Anyone who is in such dilemma need to ask oneself this question…
Whether job or money (for people who are in favour of pvt sector) is life or whether it is just part of life?
For me it was always a part of life.
Honestly, after certain amount, salary is just the swelling number in your bank account. It creates certain necessities which were not at all required by you.
Me and my friend did this debate a long back ago. I did join Govt job at Gr-A level and he did join pvt sector after completing his engineering and MBA from reputed institutes. He started earning decent and after 7 years, his present CTC is around 35–40 lakhs. However I am approx. at 15 lakhs.
So much depressing picture…right?
Now lets calculate real picture.
Income tax: He has lot to pay in 30% bracket…lol…no comments
Expenditure: I am living in 3 BHK quarter in posh area of Mumbai at merely Rs. 18–19 k per month that too at 15 min walkable distance from office (Note: both of us are working in South Mumbai area). In our surrounding, pvt. rent for 3 BHK is above Rs. 1.25 lakhs per month (in high end apartments it goes upto 2 lakhs pm)…😂. So, to save some money, my friend rented a 2 BHK flat for Rs. 70k per month which is offcourse not at walkable distance, so he needs to travel for 20–25 min by car (considering petrol and maintenance he needs to spend Rs. 10–15k pm plus he spends approx. 1 hour daily in commuting). So it’s almost Rs. 10 lakhs per year. Now you can add that into my package😜.
Work-life balance: I hardly find him available. Every now & then, he works. Even he got high numbered spectacle by working on that little devil (laptop). He hardly finds time for his family members also. Once we went on family outing and half of time he was busy with his meetings. He always has to adjust his personal time (day and sometimes in night) to adjust as per his foreign counterparts. For me, it’s full of personal as well as family time. On weekends (both sat-sun we have holiday), I spend time to roam around the city at tourist places or read a novel or binge watch series. On working days, it’s as usual as it looks in government offices.
Job security: it’s really not bragging but lockdown shown the harsh reality of pvt sector. My friend though working from home, was always in fear that his company might go for lay offs. For me, lockdown was a complete family fun time. During strict lockdown, almost no work due to lack of infrastructure to work from home. Then office slowly started to provide VPN for work from home. Then for almost a year, we had roster of work (alternate day work from home).
(Edit: One can observe recent news as well as market condition in tech sector (Twitter……Amazon…and many more on that way)…mass layoffs…huge salary cuts…etc..etc..and the upcoming great recession of 2023…Soon people will realise how costly is the real job security).
Health: After working for 7 years, my friend has high powered spectacle, some back ache, neck strain, and huge amount stress and anxiety. From time to time, Doctor advised him to take rest. But his timelines sucks. For me, from day 1, I had lot of time to invest in health and family. Also for us, there is CGHS. It’s like medical insurance at meagre amount in hundreds. It covers any health condition and treatment in the world, free OPD, free checkups, follow-ups, free medicines of any value (one of our senior’s father is having some health condition which needs medicines of almost Rs. 3–5 lakhs per month… those are also free in CGHS… 😂). Also, being in Gr-A, I am allowed to go for private hospitals also. So the whole health is taken care by Govt. (Note: it covers my all family members at no extra cost).
Allowances: Many of us know that allowances in pvt sector are subject to conditions. In government, I am getting allowances only because I am in government job like newspaper, internet/telephone, office bag, LTC for whole family, education fees reimbursement for children etc.). In Earlier days…there was bicycle allowance also😂.
Foreign tours: Now, here pvt sector people may feel happy. But sorry. Nowadays government especially central government is more inclined towards learning best practices around the world, which is giving lot of foreign tours and training opportunities to govt officials especially I am talking about Gr-A in which I am working. Till date, I had 2 foreign tours. One of my senior almost spent 8 months in USA for official training.
Challenges: Somewhere in earlier answers I read about lack of challenges in government job. Seriously you need to do internships in government organisations (nowadays it’s available under the schemes like young professionals etc.). For those who want such life, there is no dearth of such challenging assignments. But you need to be selfless in monetary or recognition fronts (yes, that’s one grey area where government job need to change; but if it improves on that front then who will work in private😂).
And the list will go on…
So one can observe, government as an employer takes care of everything of its official and his/her family too.
Finally It’s a feeling of working for your country…giving your contribution in Nation building…contribution towards transitioning of our country into a superpower. If it’s not looking challenging then I think it’s not your cup of tea. Better enjoy your life with what you are earning (if you have time to spend what you have earned 😜).
Now it’s upto you to decide…
Whether money/job is your life or just a part of your life?
