Why some people do not work in the public sector
A throwaway account for a potentially sensitive topic.
I joined the public sector 2 years ago after having 20 years of private sector career. It's a unionized position. I'm very happy with where I am, what I'm doing, having some purpose in my work vs just serving the captitalism machine. Also I'm happy to have a better work life balance so that I can spend more time with my family.
One thing I cannot digest is, some people are not working, or actively tryng to avoid work. For those who choose to 'free-ride', the system just allows it. In the private sector these kind of behavior will upset several people in the team, and eventually they are let go or managers can force them to do the work etc. Here, people are more like 'this is what is is'.
I tried to discuss with more senior peers who have more time in the public sector and heard so many times 'Welcome to the public sector' ,'This is how it works here', 'Union protection' etc.
I'm not saying everyone should work hard or anything. They can still have a great work life balance but still get the job done. They shouldn't exploit the system. It's eventually our tax dollars that pay us. This is a downward spiral for EVERYONE including themselves, wasting tax money on something that's not productive. That precious tax money can be used for something productive.
Then the union protection seems to be the culprit. They have such a great job protection that most managers are not wiling to take these kind of people on. There's a high chance that grievance will be submitted if the worker is disciplined (there's always 2 sides of the story), then documentations and meetings (who has time for this), and maybe a ding for their next promotion for the managers. So no action is taken on these people, most of the time.
I understand that this is the nature of the public sector, not really designed for the efficiency. But shouldn't we do something about this to improve the situation? Is there anything that's being done that I'm not aware of?
I think one of the solution is for Union to manage this situation. The union is there to protect us, but they should protect only the good members, not the bad ones. Also if Union can manage this kind of situation to improve work moral / productivity, I would think Union will have better bargaining power over the employer when negotiating the collective agreement, resulting in better outcome for the good members.
Things like 360 reveiw might help - you are rated by your co-workes as well for the performance review. If someone is getting constantly bad reviews over several years maybe like 5 years in a row, then they should be kicked out. At this point, they are more like a criminal just stealing tax money, so no reason to protect. Or we could create a new separate Union that has this kind of productivity measure, at the same time more attractive benefits (i know how crazy it sounds).
I might be naive in thinking that the system can change. But i think it's only naive when not enough people believe in it. If you think about it, this is a very basic rule of the game. you work then you get paid. If you don't work, you don't get paid. If this kind of basic rule start to break, the society will break and everyone suffers.
I might be missing something here. Willing to learn anything to understand better on the situation.