Decreasing morale in the public sector

A survey by Mori and The Work Foundation has shown a surprising rise in "unhappiness" in the public sector since February. A shift not mirrored in the private sector. The main overall finding suggests public sector workers are nearly three times as likely to be critics of the services they provide as private sector workers.

More specifically, one in six (17 per cent) of public sector workers say they would be critical of the services they provide, up from ten per cent in February. There has also been a decrease in dissatisfaction with senior managers in both sectors (10 per cent), although private sector managers continue to get better overall ratings.

It is believed the rise in unhappiness can be attributed to a decrease in trust of senior management and a breach of the implicit part of the employment relationship over pension arrangements. In other words, it would appear that senior managers are having problems in managing the psychological contracts held by public sector employees. See Growing dissatisfaction amongst public sector workers for more details and links to further technical data.