EBME Forums Forums Management Professional Issues IPEM seeks your opinion!

Since your going on about "reality" and the private sector I though you might be interested in the last IET Engineering Salary Survey. It's quite old so salaries will probably have increased by now.

Junior Technician £23,853, Technician £29,779, Senior Technician £33,555

So that would equate to starting salary Band 5, main salary Band 6 and top Band 7. So much for all those big pay deals in the NHS and it was also pointed out to me recently that the private sector get far better retirement lump sums, so if anything NHS is slightly worse.

As for the "Dark Side" I think we know what that means Seems to be dark for a reason and doesn't equate to the private sector I've ever worked in.

Perhaps IPEM could do a current survey and see what the updated figures are.

I don't know which Parallel Universe you inhabit, Chris ... but it's certainly not one that I recognise.

I really don't know why you keep bleating, Mate. You're on a decent whack, in a secure position, with a pension to look forward to. All funded by the tax payer, of course. What's your problem?

ok let's wrap this up nicely then Gents.
Clearly it's another topic that needs to be locked.

Sorry Geoff don't buy that deluded Taxpayer c**p

To be fair, he's quoted figures from an independent source and not plucking them from the air so you'd have to assume they are reasonably accurate and not from a "parallel universe".
On a more anecdotal note, I was earning what I get now 6 or 7 years ago in the private sector, and know for a fact that wages have increased much more than I'm ever likely to get within the NHS.

The fact that one or two lucky guys might be raking it in over in the private sector doesn't take anything away from what I'm saying.

There are hundreds of techs in secure, comfortable positions who work in the NHS, and good luck to them. But no-one is under threat, as far as I am aware.

Meanwhile, on the "outside" there are also guys who are out of work, and struggling to find a decent position. Some of us (at our stage of the game) never will, regardless of "experience, talent" or even "enthusiasm". How does that square with what some of you guys are trying to project?

So yes, you might find that rates of pay for for those in work might look "attractive" on the face of it. But how would those figures shape up if set against all the zeroes of out-of-work techs?

Lastly, whomever comes up with those "studies" would only be talking to blokes in salaried positions, would they not? They may even have some sort of agenda (always check to see where their funding comes from). But they sure as hell won't be taking freelancers, the self-employed, job-seekers ... or charity workers into consideration.

That's the Reality of the Parallel Universe, be it Dark or brilliant shafts of light!

You cannot include out of work tech's to come to an average private sector salary figure as they could also potentially work in the NHS or other public sector body. The word "salary" is the clue here i.e. to gain a "salary" you're in work.
The picture you paint isn't recognisable to me. I've worked in a hi-tech industry where there were vast numbers of redundancies and every tech to a man has picked up work. All on decent wages. If you're good, you'll get work.

Fair enough.

But can we agree on this then:- blokes working in the NHS enjoy far greater security than those in the private sector?

That is (luckily for them) they don't need to keep moving around, "following the work", as it were?

The way things are these days, even the best of guys are likely to be out of work occasionally. And all that must balance out in the end.

Unfortunately, we're in an era of retrenchment. Meaning:- if you're in work, that's great. But if you're not, tough [censored]!

Just a wee comparison. We took over the maintenance of hoists a couple of years ago. We employed someone on an (Senior) Assistant Technical Officer grade, band 4 earning approx. £18K. Talking to the service engineers from the major supplier, they make between £25 & £30K.

They'll be made redundant next week!

Careful now, Bill ... this is going full circle.

Now you'll be flamed for taking on a guy at Band 4!