New job - pay cut?

[Modestandatinybitsexy]

Ok so a few details.. I'm 27, University educated, and I've been working in admin for about 7 years now.

I hated my previous job and moved to a less demanding role for slightly less money. About a three grand paycut. DP moved jobs at the same time and got a significant pay increase so though I earned less we didn't feel it overall. I've never been enthusiastic about admin or the roles I've done. I dislike the daily commute and the traffic that adds an hour on to a simple journey morning and evening.

We've recently moved to a village and a role at the primary school has come up. The commute would be a ten minute walk. The job is 8.45-3.30 term time only. Even without the cut in hours (currently full time 37.5 hours a week) the pay is less than I currently earn and with the shorter hours my take home could be less than £1000 a month.

As I've mentioned we've just moved house and now have a larger mortgage to contend with. My partner is also looking for another job and another pay increase (qualified professional, likely to happen).

So. AIBU to consider this role? I've told my partner I'd like to apply but not that it's part time or how much the take-home would be. We had discussed applying before I realised the hours then I found out it was part time and applied anyway. I probably wouldn't have considered the job if I knew it was part time but I was invested and DP and I had been so excited about the opportunity.

Pros
Closer to home
Happier work/life balance
Time to concentrate on hobbies - considering a separate craft based self employment
No children to consider
More time to concentrate on getting pregnant (discusses, we both want it to happen but there are difficulties)
Good community links in the village
We wouldn't struggle to live on combined*

Cons
I feel like a won't be contributing my fair share of the income
Strain on DP as even greater majority earner
Reduced personal spending
I feel bad as I haven't discussed part time with DP.
I may feel like I've wasted any career opportunities and get fed up with small village life.
*But we would take longer to save for things we want in the future (extention, holidays...)

What do you think?

--Also, I haven't even got an invitation for interview yet and I would discuss PT with DP before I waste mine and jobs time in interview. I'm really looking for your opinion's and any experience of the above, although I realise it's rare for people to go PT before children.

[Chchchchangeabout]

I think this is a decision to make with your DP. If both of you are happy, great. If he's not ok with the cons that fall on him, not great. If I was you and you did take it I'd be feeling a bit wary if not currently married.

Could you also take on other flexible work around this role to top up income until kids come along?

[buymeabook]

Are you planning on having kids any time soon? And if so have there been any discussions about how you would manage their care?

If children aren't in the mix then it does seem a bit unfair for you to be so reliant on your DP. For me personally, I would want to contribute what I can. But you're not me. Plenty of people have a partner who is by far the main provider and are happy with that. I would also want to consider what would happen in case of a split.

[MisForMumNotMaid]

If children are part of future plans it sounds very plausible and you being village based would enable him to be more career away from village longer hours based.

Without children it gives you the opportunity to explore self employment options too which is a fantastic opportunity to try whilst you can afford (on reduced joint income) rather than when every penny is already allocated like if you go to one income because of children or redundancy etc.

The reduced personal spending concerns me if you're reffering to just yourself. I read that as maybe all isn't equal in the pot?

Why haven't you been able to bring up its part time? Is it you've only just twigged or do you think he'll not like the idea?

[Enjolrass]

It depends on whether you are happy to start being financially dependent on him.

And whether he is happy with that too.

I am not really sure what 'more time to concentrate on ttc' means.

Personally this wouldn't work for me and dh. But that doesn't mean it won't work for you

[Modestandatinybitsexy]

We're getting married in two weeks on our ten year anniversary. There's never been separate pots other than we get paid into separate accounts. We jointly pay bills and house costs although this has now been worked out on a percentage as he earns more. We're both left with remaining personal money which gets split into joint savings and then spending. I don't like the idea of DP supplementing money I spend purely on myself, although I am accepting this will happen in the future when we're supporting a family.

I'm a pretty independent person and while we currently share everything I don't want to feel like I'm not contributing and am reliant on DP. I think I wanted to see if I'm being unfair to DP by taking a backstep. I would like to explore other opportunities but I'm worried about my motivation for setting this up.

Children are on the cards. We've been ttc on and off over a year but there are issues including weight and stress that I just don't feel I currently have the time to address.

Idk though, all your points seem reasonable and I've thought over most of them before. I thought I'd wait to see if I get an interview before discussing it with DP as I wouldn't consider pt for any other role.

[NoodleNuts]

It wouldn't work for me either. I can just imagine my DP's face it I told him I'd got a new job, it was part-time and also term-time only, he wouldn't be impressed. If your DP is happy with it though then that's different.

Have you worked out what you would take home and would it be a huge drop from what you take home now?

Most of us don't like the daily commute and traffic but unfortunately its something that we have to put up with.

[PoppyBlossom]

Could you look into qualifying as a teacher?

[ZedWoman]

It's worked well for us.

When we were first married, I was on about 7K more than DH. He was a retail manager and I was a graduate engineer.

After several years I moved into teaching, and he has moved into marketing. After having DCs I am part time and DH earns 40K a year more than me.

I couldn't give a sh*t that he earns more. I still work hard and so does he. However, I am the one who has to think more about childcare issues as my work is term time only and 3 miles away from home whereas DH works in the city and has a 2 hour commute each way.

It works for us. We have no separate money. We both work just as hard in and out the home. All money goes into one account.

