Government of Alberta – “Excellent professional growth and many top-notch colleagues, but with limited advancement opportunities.”

Pros

As a senior professional, there are excellent opportunites for personal and professional growth and training. Public service employees tend to be very dedicated to what they do and most are intellgent, thoughtful and generally great to work with. Work-life balance is promoted and encouraged. The benefits package is excellent, particularly with respect to allowable leave time for illness. Compensation (salary) is very respectable.

Public service is a complex world and very much suited to professionals who are thinkers and problem-solvers. The work is challenging and always changing, and very enjoyable if working in a collaborative setting. There is an opportunity to influence activiities, services and policies that affect a wide range of people across the province.

Cons

Many of the best reasons to work for the GOA are dependent on the individual Ministry and your personal manager. The culture of the Ministry is critical to workplace operations and morale, and the degree of professionalism and work-life flexibility is heavily dependent on the individual manager.

In the bigger picture, GOA (like any government) is a challenging work environment as politics are the biggest driver of executive managment's decisions, rather than facts and risk management related to departmental service delivery and client satisfaction. Long-term solutions to known operational problems or risks are frequently not implemented until disaster strikes with public outcry, if even then. Ministry financial resources are usually under continual reduction, limiting resources for service delivery and improvement - this is compounded by redirection of resources into the "hot" political issue of the day (bandaid solutions).

The big picture problems with government politics, structure and resourcing definitely have a negative impact on management actions and staff morale at the operational level.

Advice to Senior Management

Make decisions driven by fact and risk management planning (rather than purely political), and then stand by those decisions to realize long term solutions. Quit ignoring what employees tell you in favour of "quick fixes". Employees are dedicated to their work, but you will continue to lose valuable human assets if they cannot see a path or vision for the organization and their place within it.