[tom]

Quote

Taxpayers have been forking out $100,000 a year for a public servant with absolutely nothing to do.

Criminologist Glenn Ross started with the Department of Premier and Cabinet in 2007 despite there being no work for him.

The 55-year-old became so bored he soon asked to spend his time at Edith Cowan University as a lecturer, while taxpayers continued to pay his $102,144 salary.

I usually would not follow a link to such a storey as this one, but in this case it appears the department literally had no work at all for him?

and to give credit where it is due, he tried to do the right thing at first.

[Sean]

thin edge of the wedge re govt waste.

[gibber_blot]

Unsurprising. I have a friend who works for medicare. She was hired for a particular project, and between signing the contract and starting, the project was canned. She sat around for almost 12 months doing sweet FA while her boss in Brisbane seemed to forget that she existed (she is in Melbourne).

[sydney3000]

Don't blame the people. Blame the system.

I do nothing in my private sector job. The reason is that I automate everything. My employer doesn't give me more work because if I automated everybody else's job then nobody could pay their mortgages. It is a sort of mutually beneficial agreement for me to not do work while drawing a paycheck so that inefficient people can stay in employment, indebted and insanely stupid. The world is f$%^ed up.

A young data entry spunk keeps making wisecracks about me reading the paper. I had enough on Thursday and I shut him up by saying in front of the whole office: "I could do your job. Would you like me to?" He went quiet since he has a mortgage and $40,000 in personal debt.

This post has been edited by sydney3000: 19 June 2011 - 01:52 AM

[staringclown]

I don't think it's a particularly uncommon thing in the federal system at least. If you don't fit in with a team in private enterprise you get booted or you leave. Most of the people who get sent to coventry in the APS are the dinosaurs. The old school lags who have been ducking and diving avoiding work for years. They remind me of corrupt police officers. Some get given nothing to do for political reasons. Their expectations are far too high usually. It amounts to the same thing - you are being requested to find other employment. Most people just leave change roles and/or departments quickly. You can stick around for ages doing nothing if you choose. A pointless exercise IMHO if you want to be reemployed and have any credibility.

We used to have a guy on the ninth floor who had spent 18 months at a desk variously sleeping and playing the shares on line. He sat completely alone on the floor except for three contractors who sat up the other end. Some kind of industrial dispute from memory. It was bizarre. We would takes new grads up occasionally and watch him snoring away...

This post has been edited by staringclown: 19 June 2011 - 07:21 AM

[sydney3000]

I think the people criticising others for not working have totally ignored the change of the labour and job market. If every employer actually made full use of all the technology we invented there wouldn't be much to do for anybody. It is usually the most efficient who look lazy because they optimised their work place.

My own department could be reduced in size by 80% because 80% is data entry or data management due to ill-deployed IT systems. We have 1M people on the dole or DSP. Where are these people going to go? It's not like the community values things like street cleaning anymore. We have a huge need for carers of the disadvantaged and aged but nobody is willing to train and pay people to do so. There are unlimited funds to train and pay more market speculators and sales persons.

I actually admire the unemployed because they have the toughest job of all of us --- staying sane without a purpose to live.

People should start to become accepting of the idle human resources because WALL-E is just around the corner for all of us.

This post has been edited by sydney3000: 19 June 2011 - 09:34 AM

[staringclown]

sydney3000, on 19 June 2011 - 09:27 AM, said:

I think the people criticising others for not working have totally ignored the change of the labour and job market. If every employer actually made full use of all the technology we invented there wouldn't be much to do for anybody. It is usually the most efficient who look lazy because they optimised their work place.

My own department could be reduced in size by 80% because 80% is data entry or data management due to ill-deployed IT systems. We have 1M people on the dole or DSP. Where are these people going to go? It's not like the community values things like street cleaning anymore. We have a huge need for carers of the disadvantaged and aged but nobody is willing to train and pay people to do so. There are unlimited funds to train and pay more market speculators and sales persons.

I actually admire the unemployed because they have the toughest job of all of us --- staying sane without a purpose to live.

People should start to become accepting of the idle human resources because WALL-E is just around the corner for all of us.

I agree S3000 with being given nothing to do is definitely a punishment.

Good people optimise their workplace then look for other ways to streamline the business. Having a bunch of dudes sitting around cos there's not enough to do is a waste. Productivity is increased by using peoples ingenuity. Give people problems to solve that they understand and they generally do well. It's what humans do.

