If you needed evidence that significant tension and mutual misunderstanding exists between the public and private sector, then you need look no further than the 66 (and counting) feedback comments in response to a recent article in This is Money, the financial website of the year. Admittedly, the claim that ‘public sector employees work nine years less than their private sector counterparts but are paid 30% more’ according to the centre-right think tank, Policy Exchange, was always going to be controversial. So too was the finding that the chance of being made compulsorily redundant in the civil service is 0.00007%. The article goes on to say that the report ‘will be seized upon by the Coalition Government, which has warned that the bloated state sector has been artificially insulated from the recession and is in line for massive spending cuts.’ Shorter hours, better pensions and earlier retirements were cited as the main reasons why those in the public sector work 23% less than their private sector equivalents.