Why don't those who bemoan public sector workers' cushy terms of employment go and work in the public sector?
If it's so comfortable a gig compared with private sector employment, why would anyone remain in the private sector? Make the move and surely everything will be better.
I can only speak from my own experience of working in and outside of education (all those holidays working in education, right?).
Admittedly I worked at a UK university, so not really the public sector, but many of the principles and responsibilities align with public sector work.
When I worked in education I never stopped working. I worked seven days a week, way past normal working hours. When I wasn't teaching, or preparing to teach, or marking, or moderating, or working on endless administrative duties, or dealing with student enquiries, or student problems, or engaging with the politics of a large educational institution, or editing a peer reviewed journal, I was writing and researching, which occupied as much of my time as all of those other responsibilities combined.
I now work in a fully private setting, with defined hours, less stress, less of a sense of being pulled in countless directions simultaneously, all of the time. I now have far more time and space to disengage. To switch it all off, which I find remarkably easy to do by comparison.
Public and private sector roles are pitted against one another for political and ideological reasons. If we're fighting among ourselves over who has the better deal, we're not focusing attention on those governing our lives. It's a sleight of hand. Moreover, those in charge oppose the existence of anything beyond minimal public sector provision. Mobilising resentments toward public sector organisations plays directly to this cause.
If it's so comfortable a gig compared with private sector employment, why would anyone remain in the private sector? Make the move and surely everything will be better.
I can only speak from my own experience of working in and outside of education (all those holidays working in education, right?).
Admittedly I worked at a UK university, so not really the public sector, but many of the principles and responsibilities align with public sector work.
When I worked in education I never stopped working. I worked seven days a week, way past normal working hours. When I wasn't teaching, or preparing to teach, or marking, or moderating, or working on endless administrative duties, or dealing with student enquiries, or student problems, or engaging with the politics of a large educational institution, or editing a peer reviewed journal, I was writing and researching, which occupied as much of my time as all of those other responsibilities combined.
I now work in a fully private setting, with defined hours, less stress, less of a sense of being pulled in countless directions simultaneously, all of the time. I now have far more time and space to disengage. To switch it all off, which I find remarkably easy to do by comparison.
Public and private sector roles are pitted against one another for political and ideological reasons. If we're fighting among ourselves over who has the better deal, we're not focusing attention on those governing our lives. It's a sleight of hand. Moreover, those in charge oppose the existence of anything beyond minimal public sector provision. Mobilising resentments toward public sector organisations plays directly to this cause.