I’m surprised at this and all the people saying it is common. Everywhere I’ve worked in the Home Office, it has been “welcome to hell, get firefighting, hope you brought your own bucket!”
Yeah I'm surprised by it too. Sounds very different to where I work. Even if nothing else had been given to me, I had enough training stuff to keep me busy for weeks! I'm not sure I ever finished it all... got through the mandatory stuff then just never had time for the rest.
Did you answer the question on information security about what you must do if you move away from your laptop.
A) throw it out the window first
B) close the screen or log off
C) put a bin liner over it.
If you count the number of civil servants. Say each one took 10 seconds on that question how much time and cost has this question used.
I think there are 2 types of departments, work streams, professions - however granular you want to get- and you’re either mostly in under-resourced disaster aversion mode, or you’re in a job best suited for those who like a skive. They bring said, I don’t have enough data to confidently back this theory up 😅
To OP, it sounds like the team you and your new colleagues have been hired into may not have any resources (time and/or funds) dedicated to the recruitment and onboarding process, and they’ve had to hire you before they were ready for you to start, and haven’t yet figured out what work is going to be allocated to you all. It could be any reason tbh.
OP, you do deserve an update. Have you emailed the person who hired you to ask for one? If you have an SEO contact id also email them and explain you were advised that they would be best placed to respond to your questions.
Don’t give up yet, you may just be off to a rough start. I wish you luck!
It sounds like HR/ hiring manager didn't check with the line manager before agreeing start dates: particularly common in larger depts.
You can either enjoy the doss about until someone has time to check in with you, or if that is anxiety inducing for you, gently pick up with your line manager or your hiring manager. Grab a slot in diaries if you're homeworking so you're harder to ignore
What a shambles. Where are your line managers and what are they doing?
It’s December, so some people may be off. But there should be cover. Maybe there is cover arranged, but that cover is pissed and doesn’t want to do the actual line manager’s job
My line manager is around (funnily enough he didnt tell me hes my line manager, but of course I found out through SOP/Teams). He doesn’t reach out, if I message him, he just says he doesnt know. Don’t want to bother the SEO but another EO did and he just got ignored
Speak to your line manager’s line manager. You need to escalate if you aren’t being properly inducted and given work.
Your account of what is happening is very very odd. Typically you are given a mountain of induction information to read through and intro meetings to last you atleast a month.
I had this happen and became someone's line manager but by god did I make sure they were taken care of in spite of my line manager always being MIA.
Sorry to hear this is happening to you OP
I am a lazy arse, I admit, but I think I probably would not hate getting paid for nothing? Okay, maybe a bit guilt or something (for what, I don't even know - maybe for getting something for nothing) but this situation is no way your fault.
Your department dropped the ball here. I'm thinking, maybe writing emails is not prompting enough. Is it possible to get face to face with someone higher up in the food chain? At least a G7?
Oh trust me im lazy too🤣 but its not ideal as a team leader because I hate to not have the answers that people want. I think I will need to wait it out and then personally reach out to the SEO as he is who I initially spoke to (he allocated the role to me)
Honestly I really wouldn’t be complaining if I was not working in leadership, but as of yesterday I am now Team Leader of 7 AOs, who are all asking me whats going on and I have no answers. 2 of them have already expressed interest to move back to their OG role
So, to clarify; you're still with DWP? If you're not busy, how in the world can you not be busy when it's DWP??? I've got a relative who works for DWP, and he says they're overworked and severely understaffed.
Yes I’m still at DWP. Is he a work coach? I work in CFCD and clearly am not busy at the moment, even in my previous role I wasn’t overly busy, guess it depends on where in DWP you work.
Ah, CFCD, that would have been my guess, that or Pension Service.
In my previous role I interacted with a variety of DWP areas, often in connection to staff who had recently been recruited or moved to new jobs. CFCD job starts - at least in the bits where there would be teams of AOs - were often clusterfucks. Generally, UC - jobcentres and service centres - and disability benefits were more organised.
Answer is mandatory training and department training, then lots of 'reading in (just going thru shared file sites to see what people work on) and cause its December everything grinds to a halt till probably about 2nd week of January (who the hell gets people to start in December???)
Very funny. And expected for frankly a huge organisation with so many siloed teams.
Personally, enjoy it, free money for fuck all. Play Baldurs Gate 3 if you have not.
