Bournemouth council workers top the sick charts with most days off (From Thisisdorset)

Are we surprised ?........... No
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Absence rates in the public sector are generally higher than those in the private sector. Council staff don't know what stress is, 9 til 5, guaranteed wage, pension, paid holidays, no accountability - what have they to get stressed about ?
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The reason the problem has got so bad is because managers have created a culture where being off sick is almost seen as a right. Are these people really stressed or do they just need a kick up the backside and be told to stop feeling sorry for themselves and to get back to work.

If the job makes you stressed or unwell then the job is not for you - you should leave or be sacked!

Not really surprising - the recent staff culls will no doubt have left those still in a job (the majority of whom are likely to be in low paid jobs without a wage increase to speak of for 4/5 years) with very low morale and in some cases, more stress. Vicious circle - a lean organisation will always have a higher sickness rate and will need more staff to accommodate this - or services deteriorate and the vulnerable/council tax payers suffer and complain on here about crap council services/'gold plated' pensions - (yawn).....

BmthNewshound wrote:
Are we surprised ?........... No . Absence rates in the public sector are generally higher than those in the private sector. Council staff don't know what stress is, 9 til 5, guaranteed wage, pension, paid holidays, no accountability - what have they to get stressed about ? . The reason the problem has got so bad is because managers have created a culture where being off sick is almost seen as a right. Are these people really stressed or do they just need a kick up the backside and be told to stop feeling sorry for themselves and to get back to work.

Thought so....

'9 til 5, guaranteed wage, pension, paid holidays, no accountability' - (yawn)there are plenty of private sector jobs (and highly paid other public sector - eg High Ct Magistrates) which offer this with overtime, profit sharing, annual salary increases getting somewhere near (or above) inflation and with accountability on a par with council roles..

The most stressful part of their day is can only be the drive to work! And that must be getting easier for them because the council seem intent on making the town centre a no-go area for the general public, soon the only people driving into town will be jobsworths and councilors!

My experience with council staff has been the "up themselves" attitude that many of them have - that is what causes the stress. If they haven't got an answer you are made to be in the wrong. I have been on the receiving end twice but there was nowhere to go to take the matter further so they get away with it.

No competition, don't have to make a profit, no accountability...how can they be stressed?

Why do people seem to assume that all Council staff work at the Town Hall? They certainly don't and neither do they all work 9 - 5

Why are they off with stress? Because it's not physical so can't be proved or disproved.
I was unable to sleep a few years ago and it was getting me down.. I went to the docs and he signed me off work for 2 weeks straight away without even asking me anything else.
I know someone who works at a council (not Bournemouth) who just goes into her doctors and bursts into tears at will... Hey presto a weeks paid leave! Time they started running govt services like private firms.. accountability!!

"Unison representative at Bournemouth council, said: “It is a concern and I think we need to find out the reasons behind it. "

OK here are the reasons in my experience.

1. Unlike the private sector most (if not all) will remain on full pay even when off 'sick'.
2. They are represented by very strong Trade Unions. (Ones which help bankroll one of the two main UK political parties.)
3. They are unlikely to be asked to account for excessive absence because their line-managers fear the consequences of such action (see 2).

As for 'stressed' have you tried dealing with many of these public-sector people? Because that is the meaning of the word 'stressed' I promise!

I know of one person employed by the council who in 2012 took 41 days off with a bad back and stress.

They're a cleaner.

dribydal wrote:
Why are they off with stress? Because it's not physical so can't be proved or disproved.
I was unable to sleep a few years ago and it was getting me down.. I went to the docs and he signed me off work for 2 weeks straight away without even asking me anything else.
I know someone who works at a council (not Bournemouth) who just goes into her doctors and bursts into tears at will... Hey presto a weeks paid leave! Time they started running govt services like private firms.. accountability!!

So refuse collector is not physical. not all councill employees are pen pushers.
I knew of 2 councill workers that had time off, both later diagnosed with Brain Tumours and died.

These public sector workers want to try being self-employed for a while... I can't take time of sick, or even a day off, my choice I know, but these people seems to have no stamina & seem to lie back and let the good old tax payer pay their wages every month ! ... I doubt very much that their sickness is monitored and dealt with ... hmmm, their bosses are probably also off sick! Get back to work ...

muscliffman wrote:
"Unison representative at Bournemouth council, said: “It is a concern and I think we need to find out the reasons behind it. "

OK here are the reasons in my experience.

