That's low. 80% of our team are currently in the market to change jobs.

Reassuring that the executive team at gld can add up to 100 (or not).

09:13 - without an indication of the identity of your employer, or even the sector in which it operates, your comment is pointless.

2+2=9

... and on the same day RoF publishes a piece on the Weil NQ hikes. I feel for the GLD on pay issues but is it glib to suggest that they might consider moving into private practice or an in-house role elsewhere (rather than retraining as a train drivers*)?

*let's not get into RMT.

Thanks Paul. Great comment. Really helpful. 

Can the next survey give us a figure for what percentage of GLD lawyers have the skills and aptitude to succeed in any other role?

I sympathise with them on the pay issue, money in government jobs sucks, but I can't help but wonder how easily government bods are going to adapt to a world outside of a strict 9 - 5 in which their employer will want them to make risk-based calls on legal issues rather than insisting that it is obliged to operate strictly in line with statutory protocol.

Like, is there a reason that this story is one of hopes and dreams rather than of people just leaving already?

The sad truth is most law firms (certainly in the City) wouldn't even interview a GLD lawyer. 

Government legal pay is shockingly poor (the pension used to make up for it, but not anymore). That's one of the fun things to thank 12 years of Tory austerity for..... I'd still rather be a GLD lawyer than a teacher or nurse.

I work in GLD. The pay is poor for the legal market (even the public sector legal market) which is really frustrating, but in other ways it’s still a good place to work and there are some brilliant and very talented lawyers. I left a top law firm to go there (as did many of my colleagues) and I frequently get contacted by recruiters about private sector roles. If you think we worked 9-5 to deliver Brexit I’m afraid I’m not sure where you’ve been. The reason people aren’t all leaving immediately is because the work is much more varied, interesting and worthwhile than in private practice, the people are nicer with a much better working culture and our employee gives a damn about our health and well-being. Public sector workers are unhappy about pay - who knew.

Change jobs...i did and went to the private sector (in house) while i get paid better (30% more) i work a lot harder. Not sure everyone at GLD gets that there is no such thing as a free lunch.

@ pp recruiter 1034. A tad harsh I am a retread, crime for 18 years, then retrained  into commercial law in local government and now in house in a private company. It can be done but take your point on private practise.

Having worked at GLD I would add:

• most staff are independently rich (for example, married to city partners, made money through London’s property boom); and 

• many moan but don’t act. 
 

It’s hard for public sector lawyers to transition to private practice, let alone to a top 100 law firm.

There are many reasons for this, including experience (and snobbery), which doesn’t align with private practice, in law firms’ insulted view.

As a former private practice lawyer (and, yes, in ‘proper’ firms), the idea of 9-5 and not being required to take risk based calls in GLD is absurd. I’ve worked harder, with far more responsibility and on things of far greater national importance than I ever did in private practice. At least when we are slaving away it’s on things that actually make a difference and give a sense of satisfaction…..

Also my tuppence but some GLD lawyers get away with bloody murder with work dodging courses and roles, never mind flexitime. I bumped up against this nonsense while in local government too. 

"If you think we worked 9-5 to deliver Brexit"

I am reliably informed that it isn't done yet.

So I'm not sure you really worked that hard at all...

So sad to hear the bitter voices of trapped GLD lawyers like 13:32. Once you're in you are almost completely stuck.

That feeling must weigh quite heavily. Can you imagine knowing that you had over a decade left and no hope of change?

It must be so hard to remain positive when you think about what could have been if you had stayed in pp but just scaled down your workload by moving down a tier of firms.

My hat is off to them really. I just don't think I could bear it.

A former magic circle associate works for the GLD. Proper "Karen" she is - obnoxious girl. 

Seriously, if you’re that unhappy with your pay and benefits just leave as soon as possible.  It’s the only way the employer will listen. 

GLD management told staff, "we know there are challenges, particularly around the interrelated issues of pay and resourcing", and said it was continuing to press its pay case with the Cabinet Office and Treasury Ministers.

They've been pressing for a pay case to be successful for over two years now. How much longer do they need?

Mcgibbon is completely and utterly out of her depth. She's absolutely awful when she gives a presentation and all she does is repeat sound bites like a parrot. She was probably a competent g6 or g5 but it's very clear to me she is way in over her head.

Patterson talks a good game but when you drill down into the detail it's all absolute rubbish and waffle. He's like a young version of David Brent. An absolute chancer.

