Civil Servant Covid Recognition

The poster whinging above, for a start, who somehow thinks that civil/public servants should be paying into a compensation fund for private sector workers who lost their jobs!

Did PS’s need any of those payments?

I believe they believe it. Its all about the attitude, and I've seen here plenty of times. Same old, trotted out stereotypes of lazy civil servants, out the door at 4 o'clock every day, no job losses or pay cuts there, blah blah blah.

I've put in more extra hours (over and above my target hours) over the last 18 months than I will receive in actual Annual Leave days over the next couple of years, and I'm not going running to the union about it, I'm not looking to be paid for it, I'm not even looking for an extra bank holiday. I just got on with it, and I know dozens more like me.

I guess expecting a little respect for that is even too much to ask, but can we at least ask for a little less disrespect towards those civil and public servants kept things running, many of them while juggling their work around kids, spouses, etc, like anyone else? Or is that too much to ask, too.

I think you need to adjust your sarcasm antennae.

I would ask this of anyone in both private and the public sector, why were you working so many additional hours without discussing this with your employer, were you made do them?

Of course you deserve respect, you have to acknowledge that in terms of job security and pay, you were insulated during Covid in a way many private sector workers were not. That must count for something. Do private sector workers feel the same sense of entitlement to bonuses/time ?

Were you ever at risk of losing your job, and do you think many in the private sector suffered drop in wages? Yet we don’t keep bleating about it.

Yes, I was, because I literally was earning about €40 a week less than I would have received in benefits at the time. I had to decide whether to stick or quit, but I was thinking of the long term game, so I stuck with it. (More fool me, I think sometimes).

And please, the private sector never stop bleating on about it!!! That's how most of these type of threads start.

As someone else said, if anyone in the private sector thinks the grass is so much greener on the public sector side, then come join the ranks of the civil and public service. You'll be in for a rude awakening.

My antenna is just fine, thank you.

I was working so many hours because it was an extraordinary situation, one I hope will end soon, and hope to never see again in my lifetime. If I didn't work them, others (ironically, in the private sector) would have been put under added stress.

I don't know where you pick up the attitude that I am looking for bonuses or compensation for the extra time. I specifically stated I am not. I'm simply asking for less disrespect, towards a large group who were working as hard, sometimes harder and often with extra challenges, during the pandemic.

While job security in the public sector is good, it is not what it once was. (Probably since around 1995!). There era of "jobs for life" is long gone, another myth the private sector like to make around the public one.

And while you seem to think the public sector is insulated, it is not. We may not have had direct job losses or loss of earnings during the pandemic, but I guarantee you we will end up paying for it in terms of indirect cuts, "emergency financial measures" , embargos on recruitment, retirees not replaced, vacancies not filled, or other measures that will follow afterwards.

I can't really speak for what the private sector feel, only give my impression that they seem to begrudge every-single-thing about the terms and conditions of the public sector - except for the pay rates.

Its funny that you actually believe that.

I wouldn't have been leaving my job for a better paid one. I would have been leaving my job to go on social welfare, which would have been more than I was earning, at the time.

But you knew that was the point I was making, and you chose to ignore it, Dav10.

Which tells me you are not being genuine, and are unwilling to take on board anything I say. So, I'll leave it there.

Loueze, choosing to leave your job so you could sit on your hole, then deciding to play “the long game” is not, nor has it ever been the same has loosing your job either. It really is bizarre that you cannot tell the difference.

What is bizarre is that you are totally (and deliberately) choosing to ignore the point I was making.

Do you know what is also pretty soul-destroying?

Working on one side of a desk paying out claims to someone on the other side of it who is actually sitting on their hole and getting paid more for it then you are being paid for working processing their claims.

Then being told you deserve little or no respect for continuing to work at a loss and not joining them.

I hope you are equally as disparaging of all those PUP claimants now who are refusing to go back to work or look for new jobs.

Thanks for confirming my earlier feeling that you weren't being genuine.

If this goes ahead I'll be heading down to my front door to start un-clapping furiously.

I would agree, use the money to bring in another 1 or 2 bank holidays.