1. Unlike the private sector most (if not all) will remain on full pay even when off 'sick'.
2. They are represented by very strong Trade Unions. (Ones which help bankroll one of the two main UK political parties.)
3. They are unlikely to be asked to account for excessive absence because their line-managers fear the consequences of such action (see 2).

As for 'stressed' have you tried dealing with many of these public-sector people? Because that is the meaning of the word 'stressed' I promise!

Completely agree.

But I'd throw in they have got used to doing booger all for years and now a few (and I mean a few) have been let go without replacing and so they are now on their way to getting a few hours of work a day.

They can't cope with the actual work side.

How many times have we read on here - 'my poor granddaughter's dept has gone from 12 down to 7 and now they have to do all the other people's work the poor things'.

All I can see is that there were 12 people employed for years doing the work 7 could do.

Cherry19 wrote:
These public sector workers want to try being self-employed for a while... I can't take time of sick, or even a day off, my choice I know, but these people seems to have no stamina & seem to lie back and let the good old tax payer pay their wages every month ! ... I doubt very much that their sickness is monitored and dealt with ... hmmm, their bosses are probably also off sick! Get back to work ...

I do so hate it when people on here start to bash public sector workers. They seem to be 'self employed' people and bleat on about how 'if I don't work, I don't get paid'. Whilst that is true, there are so many other advantages of being self employed/running own business: Plenty of cash in hand jobs; being very economical with tax returns; claiming back costs to run a vehicle/repairs/fuel etc.

So much is stoked up in the press about 'gold plated pensions'. When are the 'blinkered to the truth' readers going to understand that your average council worker/nurse/teacher
/fireman or anyone else in a public sector role DOES NOT get a huge pension or pension pot?

And don't forget - public sector workers do the jobs 'you' wouldn't or couldn't do!

muscliffman wrote:
"Unison representative at Bournemouth council, said: “It is a concern and I think we need to find out the reasons behind it. "

OK here are the reasons in my experience.

1. Unlike the private sector most (if not all) will remain on full pay even when off 'sick'.
2. They are represented by very strong Trade Unions. (Ones which help bankroll one of the two main UK political parties.)
3. They are unlikely to be asked to account for excessive absence because their line-managers fear the consequences of such action (see 2).

As for 'stressed' have you tried dealing with many of these public-sector people? Because that is the meaning of the word 'stressed' I promise!

If that's the way you feel about the public sector workers I hope you never need an ambulance or hospital treatment.

misslippy wrote:

Cherry19 wrote:
These public sector workers want to try being self-employed for a while... I can't take time of sick, or even a day off, my choice I know, but these people seems to have no stamina & seem to lie back and let the good old tax payer pay their wages every month ! ... I doubt very much that their sickness is monitored and dealt with ... hmmm, their bosses are probably also off sick! Get back to work ...

I do so hate it when people on here start to bash public sector workers. They seem to be 'self employed' people and bleat on about how 'if I don't work, I don't get paid'. Whilst that is true, there are so many other advantages of being self employed/running own business: Plenty of cash in hand jobs; being very economical with tax returns; claiming back costs to run a vehicle/repairs/fuel etc.

So much is stoked up in the press about 'gold plated pensions'. When are the 'blinkered to the truth' readers going to understand that your average council worker/nurse/teacher

/fireman or anyone else in a public sector role DOES NOT get a huge pension or pension pot?

And don't forget - public sector workers do the jobs 'you' wouldn't or couldn't do!

But the simple fact is that public sector workers have no reason to take double the time off experienced in the private sector. End of.

Lord Spring wrote:

dribydal wrote:
Why are they off with stress? Because it's not physical so can't be proved or disproved.
I was unable to sleep a few years ago and it was getting me down.. I went to the docs and he signed me off work for 2 weeks straight away without even asking me anything else.
I know someone who works at a council (not Bournemouth) who just goes into her doctors and bursts into tears at will... Hey presto a weeks paid leave! Time they started running govt services like private firms.. accountability!!

So refuse collector is not physical. not all councill employees are pen pushers.
I knew of 2 councill workers that had time off, both later diagnosed with Brain Tumours and died.

Not all refuse collectors are public sector workers, with many being employed by private companies contracting to the councils.

