Public Sector being a Guarantor of Job Security is a Myth

I have worked in IT industry in MNC for nearly 5 years and I have observed the work culture very closely.

1. There are lot of opportunities for bright minds but office politics can let you down most of the times (will get poor rating and appraisals due to politics and delay in promotions).

2. Profit earning motto of company will squeeze you till your last drop - you need to work in night shifts, weekends, odd timings, can't take holidays whenever required.

3. Need to update yourself everyday - initially it seems thrilling but after the age of 35 with family responsibilities, studying, updating knowledge after office hours will be tiresome for work and interviews.

4. Work to salary ratio is not very encouraging - the amount of hard work and time you are giving and salary you are drawing is a mismatch many times. Moreover salary increment will be stagnated at some point of time.

5. No Job security - You can enjoy high packages but once the market crashes or company goes into losses, there will be scarcity of job opportunities in the market no matter how talented you are. Moreover employees with high salaries in the organization are slayed first and they find difficult in getting new jobs at the same or higher packages in recession.

6. No time for family - Both husband and wife need to work in metro city if they have to earn sufficient amount for survival, paying heavy installments, children education etc. So no time for children and couples (most of the couples can spend time only on weekends). Its sad but true.

The biggest fear is what if I have taken a loan of 50 Lacs and paying heavy installments of 50 thousand each month and I have been slayed off from the company and didn't find another suitable job in next 3-4 months. Think. What could happen to the family stability and environment.

And moreover wasting 2 hours of your life in traffic everyday in metro cities and no pension after retirement. Gosh. It sucks.

So please my opinion is that work little hard for a year and get a decent government job so that you can spend a quality life for next 50 years.

Hi friends.

As very interesting discussion is going on, so couldn't stop myself posting some comments. Please do not compare public and pvt. Sectors, both the sectors are equally working for integrity and development of country. I am working in a Oil marketing company and life misery here is not less than a pvt MNC. We also have targets quarterly as well as yearly and these all targets are related to our PMS. And please break the myth that being in a PSU you can sit answer relax, I am sharing you my job timing. It starts sharp at 9 AM and can extends to 7PM, 8PM or even 9, 10.

Moreover if you doing comparison of salaries, yes, PSUs pays fatter packages in beginning, but it has steady growth 3% fixed per year and as far as DA is concerned it merely matters because it depends upon inflation. But look at the scenario after 15-20 years, pvt MNC guys will be much ahead of me.

Its your wish to choose private or public sector, nobody is bound. If somebody has talent he can enter any sector at any phase of life.

Dont feel jealous of PSU or govt sector employees, they have gained it. If working on some softwares/ typing at 80wpm/ speaking fluent English is so called 'skills' in private companies, then make a second thought dude. PSU officers are far more intelligent and TOP RATED talent of country, more tech savvy.

And yes we even at PSU work at Sundays and public holidays. In last six months I have not taken a single CL/PL or any other form of leave and I am working 1000 miles away from my home. Do you have such courage?

If yes, then plan to appear in GATE, then fight with 2 million candidates and you are welcome in this elite group to enjoy this so called LUXURY.

Its interesting to see the all the comments. Frankly its a never ending debate "Private sector vs public sector: which is best". Both has its pros and cons. But Overall one can conclude post 2008 that life in public sector is better then private sector in long run. Why? Life is a marathon and not a sprint or jump. So one needs to look his career future for a span of 33 years atleast till age of 60 (especially for middle class families).

A Government employee can be sure from the date of joining that his job is secured till age of 60. But private sector works on "perform or perish" (this 3 words are very difficult and dangerous in private company trust me). Its very difficult for someone to achieve every goal (many times unrealistic) set by his company throughout a period of 33 years of job life. Although there are some good private companies who provide good job culture and also job security, but very few in number.

Most private sector employees in India is from IT. Trust me in IT at any moment, the world can turn upside down for you any moment. I have been working in IT for past 6 years and know the difficulties faced everyday. No stability!. You can go abroad in IT, but even with a slight hit of economic downturn, you can loose your job.

So IT will provide you good fortune including onsite in the beginning of your career (say for 10-12 years) but as you grow old, your job becomes less secured everyday as your employer will try to replace you by someone younger albeit cheaper.

Whether one wants to work in Private (MNCs/Indian/Foreign) , PSU, or pure Government depends upon the mindset of the person. While Private jobs especially MNCs provide higly competitive environment and excellent career growth, pure government jobs are known for stability and predictability.

A PSU can be best explained as blend of both. While you may see the lazy Sarkari Babus" in pure government (not every) and corruption because of no proper monitoring, at the same time you may see private sector guy exhausting himself to meet his target within time.

When you go to PSUs you may see the output is much better than pure Government Offices.

What PSUs score over government Or private counterparts are as follows:-

1) Higher CTC than pure central/state government, Equivalent or more than pvt. Companies.

2) Better work/family balance than private companies.

3) More Bonus/Incentives/Rewards for work excellence than pure govt.

4) More technical update for work than government Employees, comparable to pvt. Employees.

5) Better health due to no stress after work hours. High BP, sugar is common for pvt employees after 30.

6) Salary doesn't fluctuate like that of private employees during boom and recession.

7) Concessional loans for vehicle and housing facility readily available for psu employees.

8) Duty hours more or less fixed.

We can conclude that these sectors can be compared using simple examples:-.

Private job is just like equity market, very volatile, risky but may give more returns.

Govt. Job is like PPF or bank FD which gives low but guaranteed returns for the long term.

PSU is like balanced fund, having some job security along with good returns with low risk.

A friend of mine joined an IT MNC 5-6yrs back and presently earning say 25-30% higher than me. He says that he is satisfied with his salary but if the working conditions do not improve, he would take retirement 10-15 years from now.

