r/AusPublicService

Hey all, just need some advice. I’m currently an apprentice, employed full time studying full time as part of the program. Once I complete the program I’ll be an APS 4, currently an APS3. I’ve been moved to a new section of my department as I was struggling with my previous section due to work expectations as this is my first job working with the gov.

Anyway, I’ve been really enjoying my new role in this section. But I’ve recently moved and the public transport has been absolutely shocking (if you live in SEQ, you’ll know). Last week it took me 2 hours to get into work and 3 hours to get home, usually it takes 1 hour on the train (both ways). I really want to work from home as my previous role let me wfh almost immediately. The long commutes is taking its toll on me. This week the transport isn’t too bad but it’s still a long way- 1 hour and 30 mins travel time, doesn’t include traffic which there will always be and will make commuting longer. My manager knows this as I’ve told her multiple times and have been late to work.

I’ve taking more time off as it’s difficult for me to get up early in the morning to make the bus and then come home and only have 2 hours of personal time before going to bed. I was also taking time off before this as I was moving and needed to attend house inspections/talk to the property manager of my previous place and wasn’t allowed WFH.

I want to put in a WFH agreement form but I am very worried that it’s going to get denied and I’ll be f*cked. I just feel very anxious and upset that I’m missing heaps of work and that I’m not being listened to by my manager. Any advice?

Hi all, reaching out for advice as I’m growing increasingly desperate.

I applied for study leave in march for placement commencing in July. The study leave policy accounts for 5 days per year + 1 day per week to attend study. The 5 days per year was approved in April but I recieved no response to the request for the 1 day per week until June, which was rejected. I followed up multiple times over this period.

Obviously I need the leave, and the rejection (and its timing) has left me scrambling for options.

Reasons for rejection are varied and unclear, including the course of study not being a “core requirement” of my role, despite my pointing out the policy’s mention of established relevance, not requirement, and prior approval.

The course is also listed as “preferred” in my position description, so clearly relevant. Other staff members have been approved for study leave for less relevant courses of study.

I have requested a review of actions from HR however have not received a response in over 2 weeks.

In my discussions with management I am being talked over and becoming increasingly frustrated. This comes after being told when I made the application that I would have the support of management and even being assisted by my manager at the time in writing the request.

Do I have any other options for review/recourse? In my view the decision lacks alignment with policy, is inconsistent with the prior approval, and demonstrates unfairness due to other team members being approved for less relevant courses.

As I said, I’m desperate at this point so any helpful advice is welcome.

A bit of a silly question this one, but one I'll ask nonetheless. I have a friend looking to apply for a position and the ad states: 'a maximum 4 page statement addressing the selection criteria of this role as outlined in the JDF.'

What is the expectation to provide a four page statement? If you manage to answer the criteria in two pages, is that substantial? Do panel members look at how many pages are submitted as a judgement?

Edit to add: not me applying, but a friend.

TIA

I'm curious as to the process behind screening applicants. What can a hiring manager/hr see when someone applies. All their previous applications sent to the ATS?

Do I have a better chance at a role if I make a completely fresh account and then apply? I'm scared my previous applications are negatively affecting my chances of getting accepted.

I've been applying for NSW Gov jobs recently and have noticed that if you get invited to an interview, you are also given pre-interview tasks to complete and present at the interview. I find this a little irritating because my work involves having a portfolio in the first place.

I didn't have to do this for a previous role that I was in a few years ago and am wondering if this is standard practice now?

My knowledge is a bit dated so forgive me. Question: What do you, or the Agency/Department do if you are selected for a position that requires a security clearance, but you don't have one? Can you start in the position on restricted duties or do you need to wait until the clearance is obtained?

i think i got too excited and just applied for the role, bc it's my dream job lol. i felt so confident when applying and tailored my resume to the role, but but i've been overthinking this whole thing for the last week, and i guess it's because i want the job so bad. they're hiring a lot of people, so i like to think i have a better chance, but i am trying not to get my hopes up lol

i just feel like i could have made a better cover letter, and now i'm wondering if i should give it another shot or just move on and hope for the best? main thing i'm worried about is if i withdraw my application, will i be able to apply again? does anyone have any exp with this?

tysm <3

Applied for an APS role a while back. The process was meant to take 2 weeks but ended up taking about a month and a half. Yesterday I got a call saying I’ve been offered the position, and was told not to accept any other job offers in the meantime. They also said it’s not official until I receive it in writing, which will take another week.

I’m feeling a bit anxious waiting. Has anyone had a verbal offer like this fall through or get revoked before the written contract arrived? Or is this generally just the standard last step before the paperwork comes through and pretty much a done deal at this point?

Any insight from people who’ve been through APS hiring processes would help ease my nerves!

For those who were in the APS and switched to another agency (not a s26 transfer, but rather through standard recruiting at whichever broadband), did your annual and sick leave carry over? What should APS employees know about leave carrying over?

Hi all, to keep it nice and simple I've been a contact centre agent for two years, 8 of those months I spend on a lengthy and interesting secondment in a different area of the business that was struggling.

I am in Australia, working for one of the larger health insurer companies.

During that secondment I had the amazing opportunity to work with a fraud investigation team on health claims, reviewing, checking, discussing and analysing multiple claims and finding inconsistencies in a large group of suspected fraud cases. It clicked that I enjoyed it, a LOT.

I have an honours degree in history so as you can guess investigating, research and general analysis is a fun thing for me.

Getting back to my point for you all,

I want to go into a fraud career of some sort in insurance or the public service. Frontline is killing me and was only meant as a temporary stop over. I was thankful for the secondment I went through and I have started to apply for fraud roles, risk analyst, claims analyst, claims investigators etc.

