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I'm looking for a term in English to describe a person working for the government of a country (for example France).

I found "official" and in particular "government official" in wikipedia., though I'm not 100% sure it's the term I want. Does this include for example, teachers in public schoools? All kind of workers, even at the lowest level of authority, for example a cleaning guy in a public school?

This question came up because "oficial" (in spanish, my tongue) has some authority attached to it.

k1eran
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Santropedro
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  • Government / council etc employee. – Edwin Ashworth Oct 06 '16 at 13:23
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    In uk there's a difference made between people workign for a government organistation and for the state see diffenrece between Public servant and Civil servant http://www.civilservant.org.uk/information-definitions.html so Public servant would be fine for UK "A person who works for the state or for local government, such as a judge or teacher." – P. O. Oct 06 '16 at 13:25
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    The simple answer is no, in English you definitely do not refer to teachers (say) as government "officials". – Fattie Oct 06 '16 at 13:52
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    Postal workers and many teachers are employed by private companies. – Dan Oct 06 '16 at 14:29
  • There is a of civil servant here https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/22/2664a – paparazzo Oct 06 '16 at 17:13
  • The term in your question title is fine on its own, at least in the US. Government worker is commonly used for anyone from a high school janitor to the President of the US. – 1006a Oct 06 '16 at 18:27
  • This question could do with a geographic tag (american-english, british-english, whatever) as epithets vary between locales. – Andrew Leach Oct 06 '16 at 20:00
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    A cynic might say the best one-word synonym for "government worker" was "oxymoron". – alephzero Oct 06 '16 at 20:02
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    @alephzero What?! I would say that the best phrase for a government worker is an "undervalued, underpaid, indefatigable stalwart of society". But then again, you might want to disregard those millions who work to keep us alive, safe and comfortable. – BladorthinTheGrey Oct 06 '16 at 21:52
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    @BladorthinTheGrey "A cynic might say..." A cynic is someone who assumes everyone is the worst they could possibly be. In other words, that comment was probably meant to be taken as a joke. –  Oct 06 '16 at 23:52
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    @BladorthinTheGrey Anecdotally from the UK, back office civil servants tend towards work avoidance, empire building and 'cruising to retirement'. They are rarely happy but don't leave because the pay, pension and terms are so good. – Gusdor Oct 07 '16 at 10:53
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    @Gusdor After 15 years working in various government agencies at different levels, I saw no more "empire building", etc., in government than I saw in private industry. Overall, there was less of it though it did exist. (Some 25+ years in private industry including some multi-billion dollar, multi-nationals.) – user2338816 Oct 07 '16 at 14:22

6 Answers6

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They are public sector employees (as opposed to private sector employees)

The public sector is the part of the economy concerned with providing various governmental services. The composition of the public sector varies by country, but in most countries the public sector includes such services as the military, police, infrastructure (public roads, bridges, tunnels, water supply, sewers, electrical grids, telecommunications, etc.), public transit, public education, along with health care and those working for the government itself, such as elected officials. The public sector might provide services that a non-payer cannot be excluded from (such as street lighting), services which benefit all of society rather than just the individual who uses the service.

Businesses and organizations that are not part of the public sector are part of the private sector. The private sector is composed of the business sector, which is intended to earn a profit for the owners of the enterprise, and the voluntary sector, which includes charitable organisations.

— Wikipedia

Community
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k1eran
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    Yes, I was just about to answer the same. Someone who works for the local transit authority or sewer district may not think of themselves as working for the government (even though they are working for a government or at least a governmental organization), but they are undeniably part of the public sector. – choster Oct 06 '16 at 17:36
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In English, there is no single umbrella term systematically used for workers employed by the government (unlike the word "fonctionnaire" in French or the terms "funcionario" and "funcionario público" in Spanish).

The various terms that may be used are:

  • public/civil servant,
  • public official,
  • senior/minor [government] official,
  • state employee,
  • government/public worker/employee,
  • functionary.

But I am surely forgetting some other expressions.

Graffito
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    +1 For your first paragraph. If you worked for a government agency and were an employee of the government (as opposed to a contractor), you would be called a civil servant. But if you're a teacher at a grade school it's more appropriate to call you a public employee (but more common to just say public school teacher). I think 'public servant' isn't common colloquially, and wouldn't be used to refer to either of my examples above in practice. My experience is in the US. – spacetyper Oct 06 '16 at 16:58
  • In some parts of the English speaking world it's perfectly normal to call teachers civil servants – slebetman Oct 07 '16 at 08:00
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    @spacetyper: Beware - in the UK "public school teacher" does not mean a teacher employed by the government - in fact the opposite (confusingly)! – psmears Oct 07 '16 at 09:53
  • @psmears: Beware! At least in Scotland, we don't really use the term "public school" - it's a "private" school, as opposed to a "state" school! – Angus Ireland Oct 07 '16 at 10:40
  • @AngusIreland: Yep, "private school" is the generic term; "public school" has a slightly more specific meaning (which is indeed limited to England). My point was that to prevent confusion one should avoid using "public school", rather than to suggest using it - hence not going into all the detail :) – psmears Oct 07 '16 at 10:49
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Your feelings about the word 'official' are well founded; it has similar implications in American English.