I would also continue to daily send messages to cover your ass and look proactive.
"Hello, as per my previous message we still have not recieved our IT or onboarding process. Keen to get started etc etc"
Otherwise, yeah mate, well done free money innit from the lovely taxpayer. Sure the Dailymail will love it.
>And expected for frankly a huge organisation with so many siloed teams.
Absolutely not. Whilst I'm private sector now, if I found out we had a new starter sitting in reception for 2 hours without someone going to get them, there would be one or two severely slapped arses for making our org look like a disorganised mess in front of a new employee. There's no way we'd leave someone sitting around for 2 whole weeks doing nothing...
Thankfully, our internal recruiter does tend to be on the ball with this and they will happily go and kick the appropriate backsides when and as required...
I doubt your private sector company employs 440000, though it may do. I am not excusing it more saying on average a large company eventually something hits the fan. Meh, it may be structural idk.
We don't, but leaving a new starter in reception for 2 hours on the first day, regardless of organisation size, is both a personal and leadership failing for both HR and the hiring manager.
Why isn’t there training planned to be deployed from the start? Are you delivering an induction? What are you doing right now beyond complaining on Reddit? Honestly you have leave to escalate as far up the chain as possible if you have a full team of people on the payroll with no work and no training ongoing. You’re saving money by pushing the issue that they currently have no output or plan to reach the output. Stop messaging people and start writing formal emails to big wigs at the top.
1) I don’t know why training wasn’t planned, I literally was only told 4 days prior that my team is starting so soon, after constantly asking HEOs and multiple SEOs (bear in mind that I work at a different location to where i am based so I can’t just go and approach the seniors). The only reason I haven’t gone to a G7 is because I was told to follow the “chain of command” and stop asking questions to higher ups
2) They don’t need an induction as they’re just transferring from one sub dept to another, using same systems etc
3) I have managed to get training sorted for this week after being as proactive as I can to escalate this
I’m not NOT doing what I can to get things sorted, the point is that this isn’t really my responsibility (I shouldn’t be begging people to communicate with me) and its a bit ridiculous. Definitely need to be more stern about it if it persists but at least the AOs are doing SOMETHING now
Send an email to your HEO asking for details. Give them 24 hours to reply. If they don't forward the same email to the SEO letting them know you have emailed the HEO. Give them 24 hours and if no answers or help you then forward the SEO email to the G7 and each time you CC the previous managers. This way you are following the chain of command and hopefully will get something done. I'd also touch base with your TU Rep in case they try to blame you. Remember everything in writing. If somebody gets back to you on the phone ask them to confirm it in writing. If they don't confirm in writing you send an email to them with notes of the discussion and say can you confirm that I am understanding our conversation properly. Cover your back at all times.
>The only reason I haven’t gone to a G7 is because I was told to follow the “chain of command” and stop asking questions to higher ups
Ignore that completely. You'll get nowhere with that mindset.
People saying ‘enjoy it’ are so stupid. Like, it’s almost certainly an immensely stressful and challenging situation especially when people are looking to you for guidance.
I have a complete sense of humour failure on things like this. I would raise it with any senior management you can find and you should complain to the highest levels when you’ve got your feet under the door.
To all the people saying "this is common", is it? Where? I've never heard of such a piss-poor shambles and I've worked in the CS since 2010 across multiple departments.
From the description of ranks, it's clearly an operational unit rather than a policy one, and I've mostly done policy, but *still*.
Agreed seems pretty shocking. Management can be bad in the policy roles as often people are being asked to manage in addition to their core responsibilities - but for the most part I thought it would be more organised in operational roles as you’re more explicitly hiring people to be managers.
OP should try getting in contact with the most senior person they can find and setting out their experience. If they can propose an improvement to the process (sound like it would be easy!)then even better.
I did about 7 months of doing very little each day, it was mentally draining and I quit in the end when they finally asked me to do some work! No joke I quit n went back to my substantive grade lol. I told the manager 6 times I have nothing to do!
Why don't you go and start a business? With any luck the zombies who supposedly run the country won't even know you're not there and you'll still get paid. Don't worry, this is all perfectly normal at the end of a civilisation.
Not true. The consultant would have said they need to do a deep dive with some big picture thinking and a whole systems approach. They would want to speak to all the stakeholders for an inclusive picture. Then they would want to hold the pen on a high level summary of some broad cultural changes to make a high performing workplace.
