Ooh, George, methinks you forgot one - Never Apologise Never Explain. Told to me in all seriousness by a very senior government official during a training session. A mantra that was subsequently repeated many times. (I'm a slow learner.) Did you forget about this one?

Good on you George for expressing your frustration on OLO.

I’m not entirely sure just how genuine or tongue-in-cheek you article is, but I’m going to treat it very seriously….and jump at the chance to have a chronic whinge (:>)

If you were hoping to worm out a frustrated public servant or two from amongst the readership of OLO, well congratulations, you’ve sure found one with old Ludwig!

I’ve just clocked up twenty fruitin’ years with the same department. Or may be that should be; cocked up for 20 fruitless years!

I keep telling myself that I’m in the right place. My job fits with my passionate interests, qualifications and experience…..sort of….to a fair extent….. well, in theory at least. People regularly mention how lucky they think I am to have developed a career in the area of my passions (botany, birds, ecology, geology, geomorphology, sustainability, overall environmentalism, photography and a lot of time spent out bush).

It hasn’t been toooo bad all-told for me to have stayed for so long. But holy sh!t, has it been compromised by some utterly extraordinary crap!

continued

The lowlights have been:

1. The most amazing lack of compliance with our code of conduct from my superiors and fellow low-ranking employees on a number of significant occasions, with no qualms from some of them about acting in a very nasty manner, and with serious consequences for me, despite absolutely no wrongdoing on my part.

2. The strongly negative connotations attached to efforts to improve the quality of our public service and science, which all employees are encouraged to do within our code of conduct. The hypocrisy between what is purported to be and what actually is.

3. The lack of any discernible difference in quality of life at work or your prospects for career advancement between keeping the lowest possible profile and being out there prominently presenting yourself, your interests and ideas.

4. The absolute lack of any commendation or even acknowledgement from your superiors for undertaking work-related things outside of one’s actual working hours or job description. For example, the many years of botanical records that I have collected in my own time and contributed to our work database or the involvement with non-government environmental organisations including terms as president of three of them, none of which ever had a conflict of interest with my department, and which should have been seen as entirely complementary.

5. The terrible lack of regard for the underlying purpose of my particular department (apart from appeasing the minister and government of the day), and of the role of sections within the department. The disingenuous manner in which we operate.

I reckon arcticdog, after reading this, that if you followed George's first paradigm you shouldn't be put in the position of apologising or explaining yourself very often at all, because you won't be the one making the decisions!

Yes, government employees are the butt of many a joke. These jokes and others I'm sure waste just as much time in the private sector as they do the public.

As a government employee myself I know how hard the ones around me work and it's usually done without the remuneration the same work in private enterprise could command. I certainly don't know of any government employees paid the obscenely high million-dollar salaries commonplace in the corporate sector.

What's the alternative to public service? To have all our services provided by private operators whose first interest is to turn a profit? I don't think so. There are any number of privatised services and utilities we can turn to now and see that 'public service' is indeed a very low priority.

There are advantages in the job security more traditionally found in the public service which don't exist in the cutthroat dog-eat-dog world of private enterprise. How much time is wasted by employees searching and applying for jobs? And as soon as they get one, they're on the lookout for the next one. And how much work that is done these days is done purely because it will look good on the resume? The cooperative and collegial workplace has given way to constantly shifting and demandingly competitive work environments. And unfortunately this private enterprise trend is creeping into the public arena.

Public service in Australia today is far from faultless, I agree. A lot of its problems have developed through its over politicization which became particularly entrenched during the Howard years. Public servants are far less likely to proffer the objective and fearless advice they once were.

Another problem is the constant poaching of personnel by the private sector. Public health and education, the defence forces, the police service and many more train people at taxpayer expense only to have them lured into the private sector.

The public service is a worthwhile institution. It needs to be supported and strengthened, not ridiculed and undermined, especially by those who are enjoying its benefits. Yes, George, I'm speaking to you!

Bronwyn,

the reason public servants dont get the high wages in the private sector is that they don't do the same work that commands that wage. They don't have the same responsibility or accountability that you get in the private economy.

It is clear from the behaviour of public servants that they think they are already on a good wicket (otherwise they would leave and command the high salaries that they claim they are missing out on).

In my dealings with teh public service I see a whole bunch of blockers who are not adding much value at all, and the last thing they need is more resources to waste on pet projects, which they think are vital, but no-one who has to suffer from them would willingly pay for.

