GORDON LIGHTFOOT | Culture
LIVING THE DREAM
Senior Communications Advisor Laura Ferrera had “one of those days” today, spending her entire time in the office trying, and failing, to get a draft email signed off.
“Well I’ve really done right by the taxpayer today haven’t I? Such a great use of time and money,” said the public servant sarcastically.
“Another day another dollar, as they say. Can’t believe it’s a four day week and the days are already dragging, urgh it’s only Tuesday”.
The 35 year old, who’s CV is dotted with stints at various government agencies, has recently begun thinking about what it might be like to work for a profitable company that actually delivers value to customers.
“It must be so different to work for an actual business that provides a service, you know? Like a proper service or product that people are willing to pay for,” she said, as if this was a fascinating concept to describe out loud.
“Well, I’ve only ever worked for government agencies, who are in the business of spending as much money as possible. And often its just for the sake of it. Like, ‘ooh it’s nearly the end of the financial year, we better spend the rest of this money that we’ve taken from people’”.
Living in Wellington, with her skills, the number of government jobs available far outweighs the number of suitable positions for Laura in the private sector. Any endeavour outside of the public service would absolutely come with a pay cut.
“It would be quite a change to work in the private sector. I could be doing something valuable for society! And I would know it was valuable, because people would willingly pay for it. What a concept!,” she exclaimed, finally realising that capitalism isn’t as evil as her university lecturers told her it was.
“And I wouldn’t be chasing people around to sign off on an unneeded email, because no one would pay money for that.”
Despite all this talk, it seems likely that Ms. Ferrara will move from being a permanent public service employee to a government contractor that charges an absurd hourly rate.
More to come.
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