Qld’s unhappiest public servants reveal bullying, burnout in survey

Queensland’s frontline public servants have let fly in a new survey, blowing the lid off conditions that are driving them to quit. FULL RESULTS

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman

Queensland’s crime and health frontline are the state’s unhappiest public servants, and have the highest ongoing experiences of workplace bullying and burnout, new data has revealed.

And in a major risk to an already stretched workforce about a fifth of employees at some hospital and health services (HHS) have warned they want to leave their roles as soon as possible.

The Public Sector Commission released the 2023 edition of the Working for Queensland survey – designed to gauge the climate and attitude of public servants – this week, about seven months after the annual window for responses shut.

Across the public service as a whole, two-thirds said they would be proud to tell others where they worked.

Forty-nine per cent thought the “executive group communicates a clear direction for the future of the organisation”.

The same proportion believed top-ranking bureaucrats acted “with a high level of integrity” — an increase on the previous year’s 47 per cent.

Meanwhile 60 per cent felt confident reports of unethical behaviour would be dealt with appropriately.

All 10 entities at the top of the list for staff experiencing ongoing workplace bullying were health-related, with nine of those hospital and health services and the other the Queensland Mental Health Commission.

At Townsville HHS, South West HHS, Cairns and Hinterland HHS and Mackay HHS between 17 per cent and 22 per cent of employees reported being a victim of ongoing workplace bullying, with a similar portion complaining of experiencing similar in the last year.

Seven HHS also led the charge in staff feeling burned out often or always, including 41 per cent at South West HHS, 36 per cent at Mackay HHS, and 31 per cent at Metro North HHS.

A staggering 40 per cent of Queensland Police Service staff reported feeling burnt-out, a jump of 27 per cent compared with the 2022 survey.

Thirteen per cent of QPS staff said they wanted to leave their positions as soon as possible.

In a serious blow to the survey just 69,000 public servants — or 33 per cent of the workforce — responded, a plunge of nearly 17,000 responses compared to the year before.

The Public Sector Commission confirmed the drop in participation was driven largely by the state’s 16 hospital and health services, where an average of just 15 per cent of employees completed the survey.

“Hospital and health services are a challenging environment for survey participation, with the medical profession being one of the most highly surveyed professional groups in the sector,” a spokesman said.

“The Public Sector Commission works with the Department of Health and Hospital and Health Services to encourage participation, and a shortened survey, tailored for Hospital and Health Services, has been developed.”

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman said hospitals regularly used other surveys to assess what was working well and how staff could be supported better.

“I also welcome the Public Sector Commission working with Queensland Health to find new ways to encourage even more staff to participate, including rolling out shorter surveys so our doctors and nurses have more time to care for their patients,” she said.

The education sector is also grappling with a staff exodus, with The Sunday Mail reporting at the weekend teacher resignations had spiked 54 per cent since 2020, with more than 2600 ditching the profession last year, compared with about 1600 three years prior.

The number of teacher aides quitting was even more stark, with 1142 resignations last year, nearly double the 637 in 2020.