Job cuts and a two-year pay freeze followed by a 1% pay rise cap have demoralised civil servants. Deteriorating job security has particularly enraged members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) who went on strike two weeks ago, but these aren’t the only reasons employees have been left feeling disparaged.

According to surveys published by the union, 65% of civil servants have become ill due to stress at work and 60% did not think their employer helped them cope with the causes of stress. Almost three-quarters of those asked said that their workload has increased, while 6% said they work more than 48 hours a week on average.

We asked civil servants to tell us why morale is so low. Poor pay and unreliable job security are the most obvious causes but other issues, such as discouragement, bullying and harassment, were also mentioned in interviews. It is hard for civil servants to be openly critical; those we have spoken to all wish to remain anonymous – concerned that going on the record could cost them their jobs, and potentially affect other members of the family working for the public sector.

Stress

For many civil servants, stress is a big contributor to workplace unhappiness and ill health. One civil servant, working for JobCentre Plus, says concern about stress held her back from applying for a promotion: “I didn’t apply because I knew that the management of this grade would be impossible for me to work under. Increased stress, a greater workload and unrealistic targets would take its toll on my mental health.” She adds that there would not have even been pay perks to go with the added responsibility.

A senior official at the Home Office shares concerns about stress. “The stress levels aren’t managed very well among staff who interview asylum seekers and who hear a lot of traumatic stories,” he says.

Many civil servants are now looking for an escape route. The Home Office official is gaining further qualifications part-time, to enhance his employability elsewhere. “I’ve wanted out for a year or two now. You do dread going to work in the mornings. You just think – what is it all for?”

He also explains that his morale hit rock-bottom after his work changed. “I had a conversation with my manager about feeling devalued because the role I do is being de-skilled,” he says. “I’m not doing half the stuff I used to be doing. I was told, ‘This is the way it is now – senior management aren’t interested in your skills, they’re only interested in the amount of units that you churn out. If you don’t like it, there’s nothing you can do about it – just go.’ It doesn’t feel like what I signed up for.”

Almost 9,000 jobs were axed across the civil service between March 2013 and March 2014, and more redundancies are on the way, including a further 3,500 voluntary redundancies at the DWP. Civil servants feel more and more that they are being pushed out of the door, but those who can are actively walking out. “The demand for voluntary exit is always way over-subscribed,” says one employee. “People want to get out faster than they can actually make people redundant.”

Performance rankings

One of the most unpopular aspects of working within the civil service has been the introduction of performance rankings and there is widespread concern that the ranking process itself is opaque and unfair.

“They have to find 10% of people at the bottom who aren’t performing,” says the Home Office official. “Your managers go into a room and have a secret meeting whereby they decide who’s going to be in the top, middle and bottom percentiles.”

Insult was added to injury for this civil servant when he found performance ranking feedback carelessly left on top of a photocopier. “The management find people and single them out,” he continues. “At the moment, they’re trying to find more and more people to shove into that bottom bracket. They want people out the door, in a way that isn’t going to cost them redundancies. It feels like a move towards casualisation of the workforce – but they aren’t being particularly honest about it.”

Another civil servant working in the Ministry of Defence is concerned that performance rankings are encouraging a “self above service” attitude, with managers more focused on their own next promotion than doing what’s right for the public. “People are placed in direct competition with each other, with the lowest 5% of performers potentially losing their jobs,” he comments. “This is a system dismissed by most private sector companies, because it destroys teamwork and can lead to the dismissal of competent staff.”

Bullying and harassment

Although very distressing, bullying is too often going unnoticed or disregarded in the workplace, according to the civil servants we spoke to. A PCS survey in 2013 found that one in six respondents said they are “always, often or sometimes bullied” – this increased to one in five working in the Department for Transport and its executive agencies.

But what is the root of this kind of behaviour? Civil servants expressed concern about unfair dismissal and harassment of those who speak up, particularly those with links to unions. Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude has made it a specific target to cut down on the number of trade union representatives in the civil service, with controls that limit how much time union reps can spend on trade union business.

One former civil servant has experienced what he believes was unfair dismissal after nine years in the service – and thinks that this decision was swayed by his link to the PCS union.

He lost his job in 2013 as a result of an incident he feels was not fully or fairly investigated. In 2008, he had been one of five PCS union representatives who were dismissed. He was the only staff member to be reinstated and felt that he had been a target since then.

Following his second dismissal, he is still a union representative, but has been banned from entering the offices of his former department – a move that actually costs his former employer money, as they have to book an external office for him to have meetings with members.

Another civil servant working in a government agency says she was bullied and sexually harassed in the workplace for two years, but when she reported it, despite producing text messages and photos as evidence, no disciplinary action was taken against the perpetrator. “The person who harassed me is still working there, and is in a better position than he was,” she says. “I was disciplined for malicious and vexatious claims. Now I’ve had to return to work with the management that pushed this under the carpet, and every day is a battle.”

She explains that after the incident, she was put under increased pressure to quit her job. “I received numerous phone calls from my manager asking me to leave,” she says. “He would call me when I was off sick and tell me to ‘jump before I was pushed’.”

After taking her case to higher levels within her department, only for them to be passed back down to the people she was complaining about, she thinks that management in the civil service needs a restructure. “It’s a bit like a secret boys’ club,” she says. “They look after each other, but where lower levels of staff are concerned, you’re just a number. If you report it, you’ll be pushed out of the door. There needs to be a support network.”

Have you experienced issues like this in your workplace? Share them with us via public.leaders@theguardian.com

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