This wasn't necessarily a rant to begin with, though it does seem to be turning into a bit of a catfight. Obviously I work in the private sector, in construction as it happens. I was never on a huge wage when I was employed by others and a christmas bonus was a weeks wages, net. For this, I worked up to and over 70 hours per week and at weekends, had fair headaches and phonecalls at all hours. Work could be anything from meetings to cleaning out sewers to staying up right through the night finishing concrete.
Hands up here, I got E800 per week take home for this and overtime was paid sometimes time and a half, sometimes just time. I thought it was good money for my age and as I was well capable for what I was at, I was happy with it. However, I also cribbed about the public sector at the heighth of the boom. The inefficiencies and cushy numbers were as obvious then. It was my choice however, to stay in the private sector and forego the 'job for life' for the potential rewards in my job.They haven't materialised, as yet anyway, and won'tfor a while if I can keep my head above water as I am now out on my own.
What I'm getting at is that, fair enough, the public sector is coming in for a lot of scrutiny and sometimes unfair abuse at the moment but we all made our choices and it was either job security in the public or monetary reward in the private. Believe me, I got enough abuse from people I know in the Public sector in the last few years about the presumably 'massive' money I was on.
My original post about the half day for shopping was not intended as a a go at the Public sector, merely highlighting another unfair perk that's available, whether it's availed of or not.To those that don't, fair play.