The whole place is fast becoming a joke and it's becoming what it deserves to be, given the competence of the executive team and the way they treat their staff.

The snobbery here against the GLD is insane.  

I don’t work there, but I frequently work across from them / with them in my PP City role.  A number of them have also joined my team in recent years.

In my experience at least they are, for the most part, committed and diligent lawyers who tend to do *actual law* as opposed to the document monkey work that a lot of us do in law firms.  I’d rather work in the GLD than in many law firm practice areas, irrespective of the pay packet.

It’s also laughable to say they don’t need to worry about risk - have you seen their directions on how to frame risks to ministers and depts? 

Former pp recruiter - sadly a client would never interview a GLD lawyer

I was at the GLD for a few months after PP, have to say the lawyers themselves were absolutely excellent but the morale was so low - no pay rise in years, promotions are shit.  I knew I couldn't waste my career then and luckily landed in a pp role that pays over double my GLD salary. Many do have wealthy husbands/families/are boomers and they're the only ones that make it. Sad seeing all the GLD shaming here and even more sad that they'll never get that pay rise. The work there is incredibly interesting, but interesting doesn't pay the bills...

I’d usually rage on here for several paragraphs about how things need to change unless we want GLD to go to the dogs, but I’m way past that now. All the things that were broken seem now basically irreparable as the management team spaff out more and more meaningless platitudes that sadly don’t pay our bills and only operate to enrage 90% of the staff even further. The contempt I have for Susanna doesn’t even bear going into. 

I am on parental leave and as soon as that’s over, it’ll be goodbye and thanks for nothing. Having a significant portion of their workforce walk out on them is entirely what they deserve. Why we aren’t all on strike already I just don’t know

Mcgibz knows that the GLD is toast if she doesn't get this pay deal through. 

She'll end up with absolutely useless lady parts and anyone decent will be off next year. 

Suz if you are reading this - think long and hard and make sure you get it through. If you don't then you may as well shit can everyone in January. 

@1448

I have never worked for GLD ;)

Some of the negative comments on here about GLD are just plain nonsense. There are many excellent lawyers in GLD and the calibre generally compares favourably to PP and in house. 
However, the senior management and ET seem utterly obsessed and hand wringing over D&I, having rightly been forced to temper some of the more extreme elements of the training earlier in the year, one can only assume that they are coming under significant pressure from a vocal minority since they keep bleating about how important and central it still is. 
The pay isn’t great but the legal work is excellent - it’s all the other peripheral BS that I object to around social initiatives that we’re expected to get on board with. They say diversity of viewpoint is allowed but the mood music suggests otherwise. 

Working for GLD is shit, shocker. Everyone knows that, it’s why we don’t. 

I'm not sure I want someone who's used to working for a train wreck becoming a train driver.

@10:47

Never mind 9 to 5, I'd be shocked if the GLD needed to work from 9 to 5 past 9 to 'deliver Brexit'.  What did you deliver exactly?   

Sweet fanny adams apart from a massive s**t sandwich for everyone else to deal with, that's what.

What they're forgetting is that most of them are unemployable elsewhere (ps I'm ex GLD and glad to be back somewhere with a work ethic).

King Mup is right.

Can't help but feel that Brexit (and indeed the UK more generally) might be going a lot better if it wasn't for a bone idle civil service, GLD in particular, failing to push for success in negotiations and then dragging it's heels in the implementation of it thereafter. Far too many people without the will to work, either because they didn't have the work ethic to start with and/or because they were trying to withdraw labour in protest.

Can you imagine having them at the wheel in, say, WW2? Adolf would have been in Glasgow within a fortnight.

Anyway, can hardly complain about low pay based on recent performance, can they?

... why they think the private sector might want to import that kind of attitude is hard to understand.

Anon, 20 Dec 15:02

You do realise the CS only implement the policies and decisions of ministers?  Brexit, and the negotations relating to it, is a mess because of a combination of incompetent morons in cabinet and a set of self-important MPs who paralysed parliament for years.

