Discussions

currently have a position with the government. i really don't work that much, maybe an hour a day, average. pay and benefits are good.  
zero job satisfaction. no chance for advancement. new management every 2-3 years so its like a merry go round rehashing out the same stuff every time.  
been at it for about 20 years. have had some really bad management and have had one really good, the rest did their best. more than once i have been asked to train my supervisor......  
i'm thinking of leaving for another job but the chances are the hours, rate of pay and time off will not be the same as what i have now.  
at what point does being happy at your job outweigh the money and benefits?

I have been through this. Oh it was so hard to leave a job after 19 years but I realized (after I did it) that I should have done it about 5 years prior.  
 
It's scary, but your happiness means a lot more than a paycheck and benefits. You never know what tomorrow will bring. Sickness. Death, etc. Do you want to just put in time or do you want to do something more stimulating and good for the soul?

It is 1 hour a day, man  
- what can you want?

I have had crappy, boring and jobs that weren't stimulating. Although good in pay and benefits. What about trying for the management position next time. Since you end up training them anyway. My other note would be if the job allows you a good work/life balance (you aren't completely exhausted at the end of the day, you get home in time to cook supper, you have enough time with family/friends) then you might want to stay. Will a new job supply those things? If not you aren't taking as much of a risk. The new job may allow those things.  
 
Do you have hobbies that you enjoy and that stimulate you. If so do more of those. Then you have something to look forward to.

I'm thinking they mean they need to do 1 hour worth of work in their paid 7.25 or 8 hour workday. So the rest of that time they're caught up with nothing to do.  
 
Not all jobs are overly "busy" consistently but when a person has those lulls what can you do? If your work is done and you can do it in 1 hour per day, good for you.  
 
Of course, that doesn't mean that you don't have to be "present" the rest of the time (you cant just go leave and do what you want the rest of the day).  
 
From what I've seen, in situations like this you need to figure out something more to do (free courses? to develop other skills in your "free" time), or you'll likely just end up pulling someone else's weight as well as your own.  
 
It's a good problem to have sure, but feeling stagnant and under-utilized is a problem nonetheless. While some don't mind coasting, if you're not close to retirement, that gets old fast.

In any job I ever had if you finished your scheduled work early (which was a requirement as you had to exceed 100% efficiency at work) you were expected to show initiative and go find something else to do that was productive. Being a self starter was how you advanced with an employer into a better position, with better wages and more control over your own workload and better job satisfaction.  
Employees need to take control of their own destiny . It takes effort to advance.  
 
Edited by Farmergeorge, 2022-08-08 14:39:56

interesting takes.  
 
first line, government job. i have offered numerous times to expand my knowledge base and help with other departments, but it was declined. i took on other roles, until they were not appreciated.  
i would take the supervisor role but i am not eligible for it as i did not get to my current job through the channel needed, i was hired directly into this position. only a very small chance that my experience and knowledge would count for something in the contest for the position, otherwise it goes to the next in line.  
 
sounds like a dream job, get paid for 8 and only work 1 hour. try it. sit and do nothing all day. can't leave. can't play games on computer or phone. sit there and do nothing for 7 hours. answer the phone intermittently throughout the day.  
get back to me a day or two.

Yikes, initially it sounded like a dream job, work for 1 hour, paid for 8 but now that you mention that you can't do anything else for the other 7 hours, that sounds like a nightmare, are you anywhere near pension or early retirement, it would suck to lose the 20 years of equity you've put in but what good is retirement if it destroys your spirit in the process.

Told us how dissatisfied you are in your current job but do you have any idea what you want to do. My advice would be to look around and try and find out what you are looking for in a job and then try and get it before quitting the one you already have.

A job like that once. Had maybe 2-3 hours work to do in an 8 hour shift. Had to look busy the rest of the time. It was horrible. I’ve never hated having to go to work as much as I did then. I would look for something else.

So let me get this straight.  
I and others in the private sector work our butts off to pay tax and pay the wages of government workers that sit in their office all day being unproductive and they receive a good wage and benefit package but they complain about it?  
Somethings wrong there. Sounds like a good reason for a full audit and terminating some excess government workers to me.