The term I would use is 'civil servant' or 'public servant'. This could be used for anyone from a postal worker to the president, though there are some jobs I am not used to it being associated with, military members being one class. According to Wikipedia these terms only officially refer to national government employees, but I believe colloquial use is much broader.

Lightness Races in Orbit
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Mathily
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  • Bot note that you rarely refer to teachers as 'civil servants' or 'public servants'. – Fattie Oct 06 '16 at 13:53
  • Indeed I have certainly never heard a postal worker referred to as a 'civil servant' or 'public servant' – Fattie Oct 06 '16 at 13:53
  • @JoeBlow That's because in many places teachers do not actually work for the government, and often neither do postal workers. Both 'civil servant' and 'public servant' carry the implication that the worker is someone who actually carries out the function of government. – DJClayworth Oct 06 '16 at 14:39
  • hi DJ. I mean in the typical USA context where teachers indeed work for "the government" (the local school district, usually funded by "council" taxes and some state and federal taxes) - they are 100% government workers; the US Postal Service is simply establishment of the executive branch of the Government of the United States. I have never, ever, heard a postie or teacher in US referred to as 'civil servant' or 'public servant'. – Fattie Oct 06 '16 at 14:49
  • The US was exactly the case I meant. A school district is not strictly 'the government', although it is government funded. – DJClayworth Oct 06 '16 at 16:18
  • @JoeBlow - "Civil service exams are required for certain groups including foreign service officers, customs, some secretarial and clerical, air traffic control, law enforcement, postal service, and for some entry level jobs." http://www.federaljobs.net/exams.htm. "U.S. Postal Service job applicants take a civil service exam, known as Test 473. The test examines a postal applicant's ability to sort mail, verify addresses and deliver mail safely and effectively. " http://work.chron.com/jobs-require-civil-service-exam-17415.html – Kevin Fegan Oct 06 '16 at 23:02
  • @JoeBlow Back when the US Postal Service was a federal agency, I think it was common to refer to postal workers as civil servants. Since it has been privatized, not so much. The fact that it uses the civil service exam is presumably a holdover from the earlier status -- there was presumably no need for them to develop a new exam. – Barmar Oct 10 '16 at 17:18
  • hi barmar, totally off topic but I dont think the USPS has been privatized, unless very recently? (ie today :) link "It is one of the few government agencies explicitly authorized by the United States Constitution." The USPS is (supposedly, heh) "self-financing" but it is not even slightly, in any way, privatized. It's not even a "government owned organization". It's just a completely normal "part of the government" - like the Army, say. http://postalnews.com/blog/2015/05/09/postal-myths-2-the-usps-is-not-a-government-agency/ – Fattie Oct 10 '16 at 17:42
  • ("government owned organization" is a weird category you have in the states for a part of the government that, uh, has a different name! again the USPS is absolutely NOT EVEN a "government owned organization" - it's just a totally normal part of the government) In a few other countries there has been some privatization of the postal service, eg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_service_privatization – Fattie Oct 10 '16 at 17:44
  • I work as a programmer for a mostly independent power-related company. We don't take money from the government, in fact we turn a profit that we use to pay back interest on a "government loan" set up decades ago that seems to be balanced so that it's never paid off. I officially work for the DOE though and have a badge saying so--but Nobody here would refer to each other as civil servants; we are just employees of a company. I am a contractor though, and those who aren't contractors are referred to as "Feds", but "Fed" wouldn't cover state employees. – Bill K Nov 01 '18 at 16:27
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Here's some info in the context of India :

In India , a person drawing his salary directly from taxpayer's money is called Public Servant.

The word Civil Servant on the other hand carries a Raj era legacy when the country was governed by the Indian Civil Services. Even though the ICS is defunct now, the term Civil Services is reserved for mid to high level bureaucrats and other government officials. For instance, the government conducts civil services exams for recruitment of mid to high level officials and Staff Selection examinations for lower levels in its hierarchy.

So Public Servant is the all-encompassing word for anyone working for the government. A legal definition of the word is here

The word Public Sector in India has a special meaning. It refers only to various business organisations run by government due to its soft socialist nature. These include a number of petroleum companies , mining companies , banks etc. Their day to day operation is not supposed to be funded by government and in most cases they compete directly with their private counterparts and pay dividends to government. A huge multitude of people working in them are called Public Sector Units (PSU) employees

R.S.
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The word bureaucrat could fit what you're looking for.

Google's definition:

an official in a government department, in particular one perceived as being concerned with procedural correctness at the expense of people's needs.

The only caveats however is that bureaucrat often has a negative connotation to it, as mentioned in the definition.

Rob Rose
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This is surely a regional thing. In Australia Commonwealth and state employees work for the the Australian or state Public Service Commission headed by a commissioner. Terms have changed over time. So we call federal and state employees public servants.

Not all government employees are public servants, postal workers haven't been since July 1 1976. You wouldn't call the postman a public servant but an Australia Post employee. Though the may be referred to in stats as a public sector employee.

Local government employees are called council workers or staff.

Noodles
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