Public sector workers are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with their jobs, new research shows.
The second Workers Index, by pollsters MORI and the Work Foundation, finds that unhappiness in the public sector has increased since February.
One in six (17%) of public sector workers say they would be critical of the services they provide, up from 10% in February.
Decreased morale in the public sector is also suggested by more than a quarter of public sector workers (27%).
Distinctions between the public and private sector emerge in their views of their senior management. While dissatisfaction with senior managers has risen by 10 percentage points since February in both sectors, senior managers in the private sector continue to get better ratings.
Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance
Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday
David Coats, associate director at The Work Foundation, said: “These are worrying findings for the government, reflecting declining trust in the public sector as an employer.
“In part, the discontent may be explained by the public service pensions debate, still raging at the time the research was conducted. Increasing the retirement age of public servants was seen as a significant threat to the ‘implicit contract’ with their employer.”