Same that there are nurses employed by private companies, etc.

As a former public sector worker, who then worked for private companies and is now self-employed, with most of my earnings in foreign currency, helping the UK balance of trade, I have the right to object strongly that there are clearly a large number of public sector workers who abuse my tax payments which, lets not forget, go to pay for public sector worker xmas presents, fish & chip suppers, holidays, you name it.

And no, public sector workers do not 'pay tax'. They are given tax money which is then returned back to HMRC to make them feel good. In fact, it would cut out a level of public sector workers if the others were paid nett of tax, as it was when I first became a public sector employee.

So just over 25% is due to stress or mental health issues. Actually, thats not that much. Especially considering some of the roles that council workers do (e.g. night time care for severely ill people, removing children from drug addicted parents and so on).

So 75% are off due to flu, physical injuries, sickness bugs and so on. Then in large organisations like the council you are going to have far more on long term sick because of the size of the organisation, illnesses such as CFS, MS, cancer, and as Lord Spring has said, even brain tumours, are all the norm.

Then you have the fact that illness days are properly recorded. That cant be said to be the case in the private sector.

As usual though this article is heavily slanted and just an excuse to rile the usual ill informed idiots with their anti-public sector views.

For the record ive worked in both worlds and appreciate the benefits and disadvantages in working in both, and im **** glad i work in the private sector. I actually have IT that work, managers who listen, and 'clients' not telling me to f off every 5 minutes

muscliffman wrote:
"Unison representative at Bournemouth council, said: “It is a concern and I think we need to find out the reasons behind it. "

OK here are the reasons in my experience.

1. Unlike the private sector most (if not all) will remain on full pay even when off 'sick'.
2. They are represented by very strong Trade Unions. (Ones which help bankroll one of the two main UK political parties.)
3. They are unlikely to be asked to account for excessive absence because their line-managers fear the consequences of such action (see 2).

As for 'stressed' have you tried dealing with many of these public-sector people? Because that is the meaning of the word 'stressed' I promise!

A couple of years ago i worked in the public sector in one of the out of town offices which housed 100 or so. You could count the number of Unison members on one hand. True your first point is right, and certainly a great deal for them, but then again when I have worked in the private sector I never had 'clients' telling me to f off every 5 minutes. I did leave in the end because of the constant verbal abuse and physical threats made by members of the public. So stress? I think they would question whether we in the private sector actually knew the meaning of the word.

gileto wrote:
Not really surprising - the recent staff culls will no doubt have left those still in a job (the majority of whom are likely to be in low paid jobs without a wage increase to speak of for 4/5 years) with very low morale and in some cases, more stress. Vicious circle - a lean organisation will always have a higher sickness rate and will need more staff to accommodate this - or services deteriorate and the vulnerable/council tax payers suffer and complain on here about crap council services/'gold plated' pensions - (yawn).....

Total tosh! 'Lean organisations' run more effectively with less levels of middle management so less bureaucracy, staff are happier as they are closer to the decision making, they have a greater input to the job being done. Everyone is stressed its the demands of life, rising bills, declining standards, failing education, fear of everything. Public sector workers have no less stress than others apart from a few jobs at the difficult end. I suspect the council dont use the Bradford Factor in sickness levels, it would plummet if they did as wehen the score goes over a certain level NO SICK PAY!

Lord Spring wrote:

dribydal wrote:
Why are they off with stress? Because it's not physical so can't be proved or disproved.
I was unable to sleep a few years ago and it was getting me down.. I went to the docs and he signed me off work for 2 weeks straight away without even asking me anything else.
I know someone who works at a council (not Bournemouth) who just goes into her doctors and bursts into tears at will... Hey presto a weeks paid leave! Time they started running govt services like private firms.. accountability!!

So refuse collector is not physical. not all councill employees are pen pushers.
I knew of 2 councill workers that had time off, both later diagnosed with Brain Tumours and died.

If you read my post I said that the condition "stress / depression" is not physical i.e. it's not a broken leg! I did not say that the job is not a physical one.
So the doc doesn't know if the person is ill or not but is quick to sign them off and the staff know this and (some are) quick to 'swing the lead'.
I am a 'pen-pusher and have nothing against them (obviously!) but the public sector workers have much better employment rights (sick, holiday, pension) than most private sector workers.