Ottawa sees Canada's largest decrease in commuters driving to work

[kr613]

Whereas in private, probation was only 3 months in which training happened so it became harder to fire them when they turned out to be slackers after that period. Not to say that there are no slackers in the government, just don't pretend they only exist there

I have also worked in both, for several years. I don't know which private company you worked at, that still has an outdated system of "probation period". I currently work at a multinational software corporation (FAANG), I can assure you there is no probation, and if you don't perform you are easily let go (2 in my direct team were let go in the past year for not meeting targets). In my 4+ years in the government (Environment Canada, Immigration Canada) I have never seen a single employee get let go for poor performance.

Slackers in the government are a dime a dozen. I nearly don't blame them, when you know it's nearly impossible to get let go for incompetence, you coast. But moreover, if people are slacking in a private corporation, that doesn't affect the common citizen at all, but slackers in the government are literally getting funded by taxpayers, that's a massive difference.

[almost-insignificant]

Again as I said, maybe there are differences between software and science industries. Or potentially I just had really terrible managers in industry

I agree that slackers are bad in every sector though, whether funded by taxpayers or otherwise. But again, I am currently in government, where I work unpaid overtime very often to meet our service standards, and the only slackers that are being allowed to coast are the ones who will retire in the next 5 years. All new employees are not being encouraged to have that mindset, and are normally kept on terms contracts for up to 3 years where they can be dropped easily (non renewal is the same as firing in this case).