Amazing read and it is pretty accurate. I am a public sector employee, I am a nurse & midwife and I am frustrated with good ideas being squashed or used by superiors as their ideas.
I am always rushed, never able to complete a task to its entirety or to my high standards simply because of the tsunami of demand for my ""care"".
Am I rewarded- not monetary for sure but from the many delightful thankful clients I meet each day. I would like to have clinical support and not to be being managed by poor managers, with poor clinical knowledge and skill.
Unfortunately to get the good wages one has to make the decision to go up the management stream. Management pressure to bring budgets in line, to manage resources- yes staff are classed as resources like pieces on a chess board we are used to 'risk manage' the wards and specialty areas. The task is to get most of the work done, avoid complaints and ensure people are breathing!
Many a shift I do not get a meal break or a toilet break. I am there 8- 12 hours, I work unsociable hours and my reward is less than my daughter earned when she commenced in a human resources department in a nationally listed company as a 21 year old. Yes, she has a diploma of business and is almost completed her degree in business and will earn more in the future. It is my penalty rates that boost my wage up by $8,500 pa but I will die younger, I will suffer chronic diseases like diabetes and diverticulitis.
Can I be recognised and rewarded with a large pay rise? Government is only offering 3.2% increase in the next EB round. Society has to decide what parts of health we cannot afford because nurses and midwives are leaving the professions in droves!
Who will turn out the lights when people leave the public sector?

Sorry I forgot to say I have been a nurse for 32 years. I am presently a midwife working in a hospital and also in private practice. I have an Intensive Care Certificate so highly employable and qualified but I am asking myself 'what else is out there'?
I would stay in private practice if I had a choice to managing workloads and enhanced monetary reward.

A good article, but don't forget the ancient art of scapegoating, the eye roll when someone makes a great suggestion, the passive aggressive and the narcissist.

SA writers need look no further than the SGIC TV advertisment campaign to look at a bunch of dysfunctionals going through their pace.

*As a government employee myself I know how hard the ones around me work*

Now now Bronwyn, be honest! How many Govt pencil pushers spend
heaps of time playing around on the internet during office hours?

One of my friends who works for a Govt department was at least a
bit honest. His comment "We don't get paid very much but we don't
do very much"

There are of course always exceptions, but waste in Govt is huge,
for its not their money that people are spending.

Thanks for a great article George, at least somebody
had the testicles to be honest.

Yabby

"Now now Bronwyn, be honest! How many Govt pencil pushers spend
heaps of time playing around on the internet during office hours?"

Not all government employees are 'pen pushers' Yabby and not all of them spend time in front of a computer or even have the time to do so.

And let's not ignore the many 'pen pushers' in the private sector who find plenty of time to check their shares progress and more at their employer's expense.

There are farmers today too who seem to find a lot of time to spend in front of the computer! Very different to the farming family I come from I might add.

I suggest Yabby that you get that speck out of your own eye first before you start worrying about the planks in others! Wasting time on the computer is not exclusive to the public service.

*There are farmers today too who seem to find a lot of time to spend in front of the computer! *

There certainly are Bronwyn, like me! The difference being,
that when I do it, it is at my expense. If it happens in the private
sector, its at the employers expense. He/she is free to fire them. If it happens in the public
sector, its at taxpayers expense and that includes me the taxpayer. Thats the
thing with Govt employees, its virtually impossible to fire them
and they know it.

Big difference!

This was a good piece of satire and, like all satire, there are elements of truth in it.

Having worked in both the private and public sectors I can honestly say that working for government these days is nothing like the old days of government where, quite frankly, dead wood abounded. This is not to say there are 'underworked' areas but I have also found this in some larger corporate organisations.

As Bronwyn said, not all public servants are pen pushers - there are many types of public servants from scientists, community workers, advisers and many frontline staff who deal with many difficult issues from face-to-face dealings with the public ever day. Unfortunately it is often these key 'operational' roles that are targetted by the razor gangs, very rarely do you see senior roles diminishing nor most at middle management level.

The public service is experiencing a huge surge in workload of late often in areas where staff have been reduced or vacant positions no longer recruited to meet budget cuts. The pendulum has swung in the other direction in many government agencies.

The thrust of the article is apt to some degree. Knowing the intracacies of the public service psyche and how to circumvent or work within it is a challenge.

