighters could go around setting fires so that they can put more of them out…but that would just be silly, wouldn’t it. How could teachers increase productivity? Perhaps they could have more children, or sack loads of teachers thus increasing classroom sizes even further. The argument about strong Trades Unions is something we should be rejoicing over rather than criticising. Unions act as a bulwark against the excesses of employers and governments. Here again, though, I feel the Times is being a bit disingenuous. There haven’t been any serious strikes in this country for
Not really. I don’t know many teachers, prison officers etc who slack. There are some departments which have to have a certain level of staffing for safety reasons and while they might not be busy all the time, they need to have people there trained and ready to go in case of emergencies etc – Civil Aviation Authority possibly or those who deal with the sorting out of essential services following a crisis – ie, the bombing in London. Better to have those people trained and ready to move when necessary rather than have jacks of all trade who are masters of none when you really need people who are up to speed. As others have said, those working in the public sector do have lower wages but that is made up for with security, more holidays and a better pension – they do not have the money to buy this for themselves. Public sector workers also include those working in govenment run care homes, school dinner ladies/gents, toilet cleaners, street cleaners who are all on basic wages. I don’t th
I will try very hard not to get angry with you as I am aware of your views on most things already. There are some people in this world who go into jobs because they want to help their country and society. They are aware that they will earn less money than those who go into jobs purely to enrich their own bank accounts. When times are good, the people who simply want to get rich sneer at these people as losers. When times are hard, those same people resent those who are working away for the public good. Suddenly, the pensions they laughed at seem “over-generous” compared to the dodgy private pensions that collapsed. The jobs that they went into collapsed so they resent the people who went into a career to help society as “scroungers” who only went into the job for the security. You can only judge people by your own standards. I don’t expect you to understand that people become teachers and nurses for reasons other than selfish ones. I doubt you are capable of understanding that. However
