28 December 2007

How Cancelling Leave is a Bonus

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ABC Online have this story on the PM cancelling the leave of senior public servants so that he can get things running his way faster. Now I’ve got no problem with that idea, but the story is how this cancellation of leave is a bonus to Canberra retailers and restaurants.

How do you come up with that sort of spin?

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No problemo… all these Holdens are starting to freak me a bit too!

sorry VYBerlinaV8.. My bad, too many freaking Holdens

Mael… I got the idea from this post…

Actually, I consider the laziest personnel I have ever encountered to be contractors.

Dimwits mooching off the government teat …

Did I not read that right??

el ......VNBerlinaV810:35 pm 01 Jan 08

I think wonsworld confused the two of us VY. FWIW I don’t have any dislike of contractors either – but I certainly see plenty that get >$100 an hour in the APS. I think the highest rate I’ve seen was a 3 month project management contract for $275,000. All IT based stuff however, so the lack of IT professionals in Canberra means they can more or less name their price.

What the hell makes you think I dislike contractors, wonsworld??? I’m one myself, and yes I get big $$. I don’t contract to a govt dept, though…

link

I think this says a lot about Rudd

Mael & VY Berliner.. I am one of those contractors you consider to be a dimwit moocher. Pfft to you. I don’t cost anywhere near $100 an hour and I certainly don’t get that kind of pay. I only know of a few managers in my team who might cost anywhere near that. NONE of us mooch and all of us work bloody hard.

In fact, if we do spend more time in meetings than we should, it is due to the blockages to the proposed programs we are trying to implement coming from some APS staff who don’t want to move into the 21st century. And these are the very people who contracted us to make those exact changes in the first place. Go figure?

I am sure that there are people in all aspects and walks of life who glide through the day doing as little as possible. I think broad generalisations to say its one specific group or another is the easy way out.

Astrojax, I must admit I have separate boxes in my mind for people in retail, and professional salespeople (who sell services, IT stuff, software, etc).

Trying to tie people’s pay to their actual effort is very difficult. Pay is, in reality, tied to the supply/demand for given skillsets. That’s why there can be people with similar education but different skills who earn vastly different incomes. Personally, I think one of the public service’s biggest weaknesses is the fact that people are paid largely the same at each level. Why not reward the high performers to retain them, and to encourage others on to greater efforts? If people are happy with where they’re currently at, that’s great, but there are many people who would like a better framework for progression in the PS, I think. Of course, I say this having never been a public servant in my life!

“no body realises that he……………”

Vandam give us some credit – do you really think no one on Riotact understands the machine that is public administration?

Snaps to the person who wrote for his speech while presenting “Poet of the Year” at the Glassworks. Mr Stanhope boasted to have just signed off on lots of new buses just so poetry could be displayed on them – I laughed.

Mind you I did think we were talking Federal politics.

Astro, Well I’m glad your happy with the CM wage. I’m not saying it’s an easy job and I wouldn’t do it, but no body realises that he has all these lower paid workers making the recommendations and doing the paper work. He get’s paid to front up to the media and the public.

I agree with you in that some people earning ‘good’ wages probably deserve more. eg your first year copper on the beat (doing the same as a 5 year copper) is earning a poor $33K.

The point is, there are some lazy ps out there getting paid more than they deserve, whilst there are others that work their asses off and deserve more than the are getting paid. Maybe an idea of performance based measures could be a good thing!

berlina, ya oughta spend a bit more time at the mall – not so many $100K+ salespeople in myers, dj’s, sunglass hut, and so on from what i can make out…

and vandam, yes, i am quite content with the CM’s wage; if anything, he might perhaps have a case for getting more. i think you are mixing up the concepts of ‘physical exertion’ and ‘responsibility’ – why, for instance, do you think high court judges get the dollars they do, and do you seriously think that, in among a society where some members have billions of personal dollars that they shouldn’t maybe have a case, also, for earning more?

envy is a curse, y’know…

el ......VNBerlinaV83:21 am 01 Jan 08

And *not* cost $100+ per hour.

Actually, I consider the laziest personnel I have ever encountered to be contractors.

Dimwits mooching off the government teat when a perfectly good public servant could do the same job, and be more reliable…

Salespeople poor?!?!? Most salespeople I know pull down several hundred thousand a year.

And many of the senior public servants I know are hardworking and talented – it’s their labor-catchphrase underlings who represent most of the lazy, useless public servants I’ve met across many federal government departments (and no, it’s NOT a minority).

I’m comfortable with Stanhope’s wage.

Oh, you mean for him? I thought you meant me. Boom, boom!