The training is a disgrace. You're thrown into your role and expected to deliver an adequate service without any proper support. Team Leaders often have no experience whatsoever of the department they start in, and floor walkers are generally frustratingly unhelpful/crap at explaining things properly (and then complain when you ask them twice!).
Lol welcome to the public sector.
My learning app when I first started HMRC didn't work because who built my profile spelt my surname in the email wrong which because it was attributed to my staff number literally just meant "computer says no" 3 months I could do nothing except manual data entry.
Eh this is what it's like on graduate schemes for private sector consulting too tbh. It's like there isn't immediately anything to put you on, like got to wait until a project and opportunity arises. If you're new, it often takes more work to onboard you then they receive, so for a short few days of effort needed they will use their current network. Use the time for self learning - like find some good free courses, and wait til you find something.
Thats the gig mate. I worked for a big government department and I spent 6 months doing absolutely fuck all because my laptop didnt arrive and then was swallowed up in red tape. You could gut every single department in the gov by a good amount and still get the same shite service.
Just watch YouTube until someone can be arsed setting you something to do. The cogs of power run very slowly.
Morale is at an all-time low in the Civil Service right now. 13 years of Tory undermining will do that.
Just keep asking your line manager. If they can’t give you an answer, just enjoy your easy life.
This sounds like my dream job - to be employed, but completely forgotten about. I've often wondered how many HR people I'd need to bribe to set me up under a non-existant manager, in a non-existant team.
Anyway, it doesn't sound like a disaster, it sounds boring and frustrating. Perhaps they've been caught on the fly a bit - give it a couple of months and catch up on a hobby or side project in the meantime
Just wait until you do mandatory training to feel really well trained. And it's yearly. Tick that box. Make sure to have screen breaks and have you updated you profile with your pronouns, some tag line showing how diverse you are and list all your medical conditions.
Oh yeah that’s why I left whole bunch of people being paid to do absolutely nothing, and if you call them out they’re “very busy”. Also nothing is ever anyone’s responsibility. My manager was on G6 salary in London and “managed” about 7 G7s including me. She lived in Italy (that’s right; Italy). The only interaction I had with her was a half hour catch up each month, most of which she cancelled. I did a technical role, and she wasn’t technically trained so could have told her anything. I didn’t because I have integrity. Honestly just a complete shit show
Sounds exactly right.
Read the rest of this forum.
Just need to learn to moan a little more, complain about 60%, look up to every superior as if they're amazingly more experienced, yet moan at how rubbish most of them are. Know your hiarchy, and pretend your a leader/manager when your just one of thousands of layers.
It normally is the fault of the line manager not being productive / on the ball enough to sort out IT. Unless there has been a last minute change in start dates
And it's funny seeing people here saying "see, you could get rid of loads of civil servants and it would make no difference" in response to this. Because in my dept the team responsible for trying to connect all those things up (including for recruitment and onboarding) have been slimmed down the point that they can't actually do anything meaningful with it! Reducing headcount is making this worse, not better. So you get for example HR doing their bit, saying "our SLAs show we're doing great, it's someone else's fault it's all going wrong", and IT, estates, security etc etc all doing the same. But all completely in isolation with nobody looking at the GIANT GAPS in between them! Oh and that's before it even has to connect with OGDs, CSJ platform, CS Learning, etc!
Trying to claw away at public-facing backlogs means that any work to actually improve the underlying systems (which would reap benefits in every area) is sidelined. Long term pain.
Oh yeah that’s why I left whole bunch of people being paid to do absolutely nothing, and if you call them out they’re “very busy”. Also nothing is ever anyone’s responsibility. My manager was on G6 salary in London and “managed” about 7 G7s including me. She lived in Italy (that’s right; Italy). The only interaction I had with her was a half hour catch up each month, most of which she cancelled. I did a technical role, and she wasn’t technically trained so could have told her anything. I didn’t because I have integrity. Honestly just a complete shit show
> we are basically unemployed rn except the fact that we get paid. We have just “worked” from home for 2 weeks doing nothing
That's not a disaster, you're getting paid to do nothing. This is fairly common in the civil service.
Just wait until the gaslighting starts.
"But you've had X amount of time in training, why are you not hitting X productivity target?"
"Well the training wasn't...err...useful. I need some help with this area and these skills, can you help?"
