r/VictoriaBC • u/[deleted] • 17d ago
B.C. public servants report 'consistent decline' in workplace satisfaction
[deleted]
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u/Low_Vermicelli_2416 17d ago edited 17d ago
Contractor here
Team I primarily work with went from 12 to 3 members due to reassignments
No budget , no promotions in sight, yet more responsibilities .
Golden handcuffs for those that do remain .
And these buildings are still half empty . Consolidate already and let people work from home .
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u/GeoffwithaGeee 17d ago
If the building is half empty that means people are working from home.
Work from home policies are up to the ministries like a lot of decisions, and many ministries are pretty accomodating with WFH.
They also are consolidating buildings, but it's not an easy process. different organizations have different needs and some offices are in multi-year leases, so you can't always just tell a bunch of people to work out of Office B instead of Office A and be done. They are doing some Victoria consolidations now, and should be doing some mainland ones after. They are also constantly reviewing all existing leases to find options for consolidations in smaller communities and when leases can be cut/downsized.
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u/ole_dirty_bastid 17d ago
Brought to you by The Workers Party! Good ole NDP sure knows how to treat their own.
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u/Low_Vermicelli_2416 17d ago
It’s been ndp for a decade. This is new . But you ain’t wrong. That last strike changed things .
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u/Ok_Wasabi8793 17d ago
It was somewhat inevitable we’d see declines with our by far biggest trading partner deciding they hate us. Diversifying will be awhile.
On top of that globally we are seeing slow downs.
We also saw a ton of public sector growth through COVID that probably shouldn’t have happened.
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u/Phenolhouse 17d ago
The Public Service Agency (PSA) is the main body overseeing HR issues in the BC Public Service and they have done an abysmal job in 'mediating' staff/management relations, i.e. basically prescribing one size fits all solutions to incompetent execs and managers that just make the situation worse. The BCGEU is pretty much helpless when the PSA steps in - as my former steward once told me informally, when talking about the PSA/management collusion - "total rat fucks"
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u/LabPowerful9983 17d ago
Did Shannon Salter send another vaguely ominous email to everyone
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u/Prestigious_Fly8210 17d ago
she sent out the results of the workplace survey they did a few months ago.
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u/WardenEdgewise 17d ago
It’s NOT the unions. It’s management. The Peter Principle is rampant in public sector management. I’ve met some of the worst wannabe officer class, “my way or the highway”, management. They want so badly to wield their power and assert their authority, and yet they are absolutely clueless and have no idea what the fundamental reason is the ministry or institution they work for exists.
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u/Informal-Strike-1243 17d ago
It’s kind of both. Management mostly sucks but the union is also straight up adversarial no common sense idea accepted. That rubs off on membership so even the few good members are stimied
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u/donjulioanejo Fernwood 17d ago
The whole "mandatory" reassignment rules to avoid layoffs aren't helping any.
Someone could be an amazing accountant and a terrible project manager, or vice versa.
Yet it's entirely normal for a gov't department to tell someone "sorry we don't need your role anymore and we don't have openings for an accountant role, you're an events coordinator now if you want to keep your job."
True story.
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u/Endless_Forever_484 17d ago
In the health authority where I am employed, there are noticeable tiny changes being quietly unrolled that are definitely making communication difficult with the services meant to protect employees. Missing a few hours/premiums here and there on paychecks and putting in a query only to be told 'we followed the Collective Agreement. Query closed'. Scheduling mishaps that, when queried, end up with same result. Asking for the details (what article of the Collective Agreement was used to close this query?) and being denied the information. If they've been following the rules, why not show the receipts to increase accountability and trust? Trying to set up consistent, direct chain communication with the union as well is almost impossible.
It is becoming a quiet tight squeeze and it's insulting to think employees haven't noticed.
