Strike day tomorrow!

No offense taken at all by your comments Trev - mostly because I can completely see what you're saying!
The difference between public/private sector is generally you can survive a very long time being useless in the public sector whereas in private you'd be straight out the door.

I was having a discussion with a friend about people getting sacked for inefficiency and in his 30 odd year civil service career - he has never known a single one to go for that reason. (And trust me there are some that should).

In relation to financial decisions and best pricing - the service we have received for our IT system (which is essentially just a database) and our printers is shocking. Our printers never work, and when they do print, they still do not work. It probably costs us one member of staff down a day to be faffing around with printers getting them to print but they are 'fit for purpose' as we were recently told.

Our computer system cost the same as our wage bill for 3,500 staff for 2 years (I believe) and it did not work at all for 1 month when released October last year. It has since been played around with and now it is capable but certainly not worth the £80m price tag paid for it. It could be brilliant - if only it had been created from scratch rather than borrowed and twisted whilst we were shoe horned into it.

Anyway, just my 2 pence.

[maviczap]

Originally Posted by Sir Trev

Mav/EDave - thanks for not taking my observations personally. I really am not having a pop, just stating what I saw.

None taken Trev.

I'm sure there's less of it these days, certainly in my lot there's a lot less of it.

However sometimes the staff cuts are short sighted, and just culling. We had a team that procured and sort out equipment on a national basis.

We now pick up the admin work and now have to resolve problems, which means my availability to do my own work is reduced.

Also because this team used to organise the trial, procurement & tendering, we are ordering less & less because its just so dam time consuming, so we don't bother unless its essential H&S equip.

So businesses suffers because we're not ordering from them any more

[maviczap]

Originally Posted by EssexDave

No offense taken at all by your comments Trev - mostly because I can completely see what you're saying!
The difference between public/private sector is generally you can survive a very long time being useless in the public sector whereas in private you'd be straight out the door.

I was having a discussion with a friend about people getting sacked for inefficiency and in his 30 odd year civil service career - he has never known a single one to go for that reason. (And trust me there are some).

Same here, although some sacked for other disciplinary reasons

Originally Posted by EssexDave

In relation to financial decisions and best pricing - the service we have received for out IT system (which is essentially just a database) and our printers it shocking. Our printers never work, and when they do print, they stil do not work. It probably costs us one member of staff a day to be faffing around with printers getting them to print but they are 'fit for purpose' as we were recently told.

Ha Hah Ha same here, had a fax out of order for over a month. No way to run a business IMHO.

[Biker Biggles]

Good and bad everywhere,and in the public sector my experience is that performance management is every bit as rigorous as anywhere these days.Used to be lax but not anymore.On the other hand a family member works freelance sometimes for a very big multinational and the wast and largess is staggering,with almost unlimited funds thrown at whatever needs to be done quite irrespective of any prudence.Ive seen wast and incompetance in the public sector, but nothing to rival this.Different kinds of money wastage,but you see it everywhere in big organisations.

[maviczap]

Yes, and with us its always GOT to be spent by the end of the FY, if you don't your budget gets cut the next year and you don't get brownie points for being on or under budget.