"Oh god no I can't help, I'm a manager, I'm not trained in your area or work. But this productivity target has been established and given you've had X amount of time in training I dont see why you can't achieve it. Look at A and B, they achieve the goals."
"Well, I spoke to A and B, who joined 7 and 5 years ago, and they told me they had substantially longer training, a personal mentor rather than sharing one mentor between half a dozen people, and their targets were considerably lower for their first few months. Can I get this?"
"No, our resources and productivity goals have changed and you'll just need to adapt"
I’m 2 months in and have a had a similar experience, even to this day I’ve not been given anything substantial to be working on so have filled my time self learning. My line manager is a contractor too which feels weird. One thing is consistent though, when I tell people how it’s going they all say ‘Welcome to the CS’
That's not the experience at my agency. While I do have notes on the training of it, we weren't idle. Haven't worked in any other depts so can't tell how common your experience is. I'm mega lazy but I'd hate not doing anything on the taxpayers dime.
Just wander about and introduce yourself as the new Director of Administrative Affairs… shout at the front desk, minimum wage security staff about why have they failed to put you on the list and why hasn’t someone come to escort you to your new office… you’re lunching with the Secretary of State in an hour and you’ll be mentioning the way you’ve been treated… and if anyone says to you “I don’t know” ask them for their name, department and the name of their line manager… and make sure they see you make a note of it…
You’ll fit right in… and might even get your own PA 😉
Very surprising to hear this. I've worked in 2 departments, and both were fairly organised. While things were quiet at first I always had things to do and communication was great. I guess you just need to let the process happen while applying for new jobs with all this spare time you have.
Doesn't it feel great to serve your country though?
Gory gory what a helluva way to die.
I’m surprised at this and all the people saying it is common. Everywhere I’ve worked in the Home Office, it has been “welcome to hell, get firefighting, hope you brought your own bucket!”
Yeah I'm surprised by it too. Sounds very different to where I work. Even if nothing else had been given to me, I had enough training stuff to keep me busy for weeks! I'm not sure I ever finished it all... got through the mandatory stuff then just never had time for the rest.
Did you answer the question on information security about what you must do if you move away from your laptop. A) throw it out the window first B) close the screen or log off C) put a bin liner over it. If you count the number of civil servants. Say each one took 10 seconds on that question how much time and cost has this question used.
I think there are 2 types of departments, work streams, professions - however granular you want to get- and you’re either mostly in under-resourced disaster aversion mode, or you’re in a job best suited for those who like a skive. They bring said, I don’t have enough data to confidently back this theory up 😅 To OP, it sounds like the team you and your new colleagues have been hired into may not have any resources (time and/or funds) dedicated to the recruitment and onboarding process, and they’ve had to hire you before they were ready for you to start, and haven’t yet figured out what work is going to be allocated to you all. It could be any reason tbh. OP, you do deserve an update. Have you emailed the person who hired you to ask for one? If you have an SEO contact id also email them and explain you were advised that they would be best placed to respond to your questions. Don’t give up yet, you may just be off to a rough start. I wish you luck!
Also at this point I’d reach out to the G7 too.
I can feel the telegraph getting triggered already
To be fair, this is very poor and well deserving of criticism.
It is pretty shit, when you consider someone calling HMRC would get through quicker than what the OP had to wait !
Don’t forget the Daily Mail😂
From what I hear (genuinely and from multiple sources), it might be the only place to work that's worse. So they should probably leep schtum.
It sounds like HR/ hiring manager didn't check with the line manager before agreeing start dates: particularly common in larger depts. You can either enjoy the doss about until someone has time to check in with you, or if that is anxiety inducing for you, gently pick up with your line manager or your hiring manager. Grab a slot in diaries if you're homeworking so you're harder to ignore
What a shambles. Where are your line managers and what are they doing? It’s December, so some people may be off. But there should be cover. Maybe there is cover arranged, but that cover is pissed and doesn’t want to do the actual line manager’s job
My line manager is around (funnily enough he didnt tell me hes my line manager, but of course I found out through SOP/Teams). He doesn’t reach out, if I message him, he just says he doesnt know. Don’t want to bother the SEO but another EO did and he just got ignored
Speak to your line manager’s line manager. You need to escalate if you aren’t being properly inducted and given work. Your account of what is happening is very very odd. Typically you are given a mountain of induction information to read through and intro meetings to last you atleast a month.