The business you are in must have margins beyond belief if they keep on guys that could be replaced. Even the APS is losing people. You know if you could inspire and focus that spare human capital you could become a minor deity in the organisation you work for. As you have correctly stated WRT the broken window fallacy, that capacity could be deployed achieving more productive pursuits (as long as you are paying them anyway)

[sydney3000]

staringclown, on 19 June 2011 - 10:56 AM, said:

The business you are in must have margins beyond belief if they keep on guys that could be replaced. Even the APS is losing people. You know if you could inspire and focus that spare human capital you could become a minor deity in the organisation you work for.

I work one degree away from mining. They have no reason to be efficient because right now you make profits no matter what you do. As I desccribed earlier the entire workforce is actively or inactively "colluding" because they profit from it.

[staringclown]

sydney3000, on 19 June 2011 - 11:49 AM, said:

I work one degree away from mining. They have no reason to be efficient because right now you make profits no matter what you do. As I desccribed earlier the entire workforce is actively or inactively "colluding" because they profit from it.

Are you saying that my vision of the productivity of private enterprise versus public service is incorrect and that private enterprise carry the same burden of HR issues as the APS? The same kind of organisational entropy? You sir are outrageous! I demand pistols at dawn.

[tor]

staringclown, on 19 June 2011 - 12:01 PM, said:

Are you saying that my vision of the productivity of private enterprise versus public service is incorrect and that private enterprise carry the same burden of HR issues as the APS? The same kind of organisational entropy? You sir are outrageous! I demand pistols at dawn.

Your dream of private enterprise is probably focussing on the smaller companies. They can be light and tight.

But once a company gets above about 30 or 40 people the arses get bigger and people walk slower (Fast moving fatties are fine though). Conversation become long and pointless. In my experience those things on the lower paid people is a sign of a company with quite a bit of slack.

[Mr Medved]

In a previous consulting/contracting role I was without any work for short stints (i.e., 2-3 weeks). There's only so much value-add you can provide when there's nothing you actually contracted to do.

I'd say this is symptomatic of a large employer practices and public sector employment practices.

[tom]

sydney3000, on 19 June 2011 - 09:27 AM, said:

I think the people criticising others for not working have totally ignored the change of the labour and job market. If every employer actually made full use of all the technology we invented there wouldn't be much to do for anybody. It is usually the most efficient who look lazy because they optimised their work place.

There will always be work for people.* The difference between a developed country and undeveloped is that per person people can do a whole lot more work, i.e. they have infrastructure and education which allows them to do work more efficiently than undeveloped countries.

I am surprised you do not have businesses lining up for your skills syd. Even if you are in a big business where they don't strive for efficiency, as others are saying above most businesses would strive for this and would be paying you a pretty penny to design out jobs.

* I guess the caveat being if no one had to work because we had an alien slave race or self replicating robots. If we had limitless capacity then having to work is not really an issue anymore. Be troublesome for rich people I guess because being rich means nothing if everyone can have everything they want anytime they want it. But if this is not the case there will always be someone willing to pay someone else for something they dont have.

[sydney3000]

tom, on 20 June 2011 - 05:47 AM, said:

I am surprised you do not have businesses lining up for your skills syd.

I am a freak. It really doesn't matter. I look forward to the day I get sacked. Life should be a whole lot easier...sleeping in, cashing dole payments, watching foreign movies, feeding my ego online and not having to deal with normal people.

[tom]

sydney3000, on 20 June 2011 - 09:07 AM, said:

...and not having to deal with normal people.

That says something about all of us I think.

[ummester]

Mrs ummester is private and her staff just don't show up. I am public and my staff just don't show up. Nothing happens to them in either case. Not showing up is one of the easy ways to deal with workplaces, the other is show up and do nothing.

Showing up and doing something - now that is hard. Nothing definate ever comes down from up high because those that exist there don't want to be accountable for any actual descisions or actions and those that exist under them know that. So to do something you have to work it out entirely for yourself and run the risk of showing up either those that work below you, or worse, those that work above you.

I heard a recent quote of a senior manager 'it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission'. The only way to get anything done is just do it and then find out if it was the right or wrong thing after the fact. I don't see that as being too different in public or private ATM - there are no clearly defined rules in either and definately no consequences even if you do find a rule.

My own manager tells me I should accept that listening to staff winge and trying to soothe them through it is part of modern management - I'm not sure, I think there must be something inherrantly wrong with workplaces that constantly cater to an individuals whining.

I agree with S3K that if everyone worked efficiently there wouldn't be that much work to go around and I don't know if it is a cause or effect but am sure that workplaces also suffer a total lack of discipline now.