Civil service sick leave

talkingdog

I worked in the CS a couple of years ago in a dept with 85% women in the office. I came in from a senior private sector role and was shocked at how little people actually do. Bullying and sexism was rife by women on each other.

One of the ladies fell down a set of stairs and was off on sick leave for 7 or 8 weeks. The same woman came back in to cover another staff member who was on sick leave (job sharer) and was paid an extra salary with a day off for each day she worked.

How is this allowed?

When are they gonna do something about modernising government.

Carroller16

OH MY GOD A TALKING DOG!!!

johnnyrotten

Tut Tut

InKonspikuou2

Are they hiring?

Sleipnir

No, there's a freeze on.

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/4586/mrfreeze.gif

talkingdog

Carroller16 wrote: »

OH MY GOD A TALKING DOG!!!

I didn't get that for nearly a minute. WOW

High&Low

talkingdog wrote: »

I worked in the CS a couple of years ago in a dept with 85% women in the office. I came in from a senior private sector role and was shocked at how little people actually do. Bullying and sexism was rife by women on each other.

One of the ladies fell down a set of stairs and was off on sick leave for 7 or 8 weeks. The same woman came back in to cover another staff member who was on sick leave (job sharer) and was paid an extra salary with a day off for each day she worked.

How is this allowed?

When are they gonna do something about modernising government.

NOt defending the civil service and I am sure you are right. But if someone is a job sharer I assume they only work half the normal hours and get paid accordingly, therefore if they work fulltime while covering for their other half the should get paid extra! and I imagine the days off are in lieu of the days she worked when she should have been off... same in the private sector.

What you should be questioning is people getting paid for doing nothing...

Trekker09

High&Low wrote: »

NOt defending the civil service and I am sure you are right. But if someone is a job sharer I assume they only work half the normal hours and get paid accordingly, therefore if they work fulltime while covering for their other half the should get paid extra! and I imagine the days off are in lieu of the days she worked when she should have been off... same in the private sector.

What you should be questioning is people getting paid for doing nothing...

But I think the point being made was that the person was in receipt of sick pay while also getting paid to come in and cover for another person. That is scary but I wouldn't be surprised if it was true.

super_furry

Are you a real dog?

Borneo Fnctn

How do civil servants get away with it? The same principle that allowed marsupials to survive in Australia; a lack of predators.

Rob_l

talkingdog wrote: »

I worked in the CS a couple of years ago in a dept with 85% women in the office. I came in from a senior private sector role and was shocked at how little people actually do. Bullying and sexism was rife by women on each other.

One of the ladies fell down a set of stairs and was off on sick leave for 7 or 8 weeks. The same woman came back in to cover another staff member who was on sick leave (job sharer) and was paid an extra salary with a day off for each day she worked.

How is this allowed?

When are they gonna do something about modernising government.

I once knew a guy who worked for a private sector company and stole money from their accounts. So everyone in the private sector is a disgrace!

Oh and I dont believe your tall tale!:rolleyes:

super_furry

jackpalance wrote: »

How do civil servants get away with it? The same principle that allowed marsupials to survive in Australia; a lack of predators.

Exactly! Make them work in lion cages and shark infested pools.

Trekker09

Rob_l wrote: »

I once knew a guy who worked for a private sector company and stole money from their accounts. So everyone in the private sector is a disgrace!

Oh and I dont believe your tall tale!:rolleyes:

That money was just resting in my account Dougal

conorhal

An average of 14 days sick leave for women in the civil service, and the scary thing is that number only reflects VOUCHED sick days, you can take another 10 days unvouched and so that number could in reality be a lot higher.
A mates wife went to work in the social welfare office from the private sector two years ago. She processed (without even breaking a sweat) an average of 50 to 60 claims a day. In casual conversation on a break she ascertained that the civil service lifer next to her processed on average 8 to 10 applications and still moaned about the workload!

The real problem is the near total lack of performance measurement of individual employees in the civil service.
An example of this would be another mate of mine that worked for a call centre software firm. He went in to install statistical software in Eircom after it was privatised. He was told in no uncertain terms that people that still had contracts that were continuous from the time that there were state employees could in no way be measured or included in the system in any way. Bloody ridiculous.