Anonymous 20 December 15.02

Do you….do you even know what the distinction between a lawyer and a Minister or a policy official even is? That might be your first piece of homework! Have fun! Lawyers *do not make decisions* about how brexit should be implemented. We aren’t elected officials(!) or their staff(!) - who knew??? We *enact the legal changes* that Ministers want to make. Don’t come at us because the government a) made a terrible decision in chasing brexit and then b) couldn’t make its fantasy economics work. But sure; it’s easier to blame it on hardworking civil servants who work for a pittance than the people you voted for, eh? What a good little Rupert Murdoch drone you are. He would be so very proud. 

new

Anonymous 20 December 22 15:02

King Mup is right.

Can't help but feel that Brexit (and indeed the UK more generally) might be going a lot better if it wasn't for a bone idle civil service, GLD in particular, failing to push for success in negotiations and then dragging it's heels in the implementation of it thereafter. Far too many people without the will to work, either because they didn't have the work ethic to start with and/or because they were trying to withdraw labour in protest.

Can you imagine having them at the wheel in, say, WW2? Adolf would have been in Glasgow within a fortnight.

Anyway, can hardly complain about low pay based on recent performance, can they?

... why they think the private sector might want to import that kind of attitude is hard to understand.

LOL this is risible nonense - if you have the slightest inkling of how government in the UK works, the civil servants carry out the ministers' instructions and advise them on the consequences of their proposed course of action. So if the ministers decide on a car crash brexit the civil servants have to carry it out, even if against their better instincts. Blaming it on the civil service work ethic is ridiculous, blame Johnson, Rees-Mogg and their cronies.

I did a secondment within GLD, I'd say it was a bit of a mixed bag - mostly v conscientious people, some married to higher earners and generally a desire not to work silly hours, and who can blame them with the poor pay? Dealing with actual real legal problems rather than recycling precedents till 4am on some junk bond financing deal. go figure. 

I used to work for GLD. My average hours Monday to Friday would be 70 hours and 10 to 20 at a weekend.

The issue beyond pay is management, particularly Senior Leadership Teams, and HR being complicit in ignoring and attempting to bury the truth around the dilapidated working conditions, as they have done in this instance, with attempting to assert an erroneous statistical overlay on its people survey results, which is evident by the poor maths used by GLD's HR Department's attempt to re-author a narrative around those survey results. 

GLD is an organisation infested with discrimination: I witnessed discrimination against BAME colleagues, sexism and homophobia, which is particularly rife.  GLD's attitude towards disability is one of chronic disdain and apathy. GLD refuses to acknowledge or engage with its broken working cultural and management cultures, and instead settles all Employment Tribunal claims, so that Senior Leaders can avoid recommendations being made against GLD by Employment Tribunals: this is particularly true of GLD's Employment Group where it's co-directors and deputy directors, have promoted known bullies, and hidden their knowledge of employees becoming suicidal from GLD's Board by settling out related claims at taxpayer cost, and doing so to protect their own career ambitions.

No amount of pay can fix chronic working conditions and management culture which drives the same at GLD. GLD's HR Department refuses to investigate the Department's own Employment Group and its management team, when it has evidence that staff are attempting suicide, because of their treatment in work. The Board is either blind, deliberately ignorant, and/or ineffective in changing this culture. Civil Service HR has not audited GLD to find out how deep the current rot goes, and their inaction lies against the current government rowing backs diversity as a Civil Service priority, including dismissal of the diversity officers. I would never recommend GLD as a great place to work to anyone. It's a health hazard to its own employees. 

@GLD Survivor how did you accept working such long hours for that pay? Seems bonkers.

I agree the working conditions are poor: crummy run-down offices, penny-pinching culture (everyone has to supply their own milk, tea bags and coffee) and an accepted culture of under-performance which breeds inefficiency (for example, I had to wait 6 weeks to get an office pass because the "pass office" was on strike and working reduced time. This meant a team member had to get me from the gates every morning, which was a 10 minute distraction for them. In the private sector your pass is there on the first day). 

Yes, well I'd say that was one of my more productive fishing expeditions....

But of course, the big wrinkly brains in the GLD would see that kind of thing a mile off. They're the smart ones you see.

Just to add that a fair number of us in GLD are ex-private practice. I was myself a corporate/commercial lawyer in a Magic Circle firm for 4 years and two major regional firms for 8 years followed up a GC role for 5 years. Several of my colleagues have since returned to private practice (mostly over pay): one went direct into a partnership role and is still there 5 years on and another is a senior associate position in a major law firm working on substantial matter. I have been approached by recruiters consistently as have colleagues. I hope this helps.