Public Sector being a Guarantor of Job Security is a Myth

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!

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.

Hi thing the private is more important for a developing country. Many countries have that urge to reach the climax of development. This makes me think that the only way is the operation and greater participation of the private sector in our economy. I believe in the promise of HIS EXCELLENCY PRESIDENT PAUL BIYA on an emergency by 2035. But I still think that both private and public sector should work hand in in hand for competition hence bringing about emergency.

@Ganesh.

You are right and I have worked in an MNC where my work involves routine 8 hr job and my PL used to tell that you may not have future if you don't learn other things (Those things which always keep changing like versions 1.0 2.0 3.0 blah blah). Basically I don't like coding and I used my software job as platform to prepare for other govt exams.

I got through it and joined in PSU bank where life is not so happy and I repented that I would have stayed in MNC and prepare for some other good govt job. Before joining in bank I knew that PSU bank is not a good option but some how I thought that I will clear some other exams by working in bank, but estimation is wrong and I never got enough time since I was posted to a rural area and daily I have to travel 2 hrs to reach my home town.

I would like to stress the same thing to you if you are comfortable in your current job and feel that there is no immediate risk in next 2 years, then prepare for a good GOVT job (Since not all GOVT jobs are good) this is all given if you don't have interest in coding or if you feel that software job is not your cup of tea, then seriously try for GOOD GOVT job. Now I'm preparing for SSC and RBI (Missed narrowly this time).

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.

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.

I am 33 and I have changed 3 Public sector Unit and 2 Department but they are all the same there is no planning. Either there will be no work and it becomes difficult to kill time and you don't feel like going to office or there will be too much work. All there non uniform work distribution.

Ya, but job security is there. They feed you free fund for months thinking that only we don't quit.

Public sector Unit and Private both are equally unsafe for women.

After working for say more than 5 years you are in no position technically to compete in the market.

Promotions in Public sector Unit are driven by favouritism.

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.

After reading much of what others have posted, it is very clear that most of the people here are either students with no real world experience or those who have never got the opportunity to work in a proper PSU.

Let me share my experience as I have worked in both prestigious government & Pvt. Organisations.

1. Private sector companies push people to their limits and often exploit those who do work hard with often limited returns. You'll not find that in PSU's.

2. Private sectors train their employees in their particular field and restrict them to it. PSU's don't. You have a freedom to choose what you learn and where you wish to excel.

3. There is a vast difference in the talent pool that exists in PSU's compared to pvt companies. Nowadays literally everyone works in IT companies yet most of them lack fundamental concepts and understanding of what they are doing. This is not the case in PSU's. You HAVE to know the details and basics for even doing your daily work.

4. Pvt. Companies hire more people than required and subsequently pay less. It is not true for PSU's where every individual is assigned vast majority of work and responsibilities. You become a better manager and a far more disciplined person.

The list is endless. However there is no clear winner. You should choose what suits you best.

Actually government jobs are best because I worked in private sector company, I have not enjoyed single day there, you can anytime have sacking fear.

Government jobs have stability much more good than a high paid private sector jobs, as during bad economic scenarios private sector jobs and employees face sacking it is evident as salaries from the last 10 years in civil aviation, it sector for freshers and experienced have not increased. Private sector only focuses on profit, they treat employees like a money making machine, private bank for example is like that, there best of employees cannot compete the public sector banks, they have no decision making authority all are like clerks.

Private sector in India and china are major failure even in USA, it puts mark on capitalism and its after effects the choice is yours 40 years ago there were no aircon, luxury cars in India but people live happily,

Now they have everything they live unhappy.