How to Leave Public Service and Stay Alive

“And how do you imagine it? And who will work for you? You betray your family,” these are the first words of my leader to the phrase about a possible departure.

Hello, my name is Mikhail, and I am a state worker. A programmer who was able to grow from a simple junior programmer to the head of the IS development department. I went to such a long career growth for 8 whole years, thanks to which I found several good friends and buddies, a cool team, and just grew from a green student to a leader (probably even a very good one). At the same time, there were many BUTs. It is about such BUT and will be discussed.

1. Work is family

My boss kept repeating that I have obligations to the team. We need to stick together, we have a common task, and in general we see each other more often than with wives and children.

“Are you going to frame your colleagues? Do you have any idea how they will look at this?” – These words are in the very first echelon of managerial tricks to keep an employee and put pressure on his conscience and responsibility.

You don’t have to treat your work like a family, otherwise the family will soon turn into a job that will kick you out.

2. Nobody works for money

A constant dilemma – have you already become a good specialist who wants to start earning, or are you still a green student? Suddenly there are a bunch of specialists who work many times better than you?

“For such a salary there are a lot of students, they are ready to work for 10 thousand, and you show off here” – I heard such words several times from the highest leadership. For them, my experience should not correlate with salary in any way. There are a lot of memes on the Internet about the work of IT’s in the state. enterprises, probably many have seen them. When for 20 thousand you have to work overtime and know everything.

I can say that it took me 8 years to get to the salary of 80 thousand. 10 thousand a year. Many workers outside the ITU have always said that we have huge salaries. Of course, if you compare with their salary of 25-30 thousand, then yes, we have big salaries. And on the Russian market, this is practically nothing. Slave work.

We always thought that everything would be fine, now we will finish the plan and start living. But this did not happen. And it won’t happen.

We need to live for today so that tomorrow is better. The dollar is growing after all, but salaries are not particularly.

3. If you don’t have employees, do the work for them yourself.

This point has always pissed me off the most. With the approved work plan for the year, we constantly had to do work in excess of the plan. Something will always happen, you will constantly have to look for new solutions and resources that are not there.

In this case, the bosses would say, “It means YOU are not working well if YOU do not have time. I don’t care how, but you must do everything within the approved deadline. Otherwise, you will have problems.” And I dutifully had to sit down and program, test, implement, describe the process. In general, to combine both a young youth with paws, and a pea jester with a pipe, and a fakir who calms evil users.

If you are forced to do work for others, this is the problem of your management, because it was the boss who did not think about resources and deadlines. Throwing responsibility on your subordinates is a nuance of working in a state-owned enterprise.

4. Nobody needs you, except for our enterprise.

This was the thought that my superiors had put into their heads from the very beginning of the work. Where he was born – so it came in handy. Why look for something else, if everyone here is already relatives, their city, their team. If you want a free day, take a break, but if something happens, you will have to work for a week after work.

I can say that after 4 years of work I have already become a specialist ready to go further. All IT people constantly think that they don’t know a lot of things and their experience doesn’t mean anything at all. All people are afraid to be interviewed, to share their knowledge and experience. And suddenly they will say that I do not fit, that I will remain alone with a broken trough.

You need to eradicate this feeling of constant low self-esteem in yourself. You are not just sitting at the workplace, you are paid money for something. Although there may be a lot of people in the civil service who spit at the ceiling, but this is not about you, right? 🙂

5. Are you tired? Burnt out? And what to me? Do you think it’s easier for me?

Not only I went through this, but all the employees who left. From my own experience I can say that people who were responsible will always be so. It cannot be that a person wakes up and abruptly becomes lazy and careless. Most likely, the person just burned out due to constant stress and he does not like the working conditions.

Do not fall for managerial tricks that try to get through to your conscience. Propaganda works on state channels in a similar situation. And in Africa there is no water at all, but you have heating and water, why are you outraged?

6. New chairs? Office renovation? There are so many hands of workers here, let’s do it.

I can honestly say that I am not used to working with my hands. He was brought up in a family of builders, and a programmer came out. But I never thought that I could be forced to do renovations in the office. Although 7 years ago I thought it was normal. “You are doing this for yourself, for your own good” – seems to be the right idea, but now it seems wild to me. We cut out an arch between two offices to make it easier to work and not run down the corridor to colleagues.

And six months ago, my partner asked for a new chair, because the old one just fell apart and it was dangerous to sit on it. The boss brought us to a warehouse with completely broken chairs and offered to assemble a designer from what we had. “Guys, well, we don’t have money for chairs. Gather them, twist them and sit, what nonsense are you doing.” My colleague ended up bringing his own chair from home. And he quit after a couple of months. For him, this was the last straw.

If your employer is trying to force you to do something that is completely unrelated to your work, refuse. It’s his job to make his employee feel comfortable. You will see your workplace as much time as your home bed. Do not neglect your own convenience, because the grain of stress will eventually turn into a tree.

When I applied for my resignation, my boss put all management issues on my shoulders. I was to blame for the fact that the whole old team got together and left, that we did not have a replacement, that I let everyone down, and she wanted to put me in her place. Just need to wait. Maybe 5 years and everything will be fine. The dream is here, just reach out and be patient.

A small confession came out of my own emotions and inner anger. But on the lips there is a sweet taste of change that makes the blood boil like in my 18 years.