Having had one particularly painful experience in an internal whistleblowing event, I know too well the bureaucracy is not an easy animal to take on. While there was some action in our case, albeit the investigation is still continuing, it took time, many brick walls, many tears and much learning about the right ways of approach. Much of the investigation is still in progress, but the paradigms in this article did produce a chuckle from me. :)

Ive tried but failed to be amused...just concerned that this another 'big lie propaganda'...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Lie... 'defined by Adolf Hitler in his 1925 autobiography Mein Kampf as a lie so "colossal" that no one would believe that someone "could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously".'

the 'government'(as is 'crown through it executive council' with governor general as its head managing all affairs of the government[including hiring staff and paying wages] here in Australia for ongoing 'fee' billed to tax payers ie us...) full of incompetent/ignorant/work-less employees who shun decision making...sure...one look at past family court workings and common practice of force separating bonded fatherchild care and relationships on demand by mother puts an end to that lie...it takes a focused aggressively active country wide effort to pervert the course of justice and media reporting the way it was done...court(registrars, judges, lawyers), counsellors and psychiatrist(state medical boards), hiding signs/symptoms of traumatixed children(childcare, primary schools, child protection departments...all women dominant)...while public kept in dark(corporate media, and currently no other media seems to exist)...now that takes an army of motivated/coordinated/informed government workers with power/authority to achieve...

and note current deafening silence of media since new 'relationship centers' and 'shared parenting law' enacted to address above said...seems we dont learn from past to keep an eye on important area...only god knows whats happening...until street fills up with another whole generation of children harmed...

worry is same mechanism used in other areas by 'government' which are not so 'public' to adversely affect the 'legitimate interest of the common public' for 'unbalanced self benefit'...hope Im wrong...but better to keep an active public monitoring(yeah...thats what parliament is for...but see how well thats worked by itself)...especially now when everything seems so unstable...

Sam
Ps~anyone wondered why c. skase was center of media with multimillions of investors money unaccounted...when died 'rich' wife pixie freely reappeared in Australia with no one connecting money link...and media/government silent...while people who lost their savings suffer...im still wondering...

I quit - again - yesterday. I was asked to write a procedures manual for handling complaints on behalf of a particularly defenceless sector of the community. I knew nothing about the way complaints were handled, but this didn't matter: the object of producing a new manual was to get around an FOI request for the previous one. The complaints investigation scheme has been going for a year now, but when I asked about key performance indicators I was told they were 'something to aspire to', and that the manual should be' non-prescriptive'. A non-prescriptive procedures manual. Will wonders never cease? You got it right, George. Arse-covering is of the essence.

My experience of the public service was -- thankfully -- many years ago, but the things that emerged for me were:

-- you get promoted for spending money, never for saving it
-- the more similar you are to your boss, the more chance you have of getting his/her job
-- it's important to be seen to be working; it's not important to produce results
-- if you can delay a project long enough there will be a change of management and they'll decide it's not worth doing anyway.

I took a year's leave of absence and when I returned I discovered that all of the 'vital' projects I'd been working so hard on had been canned as soon as I left. At that point I became a dedicated freeloader, and resigned for good nine months later. It was the smartest thing I ever did.

all of what you say is true, and yet, a functional public service is really our best hope.

please read my blog 'have we hit peak people?'

I am old enough to have taken a voluntary redundancy in disgust, come back and made a mark, only to be slapped down yet again.

yet I am doing another spell, and finding it quite pleasant. and rewarding, because I am way beyond playing games, or currying favour, never was good at that.

I think the problem with the public service is a lack of pure guts on the part of the employees. Those who stand up for what they believe in will suffer, but hey, this isn't Zimbabwe. show some courage, and you will get rewarded (but maybe not in this life cycle)

I agree that government employees need to grow more backbone, but this is a tough ask for some for a number of reasons. There are always those who don't want to rock the boat so that they can climb the ladder, but there are also those who are so dispirited that they become incredibly cynical and feel trapped in their job. Unfortunately these people are sometimes in positions of management and can instill cynicism within their staff. The over-blown bureaucratic systems within government provide far too much opportunty to confirm such cynicism.

My personal experience is that managers who try to curry favours are crap to work for. The best managers I have had have been strong people with integrity who have not shied away from tough decisions that put them at odds with their superiors. They are both now in senior positions, on incharge of an agency, showing the result of such integrity.

Government is a very important and necessary machine for the country
and the more we can encourage strong people to wade into the mire to clean it up, the better better off we will be.