Public servants are suffering at the moment, with low or no pay rises, job cuts and very real threats to the pensions they expected, so you might think the chances of them giving to charity are close to nil. I can’t speak for the rest of the sector, but, at the college where I am a governor, colleagues have just raised £700 or so at their Christmas party. That’s not a large enough sum to interest George Osborne, but it will be really useful to students in need.
We’ve debated whether or not even to ask colleagues to contribute to the college charity (which I chair). I know that some won’t be able to contribute and some will choose not to, but I have always been keen that they should have the opportunity – obviously with no pressure at all to take it.
Most of our staff signed up because they care, and care deeply, about our students. And they don’t stop caring just because their pay rise is tiny and their pensions are threatened. They are warm-hearted people who want to do what they can to help others, not just for the college’s own charity (with an initial focus on students in financial difficulty – what we get from government funds doesn’t stretch to cover every need, by any means), but also for others. There are always fundraising events on the go in the college.
I’m grateful to my colleagues for their generosity, and very encouraged that even when times are pretty tough they are willing to put their hands in their pockets for others who are worse off. No sign of Scrooge here. Happy Christmas.
It’s always heartwarming to hear about people’s generosity, but could we please discard the automatic assumption, implicit in this article too, that public sector workers are far worse off – in terms of pay, job cuts and a fall in the value of their pensions – than private sector workers? Very few people in the private sector are on fat cat salaries or City level bonuses. There are many, many, private sector workers struggling to cope on low pay, in insecure jobs or no jobs at all, and without anything like the pension prospects of the average public sector worker or the relative job security either. We regularly raise money for charitable causes where I work; everyone does their best to contribute, no matter how low their salary. Economic downturn affects everyone, whichever sector we work in, and the reinforcement of an ‘us and them’ attitude between the two sectors is unnecessary and inappropriate.
I’m with you, Sally. My role in the college is as a governor – very much part-time, and voluntary – and my ‘day job’ is running a small consultancy in the private sector. We’re still standing but others have closed and we’re slimmer than we were two years ago, so I certainly know that there are plenty in the private sector who are struggling too. My purpose was simply to right the balance a bit as reporting about the public sector can so easily get overly-negative. Iain