Council staff 'waste more than two-thirds of their working day'

Robbo

Robbo

Robbo

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I noticed this article on the Daily Fail site.

I used to work for a division of the Council and it was pretty much the exact same situation there. Nearly everyone (except the managers) had little to do and weren't being given nearly enough work or any proper supervision.

Junior council staff waste over two-thirds of their working day, according to research by a management consultancy.

The study indicated that 68 per cent of working time was not spent productively, usually as the result of poor supervision.

This was far higher than the equivalent non-productive time by private sector employees, which was 56 per cent.
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Article

Anyone else work(ed) for the Council and noticed this, or had any experiences?
 
Robboftw said:
I noticed this article on the Daily Fail site.

I used to work for a division of the Council and it was pretty much the exact same situation there. Nearly everyone (except the managers) had little to do and weren't being given nearly enough work or any proper supervision.


Article

Anyone else work(ed) for the Council and noticed this, or had any experiences?
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Well the research was carried out by consultant firm that specialises in: 'helping clients achieve significant financial and operational improvements'

Totally biased!
 
The_Police! said:
Well the research was carried out by consultant firm that specialises in: 'helping clients achieve significant financial and operational improvements'

Totally biased!
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It could be, but from my experiences (and others I know) I can easily believe it.
 
The_Police! said:
Well the research was carried out by consultant firm that specialises in: 'helping clients achieve significant financial and operational improvements'

Totally biased!
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So there is no possibility that, just maybe, it could actually be true, especially as it correlates with research done by other groups into productivity in the public sector...
 
sounds about right for some areas, used to have to work with the planning office in cornwall and they would spend most of the day slacking around.
seems other way around in NHS, management don't do that much and the workers get overloaded!
 
Yes when I worked in IT for the local council the poor management and daft systems we had to work to meant we probably did less than half the calls we would otherwise have done. Some members of staff were also told off it we closed too many calls in one day as we made other people in the team look bad. I use to think that sort of thing didn't happen, sadly it does.

In the end I'd closed my allocated work for the day and go home, usually around 11am rather than fight with management all day, every day. I know I wasn't the only one either, god I'm glad to be out of there and free of the copious number of clueless managers.

Last I heard they'd managed to lose most of their permanent staff and had replaced them with 1 year fixed term contracted temps, who were doing exactly the same as we were - working their allocation and going home.

However it has to be said that the unions have local authorities over a barrel, they are scared to act against any poor members of staff. Unions don't accept that some people are incapable of doing a job they've sadly ended up having and will fight tooth and nail to keep said useless person employed.

Only my experience of course, I did see many departments in the councils working very efficiently, but they tended to be smaller departments with managers who had been promoted from the posts they now managed. Sadly my boss at the time had been a secretary promoted to IT manager, got to love councils and their HR recruitment policies.

I work in the NHS now and although unions are still overly powerful (my opinion) we're free to get on with work but all 3 of the managers in my department have done my job at some point and they're all techies who happen to be good managers, so it's pretty damn superb. I actually have job satisfaction now, even started a hour early (unpaid) today just to help out someone, not a hope in hell I would have done that at the council.
 
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How often do you see this happening? One council worker, working, the other watching the worker work.
 
I would go o far as saying all public sector is miss managed. You have departments doing nothing and other departments totally snowed under.
In efficient managment and modernisation partly due to unions.
Also far to much hiring freinds, rather than who can do the job. All though that seems to be getting better in some sectors.
 
My own limited experience of councils (only worked for one) was that hiring friends wasn't the problem it was the promotion of them into jobs they clearly couldn't do or over people who were far more experienced/better that harm the departments the most. This didn't happen to me by the way - I never applied for a promotion whilst I worked there :)

Punting of inefficient staff around rather than dismissing them was the most annoying thing for me, I worked in the private sector for years before moving the council and was shocked that you were pretty much immune to being sacked!
 
Worked for the council for two weeks, absolute wasters and the place was so disorganised.

Lethargic is one word that springs to mind - I like to be kept busy.
 
Halfmad said:
I work in the NHS now and although unions are still overly powerful (my opinion) we're free to get on with work but all 3 of the managers in my department have done my job at some point and they're all techies who happen to be good managers, so it's pretty damn superb. I actually have job satisfaction now, even started a hour early (unpaid) today just to help out someone, not a hope in hell I would have done that at the council.
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this is my exp in the NHS.
(slacking atm, waiting for big files to move)
but I've volunteered to work tonight and other nights before now because it was needed. would never have done that in prev jobs because of the stupid managers.
 
I was in a chipshop today getting some fish and chips and the chips were all green and the fish was more batter than fish.

For that reason I am never ever going to another single chip shop, ever.
 
never worked for a council but had the misfortune to have a contract with them, which means I have to deal with social workers and people from contracting. They seem to be either Ill or on holiday and on the rare occasion I manage to speak to them they will always arrange the next urgent case review after their holiday.
 
Is everyone missing the fact the same report claims private sector staff 'waste' more than half the working day? Sounds like a load of rubbish to me.
 
[TW]Fox;17205752 said:
Is everyone missing the fact the same report claims private sector staff 'waste' more than half the working day? Sounds like a load of rubbish to me.
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Agreed. Touting for work is more likely.
 
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