The Scottish Government Employee Reviews

This was a great learning experience. I learned a lot about how large organisations manage their content, how they make it accessible, accessibility law and web best practices.

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Good Benefits, but slow/limited progression

IT (Current Employee) - Edinburgh - 15 November 2023

As a permanent member of staff, the Flexi time is great and the pay is good (now), but pay was somewhat stagnant for a number of years and I probably earn far less than someone doing the equivalent job in the private sector.The holiday allowance is pretty generous with plenty public and privilege holidays. Pension contributions are very generous.If you're lower down the pay scale, don't expect any sort of rapid progression. Progression is dependent upon being able to "tick boxes", skill and talent seems to often be a secondary concern. If you're happy to stick with what you are doing, job security is pretty solid.Work can be a bit dull at times, doing the same tasks over and over with limited opportunity to truly learn something new unless you move to a different post. After working here for nearly 5 years, I think it's time for something new.

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Supportive colleagues

Communications Manager (Former Employee) - Edinburgh, City of Edinburgh - 5 October 2023

SG is a great place to work if you're a generalist and looking for opportunities to try out different job roles and functions. As a specialist though, things are very different. Formal career progression is so very dependant on how well or effective your team or line manager(s) seem to be. People are in posts not because of skills or talent but because they 'tick the box'.Poor place to work for people with specialist skills who want to progress.Great place to work if you want to try out any number of different job roles that just take your fancy.

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Good team and nice culture

Statistician (Former Employee) - Edinburgh, City of Edinburgh - 23 August 2023

Great team to work with and plenty of room for different opportunities if you wish to explore another area. Some of their technical systems could do with updating.

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Flexi time and good pay, structure not the best

Civil Servant (Current Employee) - Galashiels - 8 August 2023

Flexi time and pay are very good. You also get a good amount of holidays throughout the year including public and privilege holidays. This means you can get a good work/life balance. However, I don't enjoy my job anymore. I feel as if I have been there too long and it's not what I want to carry on doing. If you want a office based/hybrid working role and you don't mind sitting for long periods of time then this is for you. You are given a laptop and headset etc which is also great for working with. It really could be a good place if that is the type of job you want. I am looking to leave but the pay and holidays have kept me here he last 6 years, not many places in the borders that offer this.

Pros

Good home working equipment, pay and holidays

Cons

Never ending, sitting for long periods

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Insights into The Scottish Government

Based on 16 survey responses

What people like

Supportive environment
Time and location flexibility
Fair pay for job

Areas for improvement

Energising work tasks
Sense of belonging
General feeling of work happiness

Flexible hours, and friendly coworkers

Intern (Former Employee) - Edinburgh, City of Edinburgh - 8 August 2023

I was an intern in the Office of the Chief Researcher, everyone is very friendly and laid back. Working hours were very flexible, I could choose to work from home or in the office In St Andrew’s House, the layout looks the same on every floor, so until you’ve gotten used to the layout until it gets tricky to find your way around

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Good team, but too bureaucratic

Policy Officer (Former Employee) - Edinburgh City, City of Edinburgh - 21 June 2023

Everything here takes forever to do. The bureaucracy wears you down if you let it, and it can be hard to stay motivated when it takes two weeks to do what would take two days in most companies. Good progression options and most staff are genuinely nice though

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Worst place ever to work

Manager (Former Employee) - Scotland - 25 April 2023

Horrible and don’t care about staff. U alwyas have to just be okay and y don’t get a break to urseld it is work after work and on days off u will be called in

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Good Steady Job

Team Manager (Former Employee) - Kilwinning, North Ayrshire - 8 April 2023

Good steady employment. However, management were not supportive in the least. If your face fits, great, otherwise forget it.Money was reasonable and workload manageable.

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Flexible working hours, good rates of pay, secure working environment & terms/conditions

Administration Assistant (Current Employee) - Glasgow - 15 February 2023

Busy working day/week, flexi-time, up to date IT systems. Colleagues are mostly friendly, accommodating, helpful. Good training and possible career advancement (although not so much since Covid). Good long-term job terms and conditions, pension etc.

