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I suspect this can be generalized beyond the public sector. How organizations work has changed dramatically over the last 20-30 years. Pensions are gone, salar
by tobyjsullivan 4y ago
I suspect this can be generalized beyond the public sector.
How organizations work has changed dramatically over the last 20-30 years. Pensions are gone, salaries are higher, job security is lower, performance expections are higher, management is more merit-based than seniority based, etc. (yes, you can see exceptions in any workplace, but the overarching trends are clear on a multi-decade scale.)
As with any change, there’s a spectrum of early adopters to laggards.
Public services are generally going to be in the laggard category by virtue of being old and bureaucratic. However, there are lots of other established companies and industries that are laggards as well and they must be feeling the exact same pain.
The boomer generation grew up in a world where the old model was the norm. On average, they would be most comfortable in that style of company. This becomes self-perpetuating as the world changes around the organization: the current staff reinforces the culture and keeps it resistant to change. Doubly-so by virtue of the mutual loyalty in those positions.
And now, the baby boomers are retiring and none of the new workforce is accustomed to the legacy org model and the tradeoffs it requires (are you interest 40% lower salary for a pension? You only have to stay for 20 years).
I predict it’ll be up to the organizations to adapt to the times. Management experience in “modern” companies will be in hot demand over the next decade or so.
- danaris 4y ago> Pensions are gone, salaries are higher, job security is lower, performance expections are higher, management is more merit-based than seniority based, etc. Where are salaries higher? That doesn't seem to be the case in real terms in most places.
- azinman2 4y agoThe article literally talked about Dunkin’ Donuts and Amazon being higher paying.
- danaris 4y agoHigher paying than what? Than other places you can get jobs now? The most conservative estimate I've seen shows that if the minimum wage had kept pace with inflation over the past 50 years, it would be over $21/hour now. The minimum wage. From what I've seen, Dunkin and Amazon* pay a $15 minimum wage—which, yes, is better than many other places now, but not compared to what you could expect to get for similar jobs several decades ago (adjusted for inflation). And I haven't heard anything one way or the other about Dunkin, but Amazon is actively hostile to unions, which were the strong sword and shield of blue collar workers like them back when they could expect pensions and such—not at all coincidentally. * For those actually designated employees; I'm given to understand that Amazon also does all sorts of shenanigans to designate various people who work for them as contractors of some type.
- xboxnolifes 4y ago> Higher paying than what? Than other places you can get jobs now? Yes. That's the only metric that matters for most people.
- danaris 4y agoPossibly, but the person I replied to was specifically talking about how pay had changed over time.
- bradleyjg 4y agoThis is the correct answer. The public sector is culturally further and further away from every other employer in the market. That gap needs to narrow.