Forget trophy houses, the problem is trophy salaries...

Darragh29

This has just occured to me... Is there any chance that the core of our problem here in Ireland now is trophy salaries???

I don't think I would begrudge anyone who works very hard and who is held accountable for performance and workplace improvements, maybe a 60K-80K salary position, but look at what we have here now, people who are on what could only be described as trophy salaries, setting some kind of a pay standard for the rest of us, while not accountable for improvements within the workplace, not responsible for the performance of those that they manage, basically not responsible for anything whatsoever.

I genuinely feel for any person in the public sector on 30K-40K, who is being asked to take a pay cut. What about people in the same sector who are on 100K, 120K, 150K, 200K, people who are faceless and hidden within the system and who appear to be accountable for no real performance. I am self employed and to me, the measure of how productive someone really is, is how much have they improved their workplace within a period of employment???

Someone who approaches you and says, "look, the way we are doing this is a bit unproductive, lets see if we can change it to this other way and maybe streamline the process a bit and get a benefit or an improvement out of it for the customer", this is what real meaningful and tangible performance is about, it is actively identifying opportunities for improvement and change and taking ownership of the opportunity and bringing about a measurable and verifiable result.

I have to ask how often this happens in the public sector, although we have people managing the system, who are not even allowed to change work practices even if they wanted to, and we are paying these very people trophy salaries for what I would consider to be, just turning up....

I think we really need to put a maximum salary/cap on what people involved in public administration can earn. We also need to put a number on the amount of people who can earn these trophy salaries I think, because it looks to me like some people who are middle and higher ranking civil servants are being paid outrageous salaries, taking into account that they will never have to fire anyone in their lives or be held acountable for change as a person in a middle management role in a private sector employment would be expected to...

ardmacha

What about people in the same sector who are on 100K, 120K, 150K, 200K, people who are faceless and hidden within the system and who appear to be accountable for no real performance.

And in some cases 250K, 300k, 400K, even 500K!

There is very real doubt that most of those on 500K are worth 10 times someone on 50K. I also have a real doubt as to whether a person who rises to some of these positions is really any better than the person below them, they are often just better at advertising themselves/working the system.

As for not being allowed change work practices, there is significant variation in the public sector in different depts etc, all of whom may have the same formal rules. If the whole system rose to the standard of the best parts then a significant improvement could be achieved.

Gumbo

if they can cap the banks Exec's salary at 500k why not the top tier PS people too, of course at a lower limit.

im PS but i wouldnt even be earning above 37k at present but im sure theres people earning 4 times that and more!

i dont know how to find out the high salaries of the big PS earniers but i do know that the county manager of DCC earns 150k iirc can anybody confirm that? also, that is the max salary in my PS dept, he is the top of the line, the boss as such!

westtip

kceire wrote: »

the county manager of DCC earns 250k iirc can anybody confirm that? also, that is the max salary in my PS dept, he is the top of the line, the boss as such!

More than most European heads of state - kind of says it all really.

Gumbo

westtip wrote: »

More than most European heads of state - kind of says it all really.

ive asked for clarification on that so please dont quote me on it. i could be way out with my figures.

just been told 150k, sorry not 250k as initially mentioned.

Darragh29

ardmacha wrote: »

And in some cases 250K, 300k, 400K, even 500K!

There is very real doubt that most of those on 500K are worth 10 times someone on 50K. I also have a real doubt as to whether a person who rises to some of these positions is really any better than the person below them, they are often just better at advertising themselves/working the system.

As for not being allowed change work practices, there is significant variation in the public sector in different depts etc, all of whom may have the same formal rules. If the whole system rose to the standard of the best parts then a significant improvement could be achieved.

I can tell you one thing, if you are in the private sector and in a management position and earning over 50K, well by Jesus you better be performing and by performing I mean you must be improving the business on a weekly basis and the improvement must be measurable and verifiable. This is what I really think is our biggest problem now, so many faceless people on trophy salaries within the public sector and on an entirely different planet when it comes to performance and results, when compared to how those words are interpreted in the private sector.

I genuinely feel for any people in the public sector who are being smeared with the same brush as these people who call consider themselves within the management group of the public sector but at the same time, do not have to deliver real change...

We need a law brought in that makes it an offence for anyone to obstruct positive change in the public sector workplace, notwithstanding your right to join a trade union... After that law is brought in, all middle ranking and senior civil servants should have their salary bumped back down to 50K, a new contract issued to all of them making verifible change and measureable improvement a part of their job description, with results freely available on a website, and we should start again from there.