And what I feel is that if I'm allowed to work till whatever age I want, I can work upto the age of 65-70 years. But unfortunately the age of retirement is fixed by govt. At 60 years.

So job stability, sustainability, health, family is most important than money. Best option is PSU which balances everything in your life.

Hi Guys,

In my view, I always have a predilection for public sector jobs. I currently work in a well reputed MNC company with 3+ years of experience. My work timings are damn good. I come to office @9.00 AM And leave sharp by 6 PM. I do not have any work pressure, work tensions etc, as I am into a project where we do routine tasks everyday.

I guess most of the Indian MNC companies do the same repeated work as such as in India 70% of the IT projects are support or maintenance oriented. Having said that, one could easily have a sarcastic smile on his face with his mind voice saying 'then why can't you people stay in IT itself, why a sudden shift unnecessarily?'. Many of my friends and colleagues had asked me the same question and I had a good answer for them.

When thinking about my future to stay in IT forever (at least till 40) , I had craven fears because of the recessions, satisfying the bosses for our promotions, the workload handled to me as I move up the ladder etc. I was not born to be a sycophantic toad anywhere and anyplace in my life to satisfy an unknown person and begging him for my promotion and career development.

When going through all the comments, I could observe that many people opinion for people leaving IT is because of work pressure, staying late night, no work-life balance blah blah blah. The truth is many people are unaware about other side of IT where people enjoy like anything by doing the same repeated tasks on a daily basis, not required to think much, maintaining a decent work-life balance with office hours of 8 hours a day or even less than that and getting paid much more when compared with public sector jobs as I do.

But when such people sit and think about where their future is taking them into, there comes a big question mark. Because in IT, only when you are a technically stuffed person, you can stay and sustain here for a long time. But, getting a techy role totally lies in the hands of an unknown person called as HR. I was very unfortunate to get into a techy project.

If my current project experiences a financial downturn (as estimated by 2016) , the client will stop paying for our project and as a result, we people will again need to search for projects and move further. The big problem in such situation is that if we are not a techy guy, getting into a project again would be a daunting process. We should stay in one project and one account for a long time to get our promotions, incentives and VISA processed.

These kind of unprecedented downturns will make our career feel insecured and unstabilized and hence, we people should definitely think for a career switch to make our life secured in a long run period.

I hope nearly 70% of the people who leave IT fall into the above mentioned cases. So, lets all prepare sincerely and fully stay focused and never lose confidence until we get into a good government job.

I work as clerk in PSU bank and I guess my life is so much easier than officers at bank as I work from ten to five. Promotions are there depending on degree and clearance of internal exams. It is comparatively easier. My fiance works in private sector in night shift in finance stream and doesn't get time to take care of himself. My sister is in I.T and hardly gets to take breaks if the work is heavy and critical. And yet private sector guys can pursue certain passion and set up a small business of their own.

In public sector you get a little quality time but obviously not in certain PSU's where we have to work for 10 to 12 hours. Even if you want to earn some extra income, you can't do that in PSU. Challenges are very less in PSU and it is monotonous sometimes. Every job has its own difficulty. And life is sometimes not fair. Opinions differ. My sister does not prefer government job even if it seems easy because she is a risk taker and loves challenges. I regret working in bank sometimes as I am not a people oriented person.

I would rather work behind the scenes than dealing with bad mouthed customers. Very soon government sectors might have to compete with private sectors. Trend is always changing. PSU might have to change job rules to be on par with private sectors. This might happen in the future. No job is a rosy job! I think one should live and save and create buffers in times of unknown difficulties that might hit any time in thus changing trends of our times!

Hi Friends,

Basically we all get confused whether we should go for public sector or private sector job. No one even thinks about their caliber, skills, interest etc. Etc. Marathon race is going on. First we must think about our self that what want to be in life or what we expect from our life. Now a days, we can't get easy job in public sector also because they also choose people who have the ability, creativity, education, knowledge and skills. If we have our vision than no one can stop you to get what you want. Both sectors require hard work with smart work also. It's not about security. It's about our personal growth also. How we manage the things in our profession life affect our personal life also.

A person who want to improve his or her lifestyle, want to grow up in personal life also. He or she will do, will be successful no matters whether he/she is in public or private sector. But the thing is do not follow people opinions or what they think about these sectors. Go with your interest and willpower. I can bet you will be successful person both in your personal and professional life also. Just forget about job security. If you are not working properly in public sector also they would not entertain you more. It's up to our mentality that public sector job is chilling job. No never, a failure person who does not want to learn anything new, no interest can't get success in his/her life. Mind it.

Conclusion: do not follow blindly anybody or peoples opinions. Think what you wanna do in your life. What matters you most. Last but not least. Try to identify yourself and try to know your strength, skills.

I worked in a PSU now working in big MNC. As far as I think government job is best and people in PSU's not lazy in fact they are smart and talented. If you choose private sector you have to go on switch your job for career growth and switching job is not an easy task.

Of course public sector/govt. Jobs are much better than pvt. Jobs. But government jobs are difficult to get nowadays. Here are reasons why government Jobs better than pvt.

1. Job security.

2. Nice salary after 6th pay commission.

3. Will double after 7th pay commission in 2016.

4. 10% dearness allowance increased every 6 months apart from 3% increment, so financially also govt job better than pvt.

5. Tension and stress is less as compared to pvt job.

6. You have more quality time to spend with your family.

Always go for govt job ; even if you think it will pay less.

Reason : private companies only want performance ; once you reach some age you obviously can't perform at the pace when you joined. And they will hire 10 young people rather than feeding you when you are old.

So better go with Government Jobs. If you can not decide work for some private job for a year or two ; till then hunt for govt job.