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Is the private sector much harder than the public (specifically I.T)?

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  • Nov 13th, 2016 12:12 pm
Member
Nov 25, 2013
247 posts
77 upvotes
Scarborough, ON

Is the private sector much harder than the public (specifically I.T)?

I got a degree in Computer Science, and my first related job was in a government I.T Department.
Overall its a pretty chill place - rather boring, and with the office politics and a few alpha wannabes... but overall chill.

Contrast to this, my sister, who has had 3 jobs in the private sector (contracts of a few months each). And she considered them hell. Same field, same degree.
I have one more acquaintance who had one hellish job (according to him) in the private sector and one that was okay.

Now the sample size is too small to reliably draw conclusions - but is there a wide gulf in 'hecticness' or generally psychological stress being higher in the private sector than public?

I would expect some degree of difference, but Im unsure of how big it is. Please share your observations/experiences.
14 replies
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Jan 1, 2013
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When a Public sector employee gets stressed, its easily alleviated when they remember their pension. At least thats what happens with my wife lol
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Mar 7, 2007
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I have had a chance to work for both. I hated public service. So much happier working in the private sector. That's just me.

Sometimes, contractors get mistreated because of their temporary status... I know some banks don't treat IT contractors the same that they treat regular employees (I'm trying to say it nicely). Also, I know contractors that are quite happy doing what they do (even at the banks, for example). It depends on the team, on the manager, and your personality.
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Mar 23, 2008
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Contractors are often brought in to work on projects that are behind schedule and over-budget. This often means "not much fun". That can happen in both private enterprise and public service.

I've done contract for government, and that project was pretty relaxed. I've done contract for banks and energy, and sometimes it's more stressful but more money (since I'm paid hourly), sometimes it's relaxed. There's no generalization to be made, IMHO. Depends on the projects you're working on and managers.

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Jan 11, 2004
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alot of it work is pretty much out sourced..
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Mar 10, 2011
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A former co-worker of mine at a high stress private sector employer, moved on to a government IT job and said it was pretty relaxing with nobody being pushed to meet deadlines. This is for full time permanent employment, not on contract.
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Oct 29, 2016
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Montreal
The private sector comes with a higher chance for high paying positions, but also more risks (lay offs, outsourcing, market related problems, restructuring, etc). A good exemple is the Silicon Valley hype in 2006-2007 where we were seeing 20-somethings pulling 150k/year salaries, then a lot of them suddently got fired due to their jobs being shipped to India/Vietnam. The problem with computer science is that while it remains in high demand, it is extremely easy to outsource and companies are slowly trying to do more outsourcing for these jobs considering that it is more profitable to them to pay some M.Sc/Ph.D grad 35k/year in India to do the job than pay some guy here 120k/year for the same position. Consider this sector a high risk/high reward one, you could easily network your way into good paying jobs but can also end up in a dead end job where the threat of outsourcing is close.

The public sector is more for job safety and stability than profitability. Government jobs are known to be cushy jobs with very competitive packages, but remain very competitive due to all the kids who can't make it in the private sector. The pay will be lower but you can easily last 30 years there without worrying about your job. The only real threat here is the government budget cuts, and this might become a bigger issue as time goes by and the government starts struggling with their budget policy (You're part of the generation that's basically paying for the babyboomer's mistakes).
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Mar 26, 2015
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motomondo wrote: I have had a chance to work for both. I hated public service. So much happier working in the private sector. That's just me.

Sometimes, contractors get mistreated because of their temporary status... I know some banks don't treat IT contractors the same that they treat regular employees (I'm trying to say it nicely). Also, I know contractors that are quite happy doing what they do (even at the banks, for example). It depends on the team, on the manager, and your personality.
Can I ask why you hated the public sector?
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Mar 7, 2007
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canucky1 wrote:
motomondo wrote: I have had a chance to work for both. I hated public service. So much happier working in the private sector. That's just me.

