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!