Seriously, though, before you criticise Stanhope you should walk a mile in his shoes. Then, you’re a mile away and you’ve got his shoes.

I am on fire.

Any salepeople are always free to apply for jobs as PAs if they want to. Now is a good time to apply to the PS, as there are lots of jobs going. (Get in quick in case the new govt starts making some cuts).

Headline, 28 December 2006:
Scruge Howard Cancels Christmas

Headline, 28 December 2007:
Rudd gives Canberra businesses ‘unexpected bonus’

…think about it, you know it’s true.

Beyond Thought.

I actually like that sort of biase (I’m obviously not alone in this).

In 2006 Howard had not just swept into power – he was just being a sad bastard.

In 2007 Rudd does have to actually turn a lot of things around.

Go Canberra!

Senior public servants may be unable to find anywhere open to spend their dollars though – it’s a ghost town out there!

el ......VNBerlinaV82:16 pm 31 Dec 07

Glad I’m not the only one who hates laptops 🙂

I was very much ‘lower class’, for want of a better term a few years back. I got by on around $20K a year.

I certainly don’t consider myself better than anyone else because I now work for the government though. Sheesh, what sort of arsehole considers themselves better than others in the first place?

Astro,

Are you comfortable with Jon Stanhope’s wage? Are you comfortable that for that amount of money, the work that he does. and keep in mind, when you think about Stanhope’s work load, think about how many advisors he has making all the decisions for him. He get’s paid to front up to the media and call himself a chief minister.

And while we are on payments, why should, lets say a salesperson get paid far less than a PA or someone that sits behind a desk all day (that doesn’t require years of degrees)?

The problem is, some PS are arrogant, they class themselves as middle or high class, and don’t give a second to think about those poor hard working salespersons who struggle to put food on the table and try to give their kids the best they can whilst living in an apartment block with a heap of junkies.

“Come on, lets be honest. A big percentage of public servants are overpaid for the amount of work they do.”

right, vandam, where is the evidence? what sort of ‘percentage’ are you talking here – 10%; 30%? Or do you imply even more? on what basis do you make such ludicrous claims? what do you know of a great percentage of PSs and their work load?

or is this just throw-back myth rehash? i think the latter. and ferret is on the money – while there are some quite excellent EAs, most PAs are on power trips.

silly story, though, started the thread.

Growling Ferret3:56 pm 29 Dec 07

PA’s the hard workers? I’ve never heard anything so off the mark… PA’s are the one place where there are too many ‘should be retired’ old cows on power trips

‘Don’t you know who I am? I work for Chief Bigwig and that makes me important’

No lady, and I don’t care… Half of them are excellent, and the other half should be euthanised and not voluntarily

ant,

Come on, lets be honest. A big percentage of public servants are overpaid for the amount of work they do. The hardest workers of the PS are the PA’s. They do all the crappy jobs that the executive don’t want to do.

Though you are correct in saying there are some out there that bust their ass. Problem is like most businesses, they are far and few between.

Growling Ferret1:11 pm 29 Dec 07

We were lucky – a scheduled 3 day outage to implement a new SAN (due to the unbelievable growth in storage requirements…) could not be moved so everyone got the break due to no network availability!

Thus, no email, no Blackberry, and limited access to the shared folders.

Thanks Volante, from everyone affected 😉

el ......VNBerlinaV811:28 am 29 Dec 07

Agreed ant. Too bad if they’d already paid for trips away, eh?

Why do people assume that the senior people in the APS don’t work? I assure you, most of them work their arses off. Getting them to take holidays is like pulling teeth. Getting them to ditch their phones and blackberries is impossible.

I honestly don’t understand why people think they sit in banana chairs all day? What is the basis for this belief? It’s really asinine. Of all the SES I know, there’s one AS who is a complete joke and waste of space. The rest are talented, hard working people who feel guilty if they aren’t at their desk 24/7.

Sounds good to me. I’m not a public servant 😉

The “story” is just reporting the words of one Chris Peters from the ACT Chamber of Commerce.

BeyondThought3:02 pm 28 Dec 07

Headline, 28 December 2006:
Scruge Howard Cancels Christmas

Headline, 28 December 2007:
Rudd gives Canberra businesses ‘unexpected bonus’

…think about it, you know it’s true.

Perhaps the story implies that SES types don’t do much work anyway, and spend most of their time in shops & restaurants?

About time they did some f*cking work, welcome to the real world pubes.

i think it’s just like the article says – people on leave over xmas and nye tend to leave canberra for the coast or head interstate to see family and friends, so if their leave is cancelled they are in town therefore more likely to spend their cash here

Well, it will be a ‘bonus’ for restaurants. But where is the “Rudd steals family holidays” story?

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