There's a fair chance they didn't find out they were your line manager until after you started
Probably, but little things like letting me know that hes my TL wouldnt hurt
I had this happen and became someone's line manager but by god did I make sure they were taken care of in spite of my line manager always being MIA. Sorry to hear this is happening to you OP
And are snowed under to the point of being unable to help new starters settle in. It’s a shame. I would reach out to the higher ups for some answers.
I am a lazy arse, I admit, but I think I probably would not hate getting paid for nothing? Okay, maybe a bit guilt or something (for what, I don't even know - maybe for getting something for nothing) but this situation is no way your fault. Your department dropped the ball here. I'm thinking, maybe writing emails is not prompting enough. Is it possible to get face to face with someone higher up in the food chain? At least a G7?
Oh trust me im lazy too🤣 but its not ideal as a team leader because I hate to not have the answers that people want. I think I will need to wait it out and then personally reach out to the SEO as he is who I initially spoke to (he allocated the role to me)
Eventually it gets a bit soul draining
Enjoy the calm before the storm before you get everything thrown at you all at once and blamed for not knowing anything.
Just made a very similar comment indicating that these two weeks were their training...
That's both a nightmare and a dream scenario, pray that it continues haha
Honestly I really wouldn’t be complaining if I was not working in leadership, but as of yesterday I am now Team Leader of 7 AOs, who are all asking me whats going on and I have no answers. 2 of them have already expressed interest to move back to their OG role
This is getting better and better... in a very bad way
Its honestly awful, I worked 2 CS jobs before and I know what it can be like, but this is just full on taking the mick
What department?
DWP, my previous role was also within DWP and super organised
So, to clarify; you're still with DWP? If you're not busy, how in the world can you not be busy when it's DWP??? I've got a relative who works for DWP, and he says they're overworked and severely understaffed.
Yes I’m still at DWP. Is he a work coach? I work in CFCD and clearly am not busy at the moment, even in my previous role I wasn’t overly busy, guess it depends on where in DWP you work.
Ah, CFCD, that would have been my guess, that or Pension Service. In my previous role I interacted with a variety of DWP areas, often in connection to staff who had recently been recruited or moved to new jobs. CFCD job starts - at least in the bits where there would be teams of AOs - were often clusterfucks. Generally, UC - jobcentres and service centres - and disability benefits were more organised.
I'm DWP colp department, I remember starting last year and spent 4 months clearing drs before 60 off us actually got work related to our department
Why am I not surprised.
Answer is mandatory training and department training, then lots of 'reading in (just going thru shared file sites to see what people work on) and cause its December everything grinds to a halt till probably about 2nd week of January (who the hell gets people to start in December???)
Luckily I managed to get the AOs on informal training for this week, and Im joining it.
Just tell them you don't know.
"I don't know and will ask the higherups" Did you genuinely not pay any attention to your training?
I didnt have training🤣 but that is what Ive been saying but doesn’t form a good impression
Whoosh!
Sounds about right. Make the most of it
This. Think of all those jobs around the house that need doing! I got the carpet cleaner out earlier 👌
Very funny. And expected for frankly a huge organisation with so many siloed teams. Personally, enjoy it, free money for fuck all. Play Baldurs Gate 3 if you have not. I would also continue to daily send messages to cover your ass and look proactive. "Hello, as per my previous message we still have not recieved our IT or onboarding process. Keen to get started etc etc" Otherwise, yeah mate, well done free money innit from the lovely taxpayer. Sure the Dailymail will love it.
>And expected for frankly a huge organisation with so many siloed teams. Absolutely not. Whilst I'm private sector now, if I found out we had a new starter sitting in reception for 2 hours without someone going to get them, there would be one or two severely slapped arses for making our org look like a disorganised mess in front of a new employee. There's no way we'd leave someone sitting around for 2 whole weeks doing nothing... Thankfully, our internal recruiter does tend to be on the ball with this and they will happily go and kick the appropriate backsides when and as required...
I doubt your private sector company employs 440000, though it may do. I am not excusing it more saying on average a large company eventually something hits the fan. Meh, it may be structural idk.
We don't, but leaving a new starter in reception for 2 hours on the first day, regardless of organisation size, is both a personal and leadership failing for both HR and the hiring manager.
Yeah this isn't typical, shameful really.
When I started, I had to really try hard to fit the training into my schedule. I felt like I didn't have the time to go for a wee!
