This was exactly my position many years ago, it really appealed to me to be able to help the people in our local area. I knew the salary would never be anything like as good, but the job security was hopefully better and it did feel good to be working for local people.MartDude wrote:I may be a little out of date here - I quit Local Govt. (middle management) in '96 - .........................................................Gio wrote:I expect its a darn sight more than anyone in a similar job in the private sector.
..................................................................................................
Many of us in Local Government were genuinely committed to the concept of 'public service' - we felt that we were contributing to the wellbeing of the communities we served. That too has been steadily eroded over the the last two decades - part of the reason I left.
There were never any bonusses or anything for projects completed, but occasionally there was something that really made you proud.
About nine years or so ago the government decided to provide funding for the N.O.F. "Peoples Network".
Local Authorities were given funding to put 2Mb internet links into all public libraries for public use.
I managed to design and build a network using a 100Mb link into each site for less that the budget allocation for BT 2mb links and we were officially commended as the best service in the north if not the whole country.
The other thing about this was that the bandwidth allowed us to install many more PCs.
The thing that got to me though was how it was used. Soon after implementation there would be an invasion of the library with kids from the loccal Comp. trying the be first to the library PCs to use Word and the like to do their homework, A lot of kids in our area had no chance of getting PCs at home in those days.
Even better was the pensioners. It was always sad to see them sat together on benches in the local district townships, where their daily highlight was having a chat to their friends and feeding the pidgeons.
Suddenly the libraries were full of "silver surfers". We had to build extra facilities in many of the libraries, often finding separate areas, so the pensioners and kids could be kept apart. The silver surfers liked to learn slowly from their own mistakes, (possibly with help from one of their own group) and the kids were always too eager to jump in and tell them where they were doing things wrong.
If I have achieved nothing else in my life it is nice to look back and say I designed and built all those services for the local people.
Sad I know, but that meant more to me than a £50K bonus,
(then again how many bikes could I have bought nine years ago for £50k)
