A debate has raged since a survey conducted by Barclays corporate and the Financial Times shows that 52% of the private sector would not employ public sector workers who may lose their jobs in the government spending cuts.

Conversely, a survey conducted by recruitment agency Badenoch and Clark show that 44% of public sector workers surveyed, think that their skills will not transfer into the private sector.

I would like some feedback from anyone with insider knowledge as to why the private sector employers and the public sector workers think this way.

44% of public sector employees surveyed thought that they would not need retraining to join the private sector, whilst the same number expects to work within the public sector for life.

The private sector does not appear to have this perception of a job for life.  Could there also be assumptions that public sector workers learn one job very well, and then are promoted within that business area only, for example, within the finance dept.  Their skills are concentrated in one department, thus limiting their employability.

The public sector has also much stricter union participation, as well as employment regulations than the private sector so employees’ rights are much more protected. Could these people deal with the private sectors less strict regulations?

There is also a perception that communication flows from the top down in the public sector and that all business processes are filtered down  to the “shop floor”, not allowing for any input from non managerial  employees.  Creativity and individualism is actively encouraged in the private sector so there could potentially be difficulties in adjusting to that way of working.  I’d be interested to hear what others think on this subject.

As I have never worked in the public sector myself, I do not have any firsthand experience of the processes involved from an employees perspective, but I have had to deal with them as a stakeholder, and in a B2B context where I have found the communication channels to be slow, bureaucratic and rather lacking in any imagination when dealing with end users.

Have I opened a can of worms or shall we get some interesting debates going regarding this subject?