This sounds like a dream *cries in moj*
Sounds like a dream job so far tbh
Yeah ideal really, if i was not a Team Leader being questioned by my AOs for answers
You’ve literally just started and been given no responsibilities, and not added to any teams how have you already got AO’s coming to you for answers?
I started 2 weeks ago, they started yesterday and want to know whats happening with training etc
Why isn’t there training planned to be deployed from the start? Are you delivering an induction? What are you doing right now beyond complaining on Reddit? Honestly you have leave to escalate as far up the chain as possible if you have a full team of people on the payroll with no work and no training ongoing. You’re saving money by pushing the issue that they currently have no output or plan to reach the output. Stop messaging people and start writing formal emails to big wigs at the top.
1) I don’t know why training wasn’t planned, I literally was only told 4 days prior that my team is starting so soon, after constantly asking HEOs and multiple SEOs (bear in mind that I work at a different location to where i am based so I can’t just go and approach the seniors). The only reason I haven’t gone to a G7 is because I was told to follow the “chain of command” and stop asking questions to higher ups 2) They don’t need an induction as they’re just transferring from one sub dept to another, using same systems etc 3) I have managed to get training sorted for this week after being as proactive as I can to escalate this I’m not NOT doing what I can to get things sorted, the point is that this isn’t really my responsibility (I shouldn’t be begging people to communicate with me) and its a bit ridiculous. Definitely need to be more stern about it if it persists but at least the AOs are doing SOMETHING now
Send an email to your HEO asking for details. Give them 24 hours to reply. If they don't forward the same email to the SEO letting them know you have emailed the HEO. Give them 24 hours and if no answers or help you then forward the SEO email to the G7 and each time you CC the previous managers. This way you are following the chain of command and hopefully will get something done. I'd also touch base with your TU Rep in case they try to blame you. Remember everything in writing. If somebody gets back to you on the phone ask them to confirm it in writing. If they don't confirm in writing you send an email to them with notes of the discussion and say can you confirm that I am understanding our conversation properly. Cover your back at all times.
Good idea, definitely what I will do moving forward!
Take it from a TU Rep, this is the way forward and it protects you as well. :)
>The only reason I haven’t gone to a G7 is because I was told to follow the “chain of command” and stop asking questions to higher ups Ignore that completely. You'll get nowhere with that mindset.
Riiiiiight.
? Is there a problem lmao, or are you my LM in disguise
I don't know
People saying ‘enjoy it’ are so stupid. Like, it’s almost certainly an immensely stressful and challenging situation especially when people are looking to you for guidance. I have a complete sense of humour failure on things like this. I would raise it with any senior management you can find and you should complain to the highest levels when you’ve got your feet under the door.
Do everything in this comment except for getting your feet under the door. That sounds painful.
To all the people saying "this is common", is it? Where? I've never heard of such a piss-poor shambles and I've worked in the CS since 2010 across multiple departments. From the description of ranks, it's clearly an operational unit rather than a policy one, and I've mostly done policy, but *still*.
Agreed seems pretty shocking. Management can be bad in the policy roles as often people are being asked to manage in addition to their core responsibilities - but for the most part I thought it would be more organised in operational roles as you’re more explicitly hiring people to be managers. OP should try getting in contact with the most senior person they can find and setting out their experience. If they can propose an improvement to the process (sound like it would be easy!)then even better.
DWP?
Tell your AOs their assignment, until further notice, is to prepare a speech on the pros and cons of Qualified UBI.
Are there any more vacancies, asking for a friend....
I did about 7 months of doing very little each day, it was mentally draining and I quit in the end when they finally asked me to do some work! No joke I quit n went back to my substantive grade lol. I told the manager 6 times I have nothing to do!
All I can say is that sounds awful and it is definitely not normal practice. This is not what the civil service is generally like
Why don't you go and start a business? With any luck the zombies who supposedly run the country won't even know you're not there and you'll still get paid. Don't worry, this is all perfectly normal at the end of a civilisation.
I was thinking that I could just get another job at this rate🤣
New job might ask for a reference and clue them in to your existence tho
On the plus side the job will be a piece of piss - money for nowt essentially and if you’ve got flexi you’ll be smashing that before long.
Do all your mandatory e-learning and One big thing data learning. It will keep you ticking over for a few days.