I figure adding a Cert IV in government investigations just to bolster it as I only have the few months of secondment behind me.

I just want to reach out if there is anybody who does these roles, what path you do? Any advice? If you know of that cert do you believe it's the right one?

Perhaps better wording I can use to bolster that secondment?

Appreciate it ya'll

Aps 4, 5, and 6 National EPA — are there any updates on the recent recruitment process?

There are multiple positions being advertised in my area of interest however, they are being advertised as full-time when at the moment I can only commit to 0.6FTE.

While I feel that my experience, tertiary qualification and skill set would be a good fit for the role, I do not want to waste anyone's time by applying, hopefully making it to interview stage then disclosing that I cannot work full-time hours.

Is there an appropriate time to disclose this? Put it on my cover letter, call the job contact or just not apply at all?

What has your experience been?

I applied for a NSW government role in late May and was recently invited to join the talent pool. Shortly after, a director called to let me know they were activating the pool and moving me forward to the reference check stage. Is this a good sign? Does it mean there’s a chance I’ll receive an offer? I haven't heard anything back since that conversation, so I'm curious about what to expect.

Thinking about moving to a different agency to try something new but wondering if the grass is actually greener or if it's just different flavours of the same thing. Anyone had good experiences transferring?

Currently an APS6.2 and planning to make a lateral move to another department. The equivalent APS6.2 salary at the new agency is around $2.5k lower than my current salary.

What's the best way to raise salary matching during the recruitment process? Is it common for agencies to match your existing salary, or would they typically place you at a higher increment (e.g. APS6.3) so that you don't take a pay cut?

One in three public-sector data professionals do not trust the data held within their own departments, a recent survey showed.

The survey of 133 public-sector data professionals between February and April 2026 suggested tools for tracking data assets, and more than half said departments did not document the reasons for collecting data.

---

As the person who ran this research (and an ex-public servant), do you agree with our findings? Do you think trust in data is higher, lower or were we about right?

I really would appreciate people's insights on this one. A new EL2 and have someone who has been with the division a long time. They are knowledgeable but their attitude is everything is wrong, how we do things are wrong but hey, I will just go with it.

Now I have given them a lot of leeway and hands off on their matters as opposed to how I manage others. However they sent me something and I made some comments about how things could be adjusted and sent it back. Then I find out they proceeded to ignore the issues I had raised and just sent out their own version.

I gave them a call to understand what happened and their response was that they thought they were suggestions and they could be ignored. I advised that when comments are raised, you address them but feel free to discuss if I have got something wrong.

Their response is that they feel micromanaged and they have delegated authority and making suggestions makes them feel like they aren't trusted. I advised it's the role of the EL2 to have responsibility of the team and if something blows up because of what is sent out, the EL2 is responsible. They disagreed and said the agency head can talk to them about it.

I felt myself getting more frustrated and ended the call. But I can't let this attitude to unchecked or others in the team will query why this other person gets away with it.

Now before people pile on, I don't clear every little thing the team sends out. I regularly advise team members that I'm happy to defer to what they have written without seeing it. However the big touch points on matters, like when a statutory decision is made, that in my view should have a touch point with at least another person.

I'm trying to navigate the path of not being overbearing and destroying team morale but at the same time, making sure certain safeguards are in place for the work that we do

I'm going to speak to other EL2s in other areas of the division and check how they balance issues like this. But it would be interested in hearing others who have encountered similar and how they dealt with it.

APS-wide bargaining is back on as of today. This is not a pro-union plug. I was there last year as a non-union rep, I'm back there again as a non-union rep. It will be a poop-show. It is my firm belief that self-nominating as individual self-representing bargaining reps is the best thing us non-union public servants can do at this point to have any influence on this process. Anyone can nominate to represent themselves. It's free. You don't have to ask permission. Your manager can't say no. You get all the information and all context directly from the source, not through the APSC filter. There can be no cap on the numbers of individual number of reps. (#no_cap - pun intended). Those are facts. It takes numbers, but if a thousand of non-union reps turn up at every paid-time business hours meeting, the resulting cost to productivity will have to be noticed. The delays in bargaining will have a real cost. Smoke bomb.

Hi everyone. Sorry, I'm just ranting and rambling a little bit and seeking advice. Thanks for reading.

I have been working in the APS and was always recognized as a high performer. I recently transferred to a smaller team. My work output equals more than 30% of the whole team's output and is top level, but it hasn't been recognized. I also really feel like an outsider in the team. There is one coworker who brags a lot about their work, but their actual output and quality are really low. They confidently spread false information related to work. The correct information is public on our website, but instead of digging into it, they just make assumptions and tell everybody as if it is the truth. Management doesn't seem concerned. It makes me think confident communication is valued more than actual performance and work output.

I recently did a promotion interview and got merit pooled. The feedback was all positive, but there were concerns about my communication skills. I was recently diagnosed with ADHD. I have a lot of thoughts going on at the same time, making it hard for my logic to sound logical to others, even though I understand complex problems perfectly. I try to use plain English and screen share, but I sometimes explain too much to be transparent. Improving this will take a lot of time. This was never flagged before though. Maybe past people were more generous?

I did reflect on my current level. Except for communication, I think the other downsides I have are leadership and stakeholder engagement, which involves communication as well. Otherwise, I learn very fast, do a lot of self-learning, manage my workload very well, and I do read the room and get along well with others. I have a good memory and work flawlessly with very minimal supervision.

It's kind of frustrating because I did put a lot of effort to learn and it's been a few years in the same level. (I'm not an APS 6 FYI). Should I disclose my ADHD to my workplace? I don't see any benefit since I can't fix my communication quickly and my actual work has no issues. Should I change my career or learn some specialty? I also get bored at doing one thing really quickly. Has anyone experienced this? What should I do?