Government Jobs in the Grauniad

[paddyhasneeds]

http://jobs.guardian.co.uk/jobs/government/1?

I haven't looked at job ads for years as I'm happy where I am but my god this is an eye opener.

Glad I don't pay Council Tax in Oldham.

Executive Director Economy, Place & Skills

* OLDHAM METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL |
* Oldham |
* £130k - £140k

Executive Director Performance, Capacity & Services

* OLDHAM METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL |
* Oldham |
* £130k - £140k

Assistant Chief Executive

* OLDHAM METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL |
* Oldham |
* £120k - £140k

Executive Director People, Communities & Society

* OLDHAM METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL |
* Oldham |
* £130k - £140k

[Hereward]

FFS

[172ff]

Looks like they've had a a big restructure at director level. Not uncommon. Wouldnt apply tbh, they will already have people lined up for these rolls. Jobs for the boys and all.

I like the fact you guys pay your council tax so I can drink coffee all day and play on the interweb etc.

It works out that approx 30 band C households have to pay their CT per month just to cover my salary. Happy days.

Us low paid minions are all the same you see.

Edited by 172ff on Wednesday 19th November 19:38

[HundredthIdiot]

Local government is big business. Oldham has almost 5000 staff (and a big budget deficit) apparently.

[johnfm]

Yep. Same in every council I expect. A ridiculous state of affairs. I'd be stunned if any of them were in the office after 4.30.

[hornetrider]

172ff said:

they will already have people lined up for these rolls.

Bacon?

[Simpo Two]

Well they're not financially accountable. If they fk up they just raise Council Tax.

Bit like Gordon Brown really!

[Teppic]

johnfm said:

Yep. Same in every council I expect. A ridiculous state of affairs. I'd be stunned if any of them were in the office after 2.30.

EFA

[miniman]

Hmmmm... on the one hand, we want professional, experienced, accountable people to run our local authorities (the reaction to the Baby P thing is clear evidence of this) however on the other hand we don't want to pay the going rate for those people. How do we attract quality people away from the corporate / commercial world?

[Puggit]

And no one has mentioned yet that the OP is a sandal wearing leftie?

[HundredthIdiot]

miniman said:

Hmmmm... on the one hand, we want professional, experienced, accountable people to run our local authorities (the reaction to the Baby P thing is clear evidence of this) however on the other hand we don't want to pay the going rate for those people. How do we attract quality people away from the corporate / commercial world?

The cynical answer is that you don't have to attract them. You just wait until they're nearing retirement age and they emerge from the woodwork with a freshly developed enthusiasm for "giving something back to society".

[mouk786]

you dont really have to pay mega bucks for these prestigious jobs, even if you paid 80k you would get a ton of applicants.

some of these jobs will probably have responsibilities too wide ranging for one person to manage properly anyway..even if you were to pay them 5x as much.

[miniman]

mouk786 said:

you dont really have to pay mega bucks for these prestigious jobs, even if you paid 80k you would get a ton of applicants.

You would indeed, from a wide range of people who can't command a £130k salary. It might be big bucks either way, but £80k buys an £80k person, it will never buy a £130k person.

[paddyhasneeds]

Puggit said:

And no one has mentioned yet that the OP is a sandal wearing leftie?

I happened to be looking at Government jobs in the Grauniad - I don't work in Government fk me I have enough politics to last a lifetime where I work in the private sector.

[FourWheelDrift]

I'd imagine that all of those roles could be done by one person as well.

[esselte]

miniman said:

mouk786 said:

you dont really have to pay mega bucks for these prestigious jobs, even if you paid 80k you would get a ton of applicants.

You would indeed, from a wide range of people who can't command a £130k salary. It might be big bucks either way, but £80k buys an £80k person, it will never buy a £130k person.

Where's the guarantee that 130k buys a 130k person...and who decides that a 130k peron is rewuired?

[FourWheelDrift]

Saying someone can't do a £130k job because they are only earning £80k is wrong, it's the person that matters and what they can do, many people earning less are often doing more and could be better. Pigeonholing people's level of ability on their salary is the sector solely inhabited by the useless word matching recruitment consultants, of which there are many who give all the others a bad name.

[mouk786]

miniman said:

mouk786 said:

you dont really have to pay mega bucks for these prestigious jobs, even if you paid 80k you would get a ton of applicants.

You would indeed, from a wide range of people who can't command a £130k salary. It might be big bucks either way, but £80k buys an £80k person, it will never buy a £130k person.

tbh, thats why we have all these crazy salaries flying around, because people think you have to pay pay pay to attract 'the best'

a lot of these people coming up for the jobs will be found within, so if there was a (say) 80k cap on the whole council i doubt it would bother potential high risers as it would be higher than their current salary anyway)

[miniman]

FourWheelDrift said:

Saying someone can't do a £130k job because they are only earning £80k is wrong, it's the person that matters and what they can do, many people earning less are doing more and would be better. Pigeonholing people's level of ability on their salary is the sector solely inhabited by the useless word matching recruitment consultants, of which there are many who give all the others a bad name.

I would argue that there are **very** few people who are earning £80k but have the ability to command a £130k salary. It's not a trivial difference, is it? I wonder why such a person would not go get a better paid job. I know its not all about the money, but surely the number of people who fit that set of criteria (very high earning potential, not in it for the money) is pretty small?

Anyway, the numbers don't make much difference. If these were £80k roles being advertised, someone would still be saying "that's my council tax paying for that". The fact remains that if we want decent people in the public sector, we have to pay somewhere around the going rate for them.

[FourWheelDrift]

As a general rule the higher the salary the fewer jobs are available, so people do get stuck in lower paid jobs when they know they can be earning more and deserve more and there are very few companies who say "my my, Colin you're so good we're going to give you a £60,000 salary increase to reflect the good work you do". There are very few higher paid jobs available to apply for unless the current incumbent moves on, passes on or is assassinated by a government contracted hitman. So to say to someone "if you are so good why are you only earning £80,000" is also the wrong way to go about it.



And I still think one person could do all the roles advertised in the first post, a cynical person might also say one person (internal transfer or friend of a friend at the golf club/Freemasons) will and take the expenses of 4 with it