Gotcha! For some reason, I mistakenly thought that the guy was working from home. You lay out some great points, Kevin 89. Sorry all.

Alright, we're now replaced OP with an automated system that you can reach when you call in rather than talking to someone with 20 years of experience. Does that make you happy?

This problem isn't exclusive to government workers, I have several friends in private sector jobs in similar situations.  
 
My advice to the OP is to quit and find a new job. Do what makes you happy.

The tax payer should not have to pay an 8 hour day plus benefits for 1 hour of work.  
That would never happen in the private sector, businesses can’t afford it and neither can the public purse. This is down to poor management.

I agree that there are tons of inefficiencies in government that should get sorted out, but I don't believe starting by terminating employees is going to make things better.  
 
And it definitely happens in the private sector. Check out what overemployment is. Just with government work there's going to be more seperation of duties, so it's plain to see there just isn't more work to do.

Well In the real world employees have to prove their worth and earn their wage and position.  
We were expected to complete our work faster than the book time allotted by the manufacturers therefore we exceeded 100% efficiency and effectively produced more chargeable hours of work in the day than we actually worked or were paid. This is how an employee makes a profit for their employer which is the whole point. Those that couldn’t produce high efficiency didn’t last long.  
As for twenty years experience I don’t think so . One hour worked per day for five days a week less two weeks holiday per year multiplied by 20 years falls some way short of twenty years experience. Most jobs you would still be on probation having worked so few hours.

So the only incentive to creating profits was the privilege of working there?  
 
In my industry, I started at $12 and have moved up to $40 an hour. That doesn't happen by internal promotions, but by pivoting to different companies. An employer typically will not pay a current employee that much more when they become more valuable and enable them to produce more profit. In today's world, a "$0.50" raise is what gets dangled in front of employees. We even have the concept of boomerang employees, you are more likely to get a higher wage if you leave a company and come back than if you stay.  
 
I don't agree with overemployment, there is too much conflict of interest, but I think it more of a symptom of a world where employees aren't valued enough. Why work your ass off and burnout for a $0.50 raise when you could just do the bare minimum and take a second job at the same time.  
 
In order for employees to bring their full selves to work, there needs to be trust and autonomy in the workplace. But instead employers assume that they will be exploited if they trust their employees. Which is probably a projection because they are the ones exploiting.

In my job I started at $7.60 per hour and after 30 years I was up to $33. Same employer but my duties and level of authority did increase with time.  
 
I have a hard time believing that the OP can never apply for a higher up with more responsibilities. I was hired for the most menial of jobs right out of high school. I worked hard, learned more and more duties as I went, put up with some really ignorant managers, and fought tooth and nail to be allowed to move up the food chain. Believe me, I did not progress up the ladder by sitting back and moaning about the sorry hand some of them were trying to deal me. I applied for jobs (promotions) they thought I was not qualified for, and then I aced the interview. You have to work at it to get somewhere.

Of course you can apply for different jobs, the thing with govt compared to a private company is that its all controlled by HR in Winnipeg. Local managers don't see candidates until HR gives them the list, if you don't screen in with their exact qualifications you're not getting an interview, not to mention it can be months/years between a job being advertised/interviewed/filled within the govt.  
 
You are generally stuck in the classification you're hired into permanently, unless you apply for a reclass to a higher one, which you obviously have to prove that you're doing the duties of that higher class etc. which is no easy/quick thing to go through.  
 
Long story short, private companies have the autonomy to give employees raises/promotions whenever they want if the person earns it through hard work, etc. That is not how it works in the government, working hard within the govt is not going to get you anywhere any faster than someone doing the bare minimum, hence the OPs original issue: are the wage/benefits worth the boredom/feelings of being underutilized or should they look for another gig that pays less but provides more fulfillment?