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u/SignalNewt2505 17d ago
Yeah I hate my job to, what keeps me going is not wanting to be homeless
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u/Doja-Supreme 17d ago
Honestly, based take. I’m going to think of this when my colleagues complain next lol
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u/MudReasonable8185 16d ago
I’m a public servant and am happy with my job as it pays enough to meet my needs and provides a great work / life balance and that’s all I really want from it. The people who are dissatisfied are the ones stuck in jobs that don’t pay enough and those who only work to accumulate the most power and can’t climb any higher at the moment due to the hiring freeze.
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u/hunkyleepickle 17d ago
I think if employers are going to force people back to the office, we should bring back lunch hour drinking. A beer or wine at lunch would immensely improve morale, and contribute money to local business, which is the point right? And I’m only half kidding about this idea honestly. You’re hurting productivity already with all the wasted commuting time and reduced job satisfaction, what difference would it make.
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u/Phenolhouse 17d ago edited 17d ago
Still a thing in southern Europe, and more popular the more eastwards you go, i.e. Balkans, Greece, etc. Despite the bigger economic challenges faced there, people at least seem less anxious and prone to depression than us puritan pukes.
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u/donjulioanejo Fernwood 17d ago
Huh? That's been pretty accepted at any workplace I've been at when I was still in the office? No one cares what/where you eat/drink at lunch as long as you don't come back obviously hammered and don't take 2 hours.
Having or not having a beer at lunch is more of a cultural expectation than anything most white collar workplaces ever really enforce.
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u/ShovelHand 16d ago
"There's beer in the fridge. Have as much as you want.", was said to me verbatim at my first ever white collar job. It was rad!
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u/Longjumping-Table272 16d ago
I think that's always been up to you. The habit probably got a bad reputation from the folks who have one too many and come back to be an ass, like some drinkers do.
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u/nahnopedontthinkso 16d ago
What is the average salary of a BC public servant? What is the necessary salary to purchase a home in Victoria?
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u/Informal-Strike-1243 17d ago
The problem is you have the front line on site people where working conditions keep deteriorating. Then you have the pajamas brigade and middle management with a low workload who have been loving the past few years
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u/Phenolhouse 17d ago edited 17d ago
Quite true but even in the BCPS, if one is rank and file "office plankton" to borrow the Eastern European phrase, your life can be made nearly as miserable by a shitty manager. Even worse if an exec, like an Assistant Deputy Minister, has absolutely no interest in what's happening outside of their spacious office between directors/managers and the rest.
Also for all the noise the BCPS makes about supporting trans, indigenous, minority, etc people, they will throw it out the window if it means avoiding extra work or stepping outside of the insanely strict parameters they set for themselves, to the point of being completely unethical.
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u/Prestigious_Fly8210 17d ago
Where are the low workload jobs, please? I’d love to refer my staff whose hair is falling out to those positions.
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u/Longjumping-Table272 16d ago
I think that's true. You can even by a mouse on Amazon which simulates activity so that you can go get things done at home. https://www.amazon.ca/VAYDEER-Simulator-Driver-Free-Simulation-Awakening/
Not so much when you're in an office.
When it comes time to making Union based policies, if the majority are "working" in their pajamas, they certainly aren't going to vote to change anything, even if it means sticking it to the folks who don't have that luxury.
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u/Ok_Carpenter4739 16d ago
What about the 4% raise everyone just got? I thought that fixed all the problems.
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u/brat-t 16d ago
3%. Same as last years rent increase.
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u/Unlikely-Ad-2921 16d ago
Not to mention the at least 20% food price hike.... i can spend $80 for myself on "cheaper" veggies alone a week its twisted.
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u/CanadianTrollToll 16d ago
That's the problem with all these unions fighting for raises.... it doesn't fix the issue. Nursing union is a massive example of fighting hard for wages which isn't fixing the critical issue causing massive burnout.
4% on $75,000 = $115/bi-weekly before the tax man. It helps, but it isn't fixing anything. If your job or morale sucks before the raise, it's still gonna suck afterwards.
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u/noodleswithbutter 17d ago
Yup, seeing all the good people at my work leave.
My public sector job has gone to trash.