Public servants’ workplace reality a utopian dream for the rest of us
Areport comparing the performance of different sectors of the New Zealand economy over the Covid year was published recently on Stuff.
Using an algorithm developed by Infometrics, the report benchmarked current annual growth rate against a combination of historical annual growth rate in that sector (75 per cent weighting) and the whole economy (25 per cent weighting).
While someone with a better knowledge of economics might poke holes through this means of quantifying annual economic activity, as means of comparison between sectors it seems OK.
Not surprisingly, the agriculture and construction sectors, especially residential, performed well over the last year compared to manufacturing services and retail. The latter took a big dive because of the lockdowns and border closure.
The star performer though was the government sector, ‘‘with healthcare, education, and the broader public service all recording sizeable employment increases’’.
So while the activities of making and selling things, aside from houses, declined considerably over the past 12 months, more people were employed from the tax take to spend the remaining tax to improve the quality of life and well-being of the average New Zealander.
That’s what taxes are for of course, but one wonders how long it can last when the tax take is declining but the tax spend is up. I’m glad I’ll not be in charge of the economy over the next few years.
When you start to look a bit harder at government spend, particularly the public service (Te Kawa Mataaho), you can see why it’s been so busy.
Data available from their website show public servant numbers increasing from 45,895 to 57,149 between 2016 and 2020, and by nearly 9 per cent during 2020.
The vast majority of public servants would have continued to receive their full wage during lockdown and thereafter, some working incredibly hard in trying circumstances to keep us safe. Maybe this is also why the government sector was pumping last year, at least in terms of money-go-round.
So who are these people working in the public service, a lead part of the rock-star government sector? Again, data available from the Public Service Commission can tell us.
With an average age of 44, and being 66.3 per cent European, 15.9 per cent Ma¯ori, 9.7 per cent Pacific, and 11.6 per cent Asian, their selfidentified ethnicity reflects our population mix.
Women make up 61.7 per cent of the public sector workforce, and 53 per cent of senior management. While senior appointments are dished out fairly evenly between genders, overall employment has a strong female bias.
Average salary is $84,000, average time in the job is 8.5 years, and average unplanned staff turnover is around 10 per cent. There’s a ‘‘gender pay gap’’ of 9.6 per cent, though it’s not clear how gender is defined.
In any case, in May Te Kawa Mataaho is performing New Zealand’s first Public Service Census. Their employees will be asked questions on diversity, inclusion and well-being at work to get a better understanding of the diversity of public servants, their experiences, views and motivations. The idea is this exercise ‘‘will help build a unified public service that truly represents the people we serve, where public servants feel supported to be themselves at work’’.
On the other hand, as the operator of a small business, where there is no sick leave, long-service leave, maternity leave, conference leave, super, or even weekends, one can’t help but think that our public service make up doesn’t entirely ‘‘represent the people they serve’’.
One also can’t help but compare the seemingly buoyant government sector with the plight of many business owners in service and retail who, directed by those financially secure in the bosom of the public service, were asked to lock up shop this time last year and wait for directions.
So while the expanding public service goes through some costly navel-gazing, there are plenty of small and medium businesses which have had a belly full, having borne the economic brunt of managing Covid. No-one will ask those business owners if they feel supported in their work.
They’ve used up all the fat in their system and could do with some service themselves.
Steve Stannard is a Palmerston North business owner and former academic.