Always new tasks, bureaucracy and overtime, as well as the anger of impatient customers and a lack of digitization: According to research by SWR, many offices in Baden-Württemberg are operating at the absolute minimum and the burning rate increases.
Workers complain about an ever-increasing workload, hostility and attacks. Citizens are constantly questioning, debating, threatening and insulting administrative decisions, as the broadcaster’s online survey of citizens’ offices, motor vehicle offices, youth, social and immigration offices and authorities showed construction
According to SWR, 1,106 offices from Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg participated. The results of the study were evaluated by the University of Konstanz. They can be seen in the SWR story “Office at the Limit – The State Before Collapse” (October 22, 2024 / 8:15 pm) on SWR.
The background is getting bigger and bigger
Accordingly, the number of cases to be handled has increased over the past five years, particularly in immigration authorities, youth welfare offices and social welfare offices. On the other hand, citizen offices and motor vehicle offices could process applications more efficiently, according to Konstanz experts’ assessment.
“An increase in the number of cases due to these developments can be seen in more than a third of the authorities examined,” said the working group for administrative science at the University of Konstanz. The number of permanent positions has to actually go up. Citizen offices have the lowest backlog
higher immigration authorities and youth welfare offices.
According to the study, the authorities are also regularly suffering from a severe shortage of skilled workers, which will particularly affect youth and social welfare offices as well as medium and large cities. More than 90 percent of those surveyed see a need for expertise in their offices, 70.8 percent are sure that their office finds it more difficult to attract qualified experts.
Stress at work makes you sick
According to the study, the increasing workload affects the psyche, behavior and work of employees in the authorities. They are looking for strategies to deal with the high workload, including more training and better digital processes. They are restructuring and especially looking for lateral entrants. The overload has an impact on services: according to the study, processing takes longer. In addition, it is more likely to process what is clearly visible to the outside world or provides quick results.
Customers in administration are increasingly frustrated with such delays, long queues or decisions about staff. According to the SWR study, the majority of authorities report conflict – also a reason for the overload. A good dozen of the authorities also employ security personnel, and the correct method of de-escalation is taught in seminars.
More and more threats and attacks
“Almost all of the authorities surveyed are exposed to a sharp increase in hostility or written, verbal, physical or online attacks when doing their jobs, around 60 percent at least once a month to daily,” say the experts from the University of Konstanz. The youth welfare office is the most exposed to insults and threats, and the immigration and construction authorities are also exposed to regular attacks.
Almost 84 percent of the Baden-Württemberg authorities surveyed said that their decisions were being questioned more often than before. This above all applies to motor vehicle offices, but also to building authorities and citizen offices. And as in society, the study finds a growing loss of trust in administration: 74 percent of government employees in the entire southwestern state that they have trusted to lose more or less in politics. The authorities especially expect help from political decision-makers with financial demands, the problem of overload and conflict with the population.
Civil servants union wants more flexible working hours
With more flexible working hours, for example a 4-day week or part-time models, the burden could be reduced and new talent could be recruited, says state chairman of the Baden-Württemberg Civil Service Association (bbw), Kai Rosenberger. The experience of motor vehicle authorities and social welfare offices coincided with that of large parts of the public service. “Overwork is being reported to us from all areas, and mental illness is also increasing,” says Rosenberger.
According to the bbw, one of the reasons for the growing hostility in the offices is the high number of migrants. “These are often people from cultures that find it difficult to let women tell them something,” says Rosenberger. Respect for public administration is being lost everywhere.
The Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB) reports similar experiences among its members. “Overload is a big issue in the offices,” says Dominik Gaugler from the DGB Baden-Württemberg region. “That leads to unhappiness on both sides. ” The work pressure and the attacks were also a challenge to recruit young people for the public service.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:241022-930-266835/1
2024-10-22 03:17:00
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