Leaving the Civil Service - some thoughts

After around seven years in the Civil Service, I've decided to complete this part of my career by accepting a voluntary redundancy settlement with my department.

The public sector is going through a massive upheaval and whatever is left at the end of it may well be significantly different to the public sector that many of you grew up knowing.

I could use this post to tear into individual politicians, but that's not in my nature - and this forum isn't the place for that. So I'm going to leave with a few thoughts (well, a lot actually) for you all to ponder on.

Reasons for leaving

I always said that if faced with no choice but to implement a policy that I could not agree with and had real issues over, I would leave the civil service. My policy area has come to the planned end of its natural life. Therefore I am effectively "surplus" with no new policy area to work in.

Looking around the workplace I see a number of people with mortgages, children, families and dependents who need the stability of a permanent job. I'm lucky to be in a situation where I have no dependents and where the redundancy package clears off my debts - leaving a clean slate.

I've got a number of voluntary projects in the pipeline that I can use to expand and refresh my skills sets - without the civil service code hanging over me. These can only really take off with me outside of the civil service.

I also need a break. I've been part of the civil service for longer than any other institution - including primary school. But I've not had the summer holidays that go with it. I haven't had a long break for quite some time, and now seems as good a time as any to take it - to avoid the upheavals.

Advice for anyone going into the civil service of today

There are a lot of anxious people in the civil service right now. That the Fast Stream is pretty much the only publicised route into the civil service means that there will inevitably be some bad blood between those who are fighting for their livelihoods and yourselves coming in as new. Please understand where people are coming from but also don't let people use the circumstances as an excuse to take things out on you. Likewise, please don't kick sand in their faces - it's hard enough as it is for them.

Training budgets everywhere have been cut back bigtime - and in some cases frozen or centralised altogether. You don't have those restrictions. Again, be sensitive to the feelings of others.

I joined the Fast Stream when budgets were expanding - you're not. The challenges that you face will be significantly different to the ones I faced. The worst I had to deal with were complaints about bureaucratic burdens of given policies. You are going to have to face potentially selling the policies and plans that may result in organisations closing and people being made redundant: That makes you a lightning conductor. The challenge is maintaining your dignity in the storm. Remember it's not personal - you're carrying out your constitutional duty as a civil servant delivering for the government of the day.

Your managers will be under huge pressure - some of them may be going through processes of applying for their own jobs - while at the same time having to deal with significant reductions in their own teams. This is not fun by any means. They will need you as much as you need them.

Be VERY careful in how you use social media. The corporate media has had open season on public sector workers. I know a number of people who have had to face media firestorms; it's not fun being doorstepped by journalists at all hours of the morning and having your private life gone through for all and sundry to gossip over.

Join a trade union - if anything because should your department choose to hang you out to dry because of something you posted somewhere, the best thing you can have is a full-time fully-trained press officer to advise you and even respond to media queries on your behalf. Also, there are more than enough reports and quotations of politicians tearing into public sector workers - in particular admin/back office staff and civil servants in general. We're an easy target. Join an organisation that at least stands up for the interests of civil servants, even if the media chooses not to report what they say.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/mar/29/regional-government-disappears-1500-jobs-lost is one former civil servant I once worked with.

And I'll leave it at that.

PR

If you become a Fast Streamer, the union that is recognised by departments as representing your interests is http://www.fda.org.uk/

There's nothing to stop you from being a member of http://www.prospect.org.uk/ or http://www.pcs.org.uk should you so choose.

Finally left the civil service (*Phew!*)

The terms of the Official Secrets Act still bind me, so no, I won't be betraying any confidences undertaken during my time in the Whitehall Jungle. I can however, sink my teeth into politicians who from now on say or do stuff that I disagree with. (I had to be very careful before).

I still note many of you are focussing on the big name departments and appear to be forgetting the less-well-known ones. I was in one of the latter. My biggest achievement? Securing multi-million-pound funding for a health and community centre in one of the most deprived parts of the country at a time when there were significant risks and barriers to that project. You can achieve amazing things in the smaller and/or less well known/less popular departments. Please do not forget or dismiss them.

7 years as a fast streamer... what grade were you when you left?

To Fast Streamers, present and former:

In terms of career development and salary, are the 4 years spent without a promotion or significant raise (as I understand it) worth it? I am about to start my placement, but my current employer has made an attractive offer for me to stay. While I still want to work in the Civil Service eventually, am pondering whether Fast Stream is the best way to do this, or whether I can return externally in a few years time, having gained experience etc. elsewhere.

Any thoughts or advice would be welcome, as I am really struggling with this decision.

Thanks.