Cabinet Office UK FAQ

pension; holidays; job security; challenge

pay; bureaucracy; limited budgets; covid

Flexi working and child care

Salary salary salary salary salary

- Interesting and rewarding work with a lot of variety at the centre of Government - Good career development opportunities through training, general exposure to senior stakeholders, and relatively higher levels of responsibility - Flexible working, potential for job-share and part-time

- Varies significantly between teams, but quite a lot of pressure and fast pace. - Pay is low relative to other governmental departments. Particularly so given that this is the central government department. - Lots of staff churn as a result of poor relative pay.

- Match other government departmental pay to improve retention.

You are in the thick of it, many projects and opportunities to grow your experience

The organisation does not care about the individual. You are easily replaceable

Walk the talk

Interesting work that has direct relevance to UK society. Unique position allows you to see how the centre of Government works. Sense of involvement in the big issues of the day. Importance of work-life balance clearly acknowledged, and flexible working easy to arrange (although see cons below). Sense of job security allows you to not worry about always having a backup. Variety of work also helps to keep the job interesting - no two days are the same.

Relentless pace is exciting but can also be very stressful. Further work needed to improve diversity. A good work-life balance possible in theory, but in practice during busy periods people still work long hours and at weekends, particularly at more senior levels. Lack of structure and senior bandwidth can be frustrating.