Pros
Location, job security, feeling of service to the nation.
Cons
This review is in relation to the Government Commercial Office (GCO), so the G7, G6 and SCS grades within the Government Commercial Function. Unfortunately I have nothing good to say about my time working there. Pay: not worth the paper it’s written on as it’s the only organisation I know of where you get progressively closer to the bottom of your pay band because they don’t increase your pay though the band at the same pace that the band minimum increases. There is no way to progress within the band other than via applying for the next grade. This seems stupid considering that the bands are ~£20k deep. They keep increasing the band minimums to attract talent and also to give the illusion that they pay well. Bonus: Again utterly shameful, it’s advertised with big numbers like 15% or 20% but what isn’t advertised is that if you meet all expectations you won’t qualify for any personal bonus so you would only be in line for upto 5% if your organisation meets some arbitrary targets. In short I would really not take this into consideration if you are considering joining as you will be disappointed and likely not get it as the rules change on a yearly basis. Pension: They call it the GCO pension to hide the fact that it is in actuality simply the statutory minimum allowed by law, so 3% contribution from the government if you contribute 5%. To make matters worse your contributions are done as relief at source instead of the more advantageous salary sacrifice. This means you pay NI and loose up to 10% on contributed pension value. It is also near impossible to increase your contribution. This is done because the governments bill is cheaper overall if you still have to pay NI contributions on your pensioned salary, it’s simply quite cruel considering the policy makers that are stoping this are usually quite well off and more so when you consider the normal pension you would get (~30%) if you were a regular civil servant outside of the GCO on normal Civil Service terms and conditions. This takes me to the next point. Lack of any salary sacrifice schemes in central government: it’s truly shocking that the government does not give its employees access to green car schemes or any other salary sacrifice schemes. This is a deliberate position because the government saves money by not loosing the tax that would otherwise go towards a car so this could be as much as 40% for higher rate tax payers and 20% for standard rate tax payers. It’s just shocking and there is no excuse for especially considering green cars and net zero are policies being pushed hard by the government Transfers and moving roles: The GCO gives the impression that you can move laterally across the organisation (Department for Education, Cabinet Office, DWP) and increase your pay as you do so. This does not happen and if you did manage to swing it you would not get a penny more in pay. A friend mentioned that a Taent pool exists but that you cannot get promoted from being a part of it, this seems incredibly pointless. Training: Training is virtually non existent and you would have to beg to get even the smallest course paid for. There is also quite limited on the job training and you are expected to simply learn by working your way through documents with hundreds of pages that reference each other in an unbelievable maze. Empowerment: nonexistent, every action no matter how small is checked and rechecked by your manager whose manager will then check it before their manger checks it, and so it goes on and on. If after all of the above you still feel the need to join, then please go ahead and enjoy your horribly long and unnecessarily complex application and recruitment process.
