Great Western Coffee Shop

The Transport Secretary has confirmed that the DfT Rail Group has 35 vacant posts and employs 50 interim members of staff, according to Transport Briefing.

Ah, so it's just understaffed then. There's me thinking the DfT Rail Group was populated by headless chickens.  :D

So why does it attempt to do jobs for which is not staffed^? It's now a year since the report on the franchising fiasco and the Civil Service still attempts to do things it must know it can't and as a result b****rs things up for everyone?

Perhaps that is why it is talking about a negotiated FGW 5 year extension

Here, for your further delectation, is the Permanent Secretary to the DfT, speaking to us on the Importance of Internal Communications - http://railwayeye.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/rutnam-speaks.html?m=1

The clip doesn't reveal whether he managed to find anyone left within the department to communicate internally with..

PS - My favourite bit comes just before the end, when the computer monitor behind him goes blank  ;D

I'm a civil servant, and object to some of the comments. Although I didn't join the civil service to work for a living, I find that I have been stretched to excess on occasions over the years, doing for 10 years a job that entailed 24/7 callout and actual days of 4am to 1am at times.

I might ask for a transfer. I have less than 2 years to go to my pension, and a higher grade would make it more remunerative. Freeloader? Just winding down...

A reflection from someone who has worked both in the public sector and for an medium sized company.

In the public sector there was for some (but not all) a public service ethos that would mean we would put extra hours in sometimes. However, I was aware that for some of my colleagues it was just a job and they were in it for whatever they could get away with.

As an employee of an SME (Small or Medium Sized Enterprise) I am aware that if we get into financial trouble, no one will bail us out and I would probably loose my job and so would my colleagues. I am also aware that some of my colleagues have not made this connection and consider it as a job and they are in it for whatever they can get away with.

The end is little different even if the motivation is different.

Very true - ethos doesn't put food on the table. And no-one, on his deathbed, ever said "I wish I'd spent more time at work".