Time to reform the PS

frman

With cuts on the way and many PS workers unhappy and angry, is it time to insist on reform ?


The majority of PS workers do a great job, but there is an admission that there is some dead-wood in the PS doing sweet FA. Instead of striking against paycuts in the coming weeks/months, wouldn't it be better to vent your anger against these wasters amongst your ranks ?

Strike for reform and a better PS rather than a fight to maintain pay that you simply can't win.

ei.sdraob

ban the unions and the deadwood wont have anyone to hide behind anymore

imstrongerthanu

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055761229

P. Breathnach

Don't confuse the issue of reform with the issue of underperformance by some public servants.

Yes, underperformance needs to be tackled, but that is not all. There are organisational flaws that should be addressed, and the setting of priorities (with the budgets which follow them) should be reviewed.

The reasons why some effort in the public service gets misdirected are various. Politicians sometimes make bad decisions; some public servants play the game of empire-building; inter-agency boundaries can lead to duplication; there can be failures to recognise redundancy; some public servants feather-bed. I could go on.

But we should not lose sight of frman's point that the majority of public service workers do a great job.

frman

Don't the good staff want to see change ?

I would be rightly pissed off if I was working really hard and saw a lad in the corner doing shag all and getting away with it. As PS staff mostly get to be tarred with the same brush, isn't it time to cut away the deadwood and make the PS ultra efficient and accountable so that the hard workers can be rewarded properly ?


Surely change like this is a good thing for the ones that put the effort in.

ei.sdraob

P. Breathnach wrote: »

Don't confuse the issue of reform with the issue of underperformance by some public servants.

Yes, underperformance needs to be tackled, but that is not all. There are organisational flaws that should be addressed, and the setting of priorities (with the budgets which follow them) should be reviewed.

The reasons why some effort in the public service gets misdirected are various. Politicians sometimes make bad decisions; some public servants play the game of empire-building; inter-agency boundaries can lead to duplication; there can be failures to recognise redundancy; some public servants feather-bed. I could go on.

But we should not lose sight of frman's point that the majority of public service workers do a great job.

all of the problems are due to the same reasons Soviet Union collapsed, theres no incentive to be more productive

humans need carrots and sticks to get things done, when its just carrots and gravy you dont get far

partial privatization of "some" of the sections could be an answer, or maybe finding better ways to measure productivity and then rewarding accordingly

but of course the unions will stifle any attempt at reform

P. Breathnach

ei.sdraob wrote: »

all of the problems are due to the same reasons Soviet Union collapsed, theres no incentive to be more productive

humans need carrots and sticks to get things done, when its just carrots and gravy you dont get far

partial privatization of "some" of the sections could be an answer, or maybe finding better ways to measure productivity and then rewarding accordingly

but of course the unions will stifle any attempt at reform

Many of the classes of problem I listed have little or nothing to do with unions; they come from the management culture. The unions would not be particularly worried if they were addressed.

P. Breathnach

P. Breathnach wrote: »

The unions would not be particularly worried if they were addressed.

Well why do they always look for a quid pro quo for addressing them.
Surely they should recognise that somethings are above that.

ei.sdraob

Deleted User wrote: »

Well why do they always look for a quid pro quo for addressing them.
Surely they should recognise that somethings are above that.

they promised to address these issues with benchmarking, the money was taken but nothing was done

ceret

ei.sdraob wrote: »

but of course the unions will stifle any attempt at reform

The Unions are there to protect their members, that's their job. Most 'reform' would involve reductions in pay, or reductions in jobs. Ergo, not in the members interests.

Unions are a biased group.

gerry28

frman wrote: »

Don't the good staff want to see change ?

I would be rightly pissed off if I was working really hard and saw a lad in the corner doing shag all and getting away with it. As PS staff mostly get to be tarred with the same brush, isn't it time to cut away the deadwood and make the PS ultra efficient and accountable so that the hard workers can be rewarded properly ?


Surely change like this is a good thing for the ones that put the effort in.

I was hoping for reform. Thats why i hoped this deal would have been agreed. It would be great to have a bit of adrenalin at work and a reason to try harder than the person sitting next to you.

But its gone now and all we will get is paycuts and angry staff.

frman

Gerry, that deal was never going to run.

Nobody trusts the Unions when they promise things. They have failed to deliver on any promises that they had made in the past. It was impossible to get the slightest bit of change in work practices without the Unions looking for more money in return. These days are over.


The only way to ensure savings were made was to do exactly as the Govt have done.


Now we need to look forward rather than back. There is no point striking for something that you can not achieve. Look at improving the service and cutting all the fat out of it. Once streamlined, then the better staff can be better rewarded.