Pros

Flexible working hours, can build up flexi and get a day off without touching annual leave allowance

Cons

Work can be monotonous, boring at times even. Teams can be small so no-one to cover when you're off

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Interesting work

Caseworker (Current Employee) - Edinburgh, City of Edinburgh - 3 February 2023

Good employer, interesting work with opportunity to supervise and progress.Pay is fair, pension is excellent. Very flexible working policy, excellent line managers .

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Has it's perks....a bit disorganised at times.

Finance Manager (Current Employee) - Edinburgh, City of Edinburgh - 26 January 2023

Peaks and troughs of work pressure per most politically driven institutions. Needs urgently to modernise systems (ERP). There are opportunities here for generalists...

Pros

Very understanding towards work life balance if you are prepared to offer the same back.

Cons

Management not always clear and feels reactive at times.

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Wonderful place to work

Assistant Private Secretary (Former Employee) - Edinburgh City, City of Edinburgh - 12 January 2023

Great people to work with, fast paced and flexi time is good. Training is great and chance to progress. There is a lot of red tape however, so processes can be slow

Pros

Flexi time

Cons

Red tape

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Easy to work with colleagues

Security Officer (Former Employee) - Edinburgh - 13 December 2022

I liked working there, colleagues were friendly and knew what they were doing. Easy enough job to do but boredom might set in unless you are ok with waiting about for things to do.

Pros

decent shifts

Cons

pay not great but ok

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Supportive and motivational

Business Support Administrator (Current Employee) - Glasgow, Glasgow - 29 September 2022

The working environment at SG is very supportive and motivational. Management are open to new ideas and are very good at sharing feedback on your work. There is scope for development throughout the organisation.

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Good security but difficult progression depending on role

Higher agricultural officer (Current Employee) - Edinburgh - 23 July 2022

Good place to work overall. Can be slow paced and progression can be difficult due to the nature of the promotion process. Must submit essential criteria which can be quite rigid in what they’re asking.

Pros

Security, some learning courses available

Cons

Reluctant to put your through professional training

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Ok

Administrator (Former Employee) - Edinburgh, City of Edinburgh - 11 March 2022

Ok company should pay more for the current cost of living. Public sector pay freeze needs to end. The cost of living prices of living isn’t being taken into account

Pros

Giverment

Cons

Long hours

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Fun place to work

Finance Assistant (Former Employee) - Annan, Dumfries and Galloway - 11 February 2022

Fun place to work. Feel really valued as an employee. Great opportunities for progression. Hybrid working arrangements. Long lunch break. Friendly and approachable senior management.

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Decent place to work with plenty of scope for moving sideways/upwards

Operational Manager (Current Employee) - Edinburgh, City of Edinburgh - 12 January 2022

Generally a pleasant place to work with a lot of flexibility and freedom to choose what you do.As expected this is sometimes hampered by bureaucracy leading to slow decision making.

Pros

Flexible working hours Good career progression

Cons

Slow to react Manager ability can vary drastically

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Productive and fun place to work in

Drafting of responses to official and ministerial correspondence (Current Employee) - Remote - 21 May 2021

Productive and fun workplace where help and advice is always available. You feel, after the initial acquiring of how their system operates, that you are valued as an individual.

Pros

Friendly and helpful colleagues

Cons

None

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Bullying in management

Senior Officer (Former Employee) - Edinburgh, City of Edinburgh - 3 November 2020

Work subject interesting at times but work output dumbed down. Lack of free speech. Some competent staff and other career public servants; some good but some much less so and just protecting their positions and keeping seats warm. Managers protect long standing staff, some of whom do very little. If you are good at your job and perceived to be a threat you may experience bullying/being pigeon holed. Certainly some managers are very controlling in pointless matters to demonstrate their seniority. SG want to appear forward thinking but unfortunately quite the opposite. Could do with a complete overhaul. Many staff would have difficulty being employed elsewhere. Poor management/people skills from low level staff to ministers. Toxic environment. Could be a good place to work but management are blinkered. One day we hope there will be a shake up of staff.