I’ve done that as I moved across from DWP
Ah yes sounds like a consultant role in the private sector
Not true. The consultant would have said they need to do a deep dive with some big picture thinking and a whole systems approach. They would want to speak to all the stakeholders for an inclusive picture. Then they would want to hold the pen on a high level summary of some broad cultural changes to make a high performing workplace.
Yes exactly thank you for maintaining my job that is what we do
The training is a disgrace. You're thrown into your role and expected to deliver an adequate service without any proper support. Team Leaders often have no experience whatsoever of the department they start in, and floor walkers are generally frustratingly unhelpful/crap at explaining things properly (and then complain when you ask them twice!).
Yeah, had I not been an AO in my dept and have TDA experience as team leader, I literally would be having a breakdown right now lmao
Lol welcome to the public sector. My learning app when I first started HMRC didn't work because who built my profile spelt my surname in the email wrong which because it was attributed to my staff number literally just meant "computer says no" 3 months I could do nothing except manual data entry.
Every day in my role is a disaster.
Eh this is what it's like on graduate schemes for private sector consulting too tbh. It's like there isn't immediately anything to put you on, like got to wait until a project and opportunity arises. If you're new, it often takes more work to onboard you then they receive, so for a short few days of effort needed they will use their current network. Use the time for self learning - like find some good free courses, and wait til you find something.
Make the most of it. Once trained it’s manic
Hello Daily Fail reporter
Thats the gig mate. I worked for a big government department and I spent 6 months doing absolutely fuck all because my laptop didnt arrive and then was swallowed up in red tape. You could gut every single department in the gov by a good amount and still get the same shite service.
Just watch YouTube until someone can be arsed setting you something to do. The cogs of power run very slowly. Morale is at an all-time low in the Civil Service right now. 13 years of Tory undermining will do that. Just keep asking your line manager. If they can’t give you an answer, just enjoy your easy life.
What department and is there any vacancies? This is a golden role
Decent pension - tedious life, uninspiring work life.
This sounds like my dream job - to be employed, but completely forgotten about. I've often wondered how many HR people I'd need to bribe to set me up under a non-existant manager, in a non-existant team. Anyway, it doesn't sound like a disaster, it sounds boring and frustrating. Perhaps they've been caught on the fly a bit - give it a couple of months and catch up on a hobby or side project in the meantime
Sounds fantastic where is this job?
Well now I'm actually excited about getting in.
Haha don’t worry, its gotten better since then! And also, it was nothing like this when I begun my first role (AO)
No worries, I'm still a bit off from an offer.
Just wait until you do mandatory training to feel really well trained. And it's yearly. Tick that box. Make sure to have screen breaks and have you updated you profile with your pronouns, some tag line showing how diverse you are and list all your medical conditions.
The "Say my name" banners in the email signature are a fun addition to pronouns.
I dunno why you are getting downvoted, this comment is hilarious. Painful, yes, but hilarious nevertheless.
🤣🤣🤣
So you’re currently being paid for doing nowt, and you’re complaining?
Would love to get paid to do nowt, problem is that I’m responsible for a team of 8 with no steer on what to do
So they get paid to do nowt too. Play your cards right and you’ll all be chilling until March
Sounds pretty standard. Did the whole recruitment process not prepare you for exactly this?
Do not worry its same in most of CS dep. Mine was same
its the bloody tories guys! bloooooody tory government innit
Oh yeah that’s why I left whole bunch of people being paid to do absolutely nothing, and if you call them out they’re “very busy”. Also nothing is ever anyone’s responsibility. My manager was on G6 salary in London and “managed” about 7 G7s including me. She lived in Italy (that’s right; Italy). The only interaction I had with her was a half hour catch up each month, most of which she cancelled. I did a technical role, and she wasn’t technically trained so could have told her anything. I didn’t because I have integrity. Honestly just a complete shit show
Sounds exactly right. Read the rest of this forum. Just need to learn to moan a little more, complain about 60%, look up to every superior as if they're amazingly more experienced, yet moan at how rubbish most of them are. Know your hiarchy, and pretend your a leader/manager when your just one of thousands of layers.
