I work in the public sector of Denmark. I make around 20-25% less of my peers in similar private sector functions. I have a friend that I graduated with who’s hopped between a few public sector jobs and for him the number is 5-10%.
On the flip side, I work completely flexible hours. Never more than 37hours a week, and within those 37 hours I get a paid lunch break, so it’s really 34,5 hours a week. It brings flexible, I’ve sometimes had 70 hour weeks doing big transitions or elections (we do digitised voter signin, and there is a lot of preparation involved to make sure it doesn’t fuck up and that everyone knows what to do if it does). In Denmark everyone in stable jobs gets to take the first day of a child being sick off. I get three days. Every man gets 2 weeks of paid and guaranteed paternity leave, I get 13 weeks. I get two extra paid vacation days per child under 13 a year (up to 3 or 4 children, not sure about the limit). I get an extra week of paid vacation a year compared to the national standards. If I have to see a doctor or a dentist, I can do so on and count the time as working hours. And I get to work in an environment where people won’t bat an eye when you use these things, you obviously can’t abuse them without getting attention.
We have some of the lowest corruption in the world, and while our leaderships and management structure is archaic and IT is completely undervalued considering every one of our employees uses it at least 1 hour a day and about two thousand of them spend their entire day working with computers, it’s not terrible.
Like I said, the pay is lower than the private sector, but IT is paid well, so even though I could make more money outside the public sector, I still make more money a month than my mother who’s been a anaesthetic nurse for 39 years. The only professions who rank in more money than me outside of tech is things like doctors, lawyers and middlemanagers. So I think it’s fair enough. Obviously my boss has the same benefits as me and he makes around tripple of what I do, so it’s still better to be a manager in the public sector than an IT grunt.
If you actually calculate your pay per amount of work and I mean just taking the official time - 37 hours /week and vacations, you'll actually get to similar numbers as your private sector colleagues. So the basic question is not whether you'd accept a lower pay, but whether you'd accept working less. Then you can add as bonuses the increased flexibility and less stress... Is there a difference in job stability between private and public jobs?
We have yearly budget cuts, so far I’ve not been involved and I likely won’t be, but it’s a yearly stress factor for everyone as the political level and the administration CEO later spends months figuring out how to cut.
Our private sector is still relatively booming for developers, so there is always jobs openings. People tend to shop around more in the private sector though.
He’s not completely off though. I have friends in the private sector who work more than the 37 hours because the culture is like that, because they enjoy it, because it speeds their career or a combination. It’s gotten less and less as we age, but still, some of them have pushed some really long weeks in their younger years.
On the flip side, I work completely flexible hours. Never more than 37hours a week, and within those 37 hours I get a paid lunch break, so it’s really 34,5 hours a week. It brings flexible, I’ve sometimes had 70 hour weeks doing big transitions or elections (we do digitised voter signin, and there is a lot of preparation involved to make sure it doesn’t fuck up and that everyone knows what to do if it does). In Denmark everyone in stable jobs gets to take the first day of a child being sick off. I get three days. Every man gets 2 weeks of paid and guaranteed paternity leave, I get 13 weeks. I get two extra paid vacation days per child under 13 a year (up to 3 or 4 children, not sure about the limit). I get an extra week of paid vacation a year compared to the national standards. If I have to see a doctor or a dentist, I can do so on and count the time as working hours. And I get to work in an environment where people won’t bat an eye when you use these things, you obviously can’t abuse them without getting attention.
We have some of the lowest corruption in the world, and while our leaderships and management structure is archaic and IT is completely undervalued considering every one of our employees uses it at least 1 hour a day and about two thousand of them spend their entire day working with computers, it’s not terrible.
Like I said, the pay is lower than the private sector, but IT is paid well, so even though I could make more money outside the public sector, I still make more money a month than my mother who’s been a anaesthetic nurse for 39 years. The only professions who rank in more money than me outside of tech is things like doctors, lawyers and middlemanagers. So I think it’s fair enough. Obviously my boss has the same benefits as me and he makes around tripple of what I do, so it’s still better to be a manager in the public sector than an IT grunt.