County Council, Civil Service or HSE

PCAT86

If you were offered 3 roles, all entry level Clerical Officer type positions, one with your local Co. Council, one with the HSE at a nearby hospital and one with the Civil Service, which would you be inclined to accept and why? Do you have any particular negative/positive experiences in either stream?

dat6

Ultimately, your experience in any public service job depends on you, the post/area, org itself and your manager.

Local authorities tend to keep to themselves and of all 3 options, are very political. Annual leave and pay may work out slightly better.

Civil service is more organised, centralised and opportunities are more open. HR stick to rules more consistently, pay may not be as competitive as other areas. Despite its pitfalls, updates are still better communicated between some other parts of the public service. It isn’t uncommon for civil servants in other departments to work together as colleagues, so in this respect you may get a wider perspective. I’m biased though.

I worked multiple public bodies, I found the CS to be the best.

Mr lebowski

I worked in all 3 actually and the huge benefit to the public service over the civil service is the number of holidays but in the civil service you can work up a day and a half Flexi time as opposed to a day. I enjoyed working in the HSE the most but it really all depends on what department you get. It's very hard to compare.

if you're going to stay a CO, then local authority.

if you want to progress over time and can be flexible about location, hands down CS

Promotion can be slow in local authorities, but a nicer work enviroment than CS, for me anyway.

CS much better promotion prospects, more formal, I have no experience of working in HSE

dat6

Also, flexitime exists in all three. It just depends on the role you are assigned.

BattleCorp

I've never worked with the Council or Civil Service so I can't talk about those.

HSE probably has more options career wise although it can be a chaotic place to work. It's by far the largest and most complex of the three organisations you listed and it has a multitude of departments. There is a large turnover of staff so this presents career opportunities.

Another advantage is that there are many jobs in the HSE that are only open to HSE, Tusla or Section 38 organisations so if you are in the HSE, these become available for you to apply for. If you aren't in the HSE or one of the other organisations, you can't apply for them.

If you were finding it difficult to progress your career in a hospital, you could move from the hospital setting into the community setting, into one of the CHOs for example and that would open up a whole lot more opportunities for career progression.

I think most HSE admin jobs have a 35 hour working week and 30 days annual leave.

Caoimhe2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058261878/county-council-civil-service-or-hse

Hi just wondering what you have decided as I am in the same situation between hse and civil service

Pamelabeasley

I’ve worked in HSE, hospital and community setting and within the civil service - annual leave is much higher in the HSE but besides that we couldn’t reccommend it - can be huge pressure depending on the work area, poor communication and management and HR was particularly bad for pay issues etc. the civil service is much more professional in regards to Management, HR and there is a lot of opportunity for promotion as well as the chance for blended working (which wasn’t available in the HSE where I worked) but the leave is worse. It can be post dependant though

Caoimhe2

Any idea how many hours civil servants work in a week?

BattleCorp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119724250#Comment_119724250

Mostly a 35 hour working week by the looks of this.

Normal attendance period:

The normal attendance period for civil servants will be from 9.12am to 5.30pm Monday to Thursday, and 9.12am to 5.15pm on Friday with 1 hour and 15 minutes for lunch break.

As a result of this change the majority of civil servants will now be working 35 hours net per week. For those not on 35 hours net per week, adjustments will need to be made to the above attendance period by local management.

Annual leave will not be impacted by the restoration of hours.

Where a civil servant availed of the option under the terms previous of public service agreements to remain on pre-HRA working hours (34.75 hours), they may elect to remain on those hours or move to the 35 hour net working week with an appropriate pay adjustment in both cases.

There is no adjustment to the overtime divisor which is 43.25 as per Circular 08/20211. 

https://assets.gov.ie/225817/5b4d4cbc-fe18-4bcc-9ad9-f068d8c92607.pdf