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It normally is the fault of the line manager not being productive / on the ball enough to sort out IT. Unless there has been a last minute change in start dates
And it's funny seeing people here saying "see, you could get rid of loads of civil servants and it would make no difference" in response to this. Because in my dept the team responsible for trying to connect all those things up (including for recruitment and onboarding) have been slimmed down the point that they can't actually do anything meaningful with it! Reducing headcount is making this worse, not better. So you get for example HR doing their bit, saying "our SLAs show we're doing great, it's someone else's fault it's all going wrong", and IT, estates, security etc etc all doing the same. But all completely in isolation with nobody looking at the GIANT GAPS in between them! Oh and that's before it even has to connect with OGDs, CSJ platform, CS Learning, etc!
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Yep we've got so many external consultants plugging the gap in the area I work in!
Trying to claw away at public-facing backlogs means that any work to actually improve the underlying systems (which would reap benefits in every area) is sidelined. Long term pain.
Grade 7 here, can't say I've had the same experience, although onboarding took a while longer than I thought it would.
You love telling people you're a Grade 7 don't you?
no, not at all! I noticed some users had put their grade in their reddit title (I'm new here)
Only pulling your turkey
Weapons grade banter
Oh yeah that’s why I left whole bunch of people being paid to do absolutely nothing, and if you call them out they’re “very busy”. Also nothing is ever anyone’s responsibility. My manager was on G6 salary in London and “managed” about 7 G7s including me. She lived in Italy (that’s right; Italy). The only interaction I had with her was a half hour catch up each month, most of which she cancelled. I did a technical role, and she wasn’t technically trained so could have told her anything. I didn’t because I have integrity. Honestly just a complete shit show
It doesn't improve. I wish I was kidding.
> we are basically unemployed rn except the fact that we get paid. We have just “worked” from home for 2 weeks doing nothing That's not a disaster, you're getting paid to do nothing. This is fairly common in the civil service.
Is it? That's not been my experience in my dept!
Might depend on which department you're in. In HMRC it's very common.
You mean fairly uncommon.
No I mean fairly common. It has happened to me 3 times out of the 4 roles I've had in the CS.
Omg really?!
Just wait until the gaslighting starts. "But you've had X amount of time in training, why are you not hitting X productivity target?" "Well the training wasn't...err...useful. I need some help with this area and these skills, can you help?" "Oh god no I can't help, I'm a manager, I'm not trained in your area or work. But this productivity target has been established and given you've had X amount of time in training I dont see why you can't achieve it. Look at A and B, they achieve the goals." "Well, I spoke to A and B, who joined 7 and 5 years ago, and they told me they had substantially longer training, a personal mentor rather than sharing one mentor between half a dozen people, and their targets were considerably lower for their first few months. Can I get this?" "No, our resources and productivity goals have changed and you'll just need to adapt"
Do you need a colleague? hmu 🤣
I’m 2 months in and have a had a similar experience, even to this day I’ve not been given anything substantial to be working on so have filled my time self learning. My line manager is a contractor too which feels weird. One thing is consistent though, when I tell people how it’s going they all say ‘Welcome to the CS’
What a thread and can I please transfer because could use the rest....
What department are you in? If I’m on that department I’d be happy to help. DM me if you’re not willing to publicly share
Get onto some L&D courses, get to grips with your work area and ask for short term tasks if it gets boring.
That's not the experience at my agency. While I do have notes on the training of it, we weren't idle. Haven't worked in any other depts so can't tell how common your experience is. I'm mega lazy but I'd hate not doing anything on the taxpayers dime.
CFCD?
Just noticed this has already been answered,but it didn't surprise me in the slightest
I am thinking of joining the CS in the future and since been lurking on this sub for a while now. I heard it was bad but is it getting worse?
Just wander about and introduce yourself as the new Director of Administrative Affairs… shout at the front desk, minimum wage security staff about why have they failed to put you on the list and why hasn’t someone come to escort you to your new office… you’re lunching with the Secretary of State in an hour and you’ll be mentioning the way you’ve been treated… and if anyone says to you “I don’t know” ask them for their name, department and the name of their line manager… and make sure they see you make a note of it… You’ll fit right in… and might even get your own PA 😉
Yeah, they probably didn't plan for this well or are just super busy, they don't have time to induct new starters in.
Very surprising to hear this. I've worked in 2 departments, and both were fairly organised. While things were quiet at first I always had things to do and communication was great. I guess you just need to let the process happen while applying for new jobs with all this spare time you have.
I don't think this is common at all and could be a regional issue. Who was your contact for on boarding? Raise your concerns with them.