21st December 2010, 06:20 PM
Milton Wrote:I suppose I better clarify my poorly-made point here; I meant that Bank Holidays and sick leave (and possibly even annual leave) were paid directly by the Council, with the unit in question just covering their working days with their charge-out rates.That was not my experience of working for a council unit. We were expected to cover all operating costs, including admin, IT, holidays and sick leave out of the money we earned. Council procedures meant that everything took longer than it should and we could not respond quickly enough for a number of jobs that we might otherwise have won. The advantage of being part of the council, and one which you have not mentioned, was that anything we did was backed up by solid funding. Private units can find themselves cash-poor at the wrong time because of waiting for invoices to be paid, whereas the council unit could draw on the funds necessary until the invoices were paid. That is the main and most important benefit of being part of the council. Everything else is swings and roundabouts.
'Reality,' sa molesworth 2, 'is so unspeakably sordid it make me shudder.'