Borneo Fnctn

super_furry wrote: »

Exactly! Make them work in lion cages and shark infested pools.

I think you missed the meaning behind my post. Complacency is tolerated more in the civil service than in private companies. This is because private companies exist to make a profit. So there's less of an incentive to hire more productive workers (the "predators").

Edit - You probably did get my post. However, I just felt I should explain my post a little better.

Degsy

conorhal wrote: »

An average of 14 days sick leave for women in the civil service, and the scary thing is that number only reflects VOUCHED sick days, you can take another 10 days unvouched and so that number could in reality be a lot higher.
A mates wife went to work in the social welfare office from the private sector two years ago. She processed (without even breaking a sweat) an average of 50 to 60 claims a day. In casual conversation on a break she ascertained that the civil service lifer next to her processed on average 8 to 10 applications and still moaned about the workload!

The real problem is the near total lack of performance measurement of individual employees in the civil service.
An example of this would be another mate of mine that worked for a call centre software firm. He went in to install statistical software in Eircom after it was privatised. He was told in no uncertain terms that people that still had contracts that were continuous from the time that there were state employees could in no way be measured or included in the system in any way. Bloody ridiculous.

Balls balls and doub;le balls..you're allowed 7 days uncertified for the year.
If you go over that you need to get a cert from a doctor,you then need to apply to the department of social and family affairs to have the dole money you would be entititled to refunded to your employer.
If you go over a certain amount of certified leave in a three year period you go on half pay..go over this again and you must go on zero pay.
At any time in your career your employer can make you g o to occupational health to asses your continued fitness to work..if you fail this you will go on disability pay for the duration of your contract which is a pittance.

I worked in dunnes stores and there was a woman off sick for a year on full pay and others who'd ring in sick at least three times a month..people taking the piss is everywhere.

Carroller16

Degsy wrote: »

Balls balls and doub;le balls..you're allowed 7 days uncertified for the year.
If you go over that you need to get a cert from a doctor,you then need to apply to the department of social and family affairs to have the dole money you would be entititled to refunded to your employer.
If you go over a certain amount of certified leave in a three year period you go on half pay..go over this again and you must go on zero pay.
At any time in your career your employer can make you g o to occupational health to asses your continued fitness to work..if you fail this you will go on disability pay for the duration of your contract which is a pittance.

I worked in dunnes stores and there was a woman off sick for a year on full pay and others who'd ring in sick at least three times a month..people taking the piss is everywhere.

SECONDED

nerophis

There's a little too much logical fallacy in talking about the Civil Service (the public service is a completely different thing and appears to be confused by most people). Just because A = B (if that is true since most stated "facts" seem to revolve around I met a guy in the pub who told me variety) in one situation clearly doesn't mean A always = B.

The high rates of absenteeism in the Civil Service are certainly a problem in some grades and dare I provoke the wrath in some genders. A culture of casual absence can occur in any organisation. The level of absenteeism is not in the public domain in most sectors. There isn't really too many organisations that can be compared directly to the civil service anyway given numbers, age profiles etc. Clerical grades have been fingered as the worst offenders. These are, and probably always have been, dominated by women. Unfortunately women are more likely to miss work because their child is sick than a man would be- through no fault of their own. That definitely accounts for some of it. Some of the jobs being undertaken are fairly mind numbing, the prospects for promotion are worst from the lowest grades and morale is most likely very bad in these organisations. A lot of the jobs at Clerical Level have never been re-evaluated since IT processes came into being at least not in terms of numbers. Resistance to that modernisation is part of the reason since this would inevitably lead to a reduction in numbers through the whole organisation.

All morale busters tend to contribute to a feck the job attitude leading to unvouched sick leave. If one person abuses the system and is not seen to suffer the consequences the problem snowballs to what it is. I would venture that taking days off "sick" is most common in organisations that are least well run and the biggest kick with a low rearward trajectory is due to those at the top of them (preferably starting with the Apex) not those at the pointy end of the stick who's only recourse to hating their job is to try and spend as little time in there as possible.

InReality

Whats the big obsession with getting people to work harder ?

How will that benefit anybody posting here ?