Research suggests private sector workers think the public sector has it better, but are they right? Two health managers who swapped spheres tell David Brindle about the pros and cons.
Job losses and insecurity are prompting people to look further and think more radically about employment opportunities than ever before. Many workers who have spent their entire careers in the private sector are peering across the divide with public services – and they like what they see.
According to exclusive research for Work, private-sector employees are more than twice as likely as their public-sector counterparts to think the grass is greener on the other side in respect of job security, training, holidays and equal opportunities. They are more likely also to think it less stressful, more flexible and better for promotion and progression.
Only on pay and financial rewards do fewer private-sector workers look jealously at public-sector staff than vice versa. Even on that, they may not be right; a recent Sunday Times report used data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to suggest that average annual public sector salaries may be 7% ahead of those in the private (although critics have pointed out the difficulties with substantiating such claims).
They're calling it "sector envy". It's a term coined by IFF Research, which carried out the Work study among a representative sample of almost 500 workers in the public and private sectors. Jan Shury, IFF's joint managing director, says: "Our research shows there is significant sector envy, but it is not split equally between state and private employees. Overall, public-sector employment is seen as more attractive, even at a time when spending cuts are anticipated."
This could be a key factor in the near future. There's the distinct sound of hatches being battened down in town halls, hospitals and even Whitehall against the coming whirlwind of public expenditure constraint, and it may not be long before sector envy starts to work in the opposite direction. For now, though, it's one-way traffic.
The Guardian