Had a family member do this exact thing. Ended up next job was far from wonderful and they got let go. Then the mad scramble to find something else. They did and are now happy but it was a roller coaster there for a bit  
 
Sometimes grass isn’t always greener and you have to realize how lucky you are. A lot of people would probably kill for your job

As an employee I never had any trouble progressing through a company or being offered multiple pay rises. I have moved around in the past and can confirm that the grass is not always greener with a different employer but one doesn’t know until they try, sometimes you win , sometimes you lose.  
Frankly a fifty cent an hour raise is a damn good pay rise and is likely a heck of a lot better than the business owner gets .  
One thing I do know . It’s cold and lonely out there if you are unemployed .

Not sorry to disillusion you-the 30 years I referred to was at a provincial government job.  
Absolute truth.

I mean that's great that you had that experience but I can assure you, that is not how things work with the provincial government currently.  
 
Edited by kevin89, 2022-08-09 21:34:30

The OP has been at this job for 20 years then there have most certainly been opportunities to apply and have a shot at a promotion. It has been far less than 20 years ago when changes were made to how they hire. 25 or 30 years ago they were still following the good d boys club, whoever had the seniority got the promotion and especially if the most senior person was male. 20 years ago it was still that way in many cases. 15 years ago they started actually picking and choosing based on other things. If someone is getting weeded out before ever getting chosen for an Interview-if they are truly capable of doing the job-they they need to tweak their resume and make it look like they are a perfect fit. I got news for you-it is the same in private sector too. Many companies have an HR department the screens applications and tosses out those that don't have the right key phrases. Make your resume fit the job des:cription. I am working in private sector now-I changed my resume to fit the job I was applying for. I didn't change my work experience but I did change the wording to emphasize different things, depending on what the job posting said. I made it through the resume screening by the recruiter, had a phone screening, then got a local interview, then got the job-the exact job I wanted most of all-because I made sure they knew that I was a perfect fit for the job. No matter what job it is, you can't just sit there and twiddle your thumbs and expect someone to give you the promotion. You have to go after it.

The real story is that government has cut operating budgets so much in the past 6 or 7 years that most agencies have nothing to work with. All departments are so short handed that there is nobody to work. I can tell you that in one area there is not even one plow operator for this winter. There has been a hiring freeze for so many years that as people retire or quit they were not replaced. The trickle effect of this is that it causes lulls in other departments. Plows don't operate they don't break, if they don't break, the shop to repair them slows down. When repairs slow down, so do parts department. So due to one department being short funding and workers it now slowed down 3 departments.  
The problem encountered now is nobody smart wants to work for the government. The wages are crap. people like you treat them like crap (thinking they should be terminated because politicians an politics make them have less work). Upper management has total disconnect with anyone below, which drives morale down.  
Before you say that workers need to lose their jobs, go ask your MLA why all these departments are suffering while MLA's get 11% raises consistently.  
Also when you mention good wage and benefits, the collective agreement is open to everybody on the internet, look to see what laborers actually make, and what benefits and pension has been negotiated away from them. After union dues, and pension contributions, the person standing on a busy highway fixing pot holes in the heat of summer takes home the same as the person handing you your food at a drive through

At least at the end of his career that government worker with those pension contributions taken off will have a pension. The fast food worker (and many others who do not make pension contributions) will have nothing unless he saves and invests some money on his own. That pension makes a big difference.

Anybody can take their own money and build a pension plan. The point was that they take home a very entry level wage.

The problem is that many people expect great pay, lots of holiday and a good benefit package but they don’t want to work for it. They are what a colleague of mine used to call ‘jobs worth’s’.  
We used to work hard for our money and we were grateful to have work especially during the last recession. Nowadays people are ungrateful.  
This is exactly why as a small business owner now I don’t employ anyone.  
 
Edited by Farmergeorge, 2022-08-10 14:07:44

Anyone can take their own money and invest it but there are an awful lot who just never get around to actually doing it. If those fast food workers decide to tuck some of each pay cheque away then they have that much less money left for spending each month. Those poorly paid government workers could try trading places for 6 months and I bet they would be only too happy to go back to their actual jobs and pay cheques instead of the entry level ones they traded for. There are a lot of workers who wish they had a pension to collect when they a re ready to retire.