Sometimes, contractors get mistreated because of their temporary status... I know some banks don't treat IT contractors the same that they treat regular employees (I'm trying to say it nicely). Also, I know contractors that are quite happy doing what they do (even at the banks, for example). It depends on the team, on the manager, and your personality.
Can I ask why you hated the public sector?
The red tape, the culture, I just couldn't get used to it. This was a place that has bad reviews on Glassdoor, but I decided to accept the offer. I guess I had one bad experience, and I don't want to generalize. It is one of those situations that "your mileage may vary".

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Dec 5, 2015
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Kkhan15 wrote: When a Public sector employee gets stressed, its easily alleviated when they remember their pension. At least thats what happens with my wife lol
Public sector pension is garbage compared to many private ...usually need 1:1 contribution and maxes out at like 10℅ and no stock options or bonuses

My private sector pension is 13℅ lump sum per year and I don't have to pay a cent to match to get it ..and still get bonuses and stock
Member
Nov 10, 2013
492 posts
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Richmond Hill, ON
GrandePike wrote:
My private sector pension is 13℅ lump sum per year and I don't have to pay a cent to match to get it ..and still get bonuses and stock
but it's likely not inflation adjusted, like most (all?) gov pensions are...
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Jul 4, 2004
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Ottawa
Having worked in both, I would say that in general (but there are always exceptions), public sector work is noticeably easier. There's usually no pressure to be at the forefront of technology (in fact you often can't even use it (e.g. now PCs with the FedGov come with Windows7) so most of anything you do has already been done. That said, my actual job is not much different than the one I was doing with the private sector. There's much less stress both from the workload and deadlines point of view. There's also much, much better job security (basically, if you are an indeterminate employee, other than doing something criminal, you've got a job for life). Contracting is a bit different in that projects get cancelled at the drop of a hat and you usually get pretty much no notice for extensions and cancellations but that's not really any different than private sector.

Salaries are very different than private (and can be frustrating). From my observations, low-level / "easy" positions pay very well, higher-level / "complex" positions pay very poorly (i.e. it wouldn't be hard to find tech-support staff that make as much (or possibly more) than senior developers / architects / DBAs / etc. Salary ranges are fixed and determined by the type of job (i.e. anything in IT (CS job) will be in the same range and it doesn't matter what the actual job is). There are no bonuses and salary increases are fixed and the same across the board. (I suspect that if I wanted to return to the private sector, I could probably make 30-50% more very easily and maybe even 100% more if I found a really good opportunity. I make less now with the government with 20+ years of experience than I was making 15-20 years ago with 3-5 years of experience).

As far as pensions, I'm sure there are exceptions but in general Public Sector pensions are much better (and more solvent) than Private Sector pensions. Many Public pensions are defined benefits while most (all ?) Private sector pensions (if you even have one) will be defined contribution. Obviously, it depends on the terms but in general, a defined benefit pension can be significantly better than a defined contribution pension.
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Sep 4, 2007
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vancouver
Depends on what you mean by hard. Public sector has its own stresses: blatant politics interfering with the business of government, insane red tape for small insignificant dollars, incompetence with lack of accountability, high workload on those who are actually doing the work.

At the individual contributor level, you're probably better off in public sector. At higher levels, it might actually be harder. The jobs can be quite political and high profile. Plus you have to deal with the fact that it's very, very, very difficult to fire bad staff and it takes a long time to get anything done at the leadership level. So you either have to accept mediocre results, pressure your good staff to do more work, or take on the work yourself. All this for what? 10-20% more pay than a senior analyst? The equivalent private sector role would pay like 100%-200% more than the public sector role.
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Jan 15, 2016
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That is not the norm for a private sector plan.

I've averaged a 2+4% DC plan over the last few jobs and it would be considered ok from a benefits standpoint.
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Mar 17, 2016
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They work you like a dog in the private sector and the pay isn't really that great

Public is catching up rapidly pay wise. The stability and work-life balance are 10 levels above anything private sector offers.

I chuckle when all my private sector friends tell these stories of working weekends and staying 2-4 hours after work hours when I leave 5 minutes early every day and no one asks me to work extra

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