Local government

[tux]

anyone ever worked for the council in a permie capacity?

any gotchas to look out for?

[messiah]

don't do it unless u like the 9am-5pm with bugger all responsibility

[Rebecca Loos]

i like the 9am-5pm with bugger all responsibility at a £100 an hour rate, do they do that too?

Rebecca in "only at weekends" mode..

[voron]

anyone ever worked for the council in a permie capacity?

any gotchas to look out for?

Haven't as a permie, but I'm currently contracting in a council.

The biggest problem is the politics. It's even more political than central government (Ministers all belong to the same party). The Council has a cabinet and a shadow cabinet (except Lewisham, which is NL all the way and makes for some interesting in fighting).

Every senior council manager has a Member in his/her pocket (no pun intended!). No one wants to take a risk as that would give the shadow cabinet an easy target.

[voron]

I forgot to add, the world of local government, especially within the London boroughs, is small and has a community feel. Staff tend to move from council to council and news spreads quickly. If you make an enemy or screw up, you can be confident all the other councils will hear about it (something to bear in mind if you apply for another job at another council).

[OwlHoot]

In my previous contract at CMG I worked with a permie who had been at a local council, and he was an archetypal Guardian-reading leftie. We got on OK though, despite our political differences - He'd leave the Guardian jobs supplement on my desk every week, and in return, knowing what a fan of the Monarchy he was (not), I'd regularly snip out the Telegraph court circular and leave that on his desk.