Civil service morale hits rock-bottom

Last Updated: November 5, 2014By
Don't blame Whitehall: Civil servants are highly-trained experts in their field; Conservative politicians are amateurs with opinions. [Picture: Daily Telegraph]

Don’t blame Whitehall: Civil servants are highly-trained experts in their field; Conservative politicians are amateurs with opinions. [Picture: Daily Telegraph]

If you think you’ve got a hard life, spare a thought for Britain’s army of civil servants. Not only do they have to put the Coalition government’s insane laws into practice, but they have to do it while the same government is trying to run them into the ground.

That is the message of this Guardian report. It says: “Job cuts and a two-year pay freeze followed by a one per cent pay rise cap have demoralised civil servants” … “65 per cent of civil servants have become ill due to stress at work and 60 per cent did not think their employer helped them cope with the causes of stress. Almost three-quarters of those asked said that their workload has increased, while 6 per cent said they work more than 48 hours a week on average.”

Morale was low, they said, because of “poor pay and unreliable job security… but other issues, such as discouragement, bullying and harassment, were also mentioned”.

This is what happens when you cut the public sector to the bone!

Vox Political has covered some of this ground before. It was a keystone Coalition policy in 2010 – cut the public sector and the private sector will take its place.

But that hasn’t happened (and we should thank our stars for small mercies in that respect).

Instead, the Coalition has succeeded in bringing the greatest government machine in the history of mankind to its knees through overwork and spite. Mistakes are creeping in and the situation can only get worse, as long as the same people are running the country.

For the rest of the article, visit The Guardian‘s website.

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7 Comments

  1. Alan M Dransfield November 5, 2014 at 12:46 am - Reply

    It is because these civil servant don’t have the b*lls to stand up to their paymasters.
    Wait until they find that the PFI & PPP contracts are NOT included in the National Debt.

    Where has the Shadow Government been whilst all these shannagins have taken place??!!.

  2. marcusdemowbray November 5, 2014 at 8:05 am - Reply

    Basic economics: a country needs Civil Servants. They do a thankless job for not much money but do (did) at least get a reasonable pension. This costs any country a fair bit of money. but gets the job done, and the Civil Servants are able to live a reasonable standard of living and contribute to the economy with their purchasing power.

    The current government has decided to sell them down the river, and award contracts to foreign companies to do the work, because the work still has to be done, and with all the countless reforms, there is more work to be done.

    The Foreign Private Company now employs the CSs, they get less and have less to pay into private pension schemes…the country loses. The private company makes a huge profit, its executives make far more than Senior Civil Servants, its share holders get dividends, it spends a fortune on advertising to try to stay ahead of its rivals.

    It does not matter what your personal political views are, this Privatisation is clearly MAD ECONOMICS, anyone can see that it does not add up.

    • Michele Witchy Eve November 5, 2014 at 3:31 pm - Reply

      Ah but, Marcus, it’s not meant to add up, it’s meant to take away – as much money as possible out of pockets of the many and into the pockets of a few via any dodgy business govt., ‘consultants’ and contracting companies can come up with.

  3. Guy Ropes November 6, 2014 at 9:09 am - Reply

    As PFI has been mentioned in this thread, does anyone know what the Country’s total exposure is to PFI repayments? I only ask because I recently discovered that in Swindon seven (7) schools and their huge (relatively) new hospital are all PFI tainted. Unless Swindon has received exceptional treatment in re-building, the UK’s PFI annual bill must be phenomenal.

  4. Guy Ropes November 6, 2014 at 7:09 pm - Reply

    Rather sobering. Thanks for that.

  5. Nick November 8, 2014 at 1:31 am - Reply

    my daughter turned them down sad but it’s to risky even at high wages to be working for a bad government

    she has a good job at Westminster anyhow in politics and hopefully she will stick at that

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