Spanish civil servant admits boredom due to low workload
A Spanish civil servant confesses he is bored by a lack of work after being promoted. The debate over public sector inefficiency in Spain.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
The bored civil servant: when promotion reduces the workload
A civil servant from Spain's General State Administration confesses that, after years of promotions, his workload has shrunk to the point of boredom. He now completes in two hours what used to take him the whole morning. He is not an isolated case: the thread reveals an institutional culture where individual efficiency is penalised and inaction is rewarded.
Promotion as punishment
Climbing the ranks in the Spanish public sector, far from increasing responsibilities, often eliminates them. The civil servant's account matches that of others who have seen how moving up the scale means taking on supervisory tasks with no real substance. "The higher you climb, the less you do," one participant sums up. Promotion becomes a punishment: you move away from hands-on work and become a superfluous node.
The contrast with the private sector
While in the private sector the pressure for results is constant, in the public sector the absence of competition and job protection create an environment where a lack of workload is possible. A programmer who moved to the public sector describes how deadlines stretch out without consequences and how trying to work fast breaks the harmony of the environment. "What the private sector demands in days can be stretched out here for weeks," he explains.
A solution? None, as always
The debate ends with an ironic dismissal: "We're going to do nothing to fix it." Most assume the system is designed for permanence, not efficiency. Some even recount cases of punished civil servants: an employee who was too meticulous was sent to an office with no work for two years. The question left hanging: who pays the bill for this inefficiency? The answer, as long as public funding allows, is nobody.
Related discussions in the forum
A civil servant from Spain's General State Administration confesses that, after years of promotions, his workload has shrunk to the point of boredom. He now completes in two hours what used to take him the whole morning. He is not an isolated case: the thread reveals an institutional culture where individual efficiency is penalised and inaction is rewarded.
Promotion as punishment
Climbing the ranks in the Spanish public sector, far from increasing responsibilities, often eliminates them. The civil servant's account matches that of others who have seen how moving up the scale means taking on supervisory tasks with no real substance. "The higher you climb, the less you do," one participant sums up. Promotion becomes a punishment: you move away from hands-on work and become a superfluous node.
The contrast with the private sector
While in the private sector the pressure for results is constant, in the public sector the absence of competition and job protection create an environment where a lack of workload is possible. A programmer who moved to the public sector describes how deadlines stretch out without consequences and how trying to work fast breaks the harmony of the environment. "What the private sector demands in days can be stretched out here for weeks," he explains.
A solution? None, as always
The debate ends with an ironic dismissal: "We're going to do nothing to fix it." Most assume the system is designed for permanence, not efficiency. Some even recount cases of punished civil servants: an employee who was too meticulous was sent to an office with no work for two years. The question left hanging: who pays the bill for this inefficiency? The answer, as long as public funding allows, is nobody.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (38 replies).
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