Do what works for you as a family.

[Enjolrass]

It really is dependent on what your dp feels.

What will happen if you get the job and fall pregnant very quickly? Can you pay the bills on the minimum?

Honestly, if dh said to me that he was reducing he hours and wage substantially, I wouldn't be ok with it. Unless there were small children.

I wouldn't be giving up any of my own spending money to subsidise it either. I know that's sounds incredibly selfish. But I grew in a single parent family where mum got screwed because she didn't have her own money. I always said I wouldn't be in the position. I have my own money and savings.

I am not adverse to using it if we, as a family , need to and wouldn't keep it this way if dh was out of work etc.

But that's my reasons and my marriage. It doesn't work for everyone. You don't know until you discuss it.

He might be happy with it.

[Anomaly]

You've been working in admin for 7 years and established you don't enjoy it. Why would you do a job that pays even less than you currently earn in admin.

The appeal of this job is mainly that you'll work less and have a short commute. Why not find a job you actually enjoy? If you don't have children and can afford the pay cut its an ideal opportunity to do something else.

[AgentProvocateur]

If you've got a degree, why not do a post grad and teach? It doesn't seem fair for your partner to shoulder that drop in income. And wouldn't you be bored working so few hours?

[Preciousxbane]

Before DC is the time to really accrue money because once they arrive you will be considerably poorer. I did take a paycut once but it was a change in career to a much better one but bottom rung and I hadn't even met DH at that point.

[caroldecker]

Your holidays would be much more expensive as tied to school holidays. I think if the boot was on the other foot, the term cocklodger may have been invoked.

[Cressandra]

I'm not averse to moving with a pay cut and have chosen work-life balance over the greasy pole myself.

However I think you shouldn't be clipping your own wings so much at this early stage in life. You need to get out of admin and into something that floats your boat a bit better. I would worry that if you compromise so much now, you will never get the confidence to try something else. 27 is still really young and you have some graduate entry level type jobs still open to you, but if you settle for a pt, term time only admin job now, those graduate opportunities will pass you by. And the salary disparity might make all the difference when you need to think about covering nursery fees in future. Could you afford to keep this job with one child in nursery at £45 a day, all year round because many don't have a term time only option? How about 2 children in nursery? Counter-intuitively, perhaps, I think this job would be very difficult to sustain with young children. It would be great with school aged children, sure, but this is the time to build up funds towards maternity leave, not to limit your earning potential.

[Marmitelover55]

I went part time when we were ttc after two miscarriages. It was a good move and I got pregnant quite quickly and had 2 DC in the space of two years. I think the reduction in stress was really positive.

If you are working part-time in an admin role at a school you could maybe look at studying the for the school business management diploma and look to become a school business manager/bursar - I am doing this myself at the moment.

I think working part time is great for a home/work life balance if you can afford it.

[lorelei9]

Obvs need to discuss with DP
But a couple of points to consider

1. some posters are saying you might want to advance further first. You might but I note you've already pulled back once from amore stressful role, so I'm guessing you're like me and not massively ambitious
   
   
2. can you offer DP anything of value as a trade off if you work fewer hours and dint commute? If you are more cheerful and more able to contribute to household savings eg batch cooking, making sure every money opportunity is fully used etc then that's a plus
   
   
3. How do you both feel about living frugally? This makes a massive difference to what you can do. If you're both the type to want the latest gadget etc then it won't work of course
   
   
4. have you already done money plans for post children? If not, have s look and see how all the maths cancels out.

[turnaroundbrighteyes]

If you'd love this job have you looked into other ways to boost your income? With your admin background maybe agency work in the school holidays or working on summer clubs / out of school clubs? Or maybe a couple of evenings a week at a second job.

If the hourly rate isn't too bad it could be workable now and turn into a dream job when you have children.

[RubbleBubble00]

Surely it's a simple matter of can you afford to take the job with dp current wage and how does dp feel

[rollonthesummer]

Be careful on the salary. It maybe be a lot kess than you imagine. My friend just left teaching two days a week to work as a teaching assistant at her child's school. The salary sounded ok on paper but when she got her first pay packet, it turns out that once it has been pro rata-d on hours in the week and weeks worked in the year, she takes home less than £550 a month.

[lorelei9]

Rollon, doesn't everyone work out what their actual take home would be before applying?!

[rollonthesummer]

It's not always easy to work out a TA salary as people might assume-oh, the job pays £16k, that's £X a month, but not realise that's based on working 52 weeks a year at 37.5 hours a week.

Luckily my friend's husband earns enough that she doesn't need the money, but I thought I'd mention it. The OP said

with the shorter hours my take home could be less than £1000 a month.

I was just musing that it may be quite a bit less. My own full time TA (and another friend) takes home about £650 a month.

[StealthPolarBear]

The replies on here are very different from the "aibu to hate work..." thread where many posters seem to be saying their aim is to work as little as possible and seem to think they should be free to pursue that

[unimaginativename13]

Also think about maternity pay. Going part time wouldn't be an option for most women while there are no children involved, personally my husband wouldn't be impressed at all.

You say you were TTC on and off, is it not possible to sort out the weight and stress issues and work full time? Do you genuinely think these issues can be resolved with a reduction in hours?

I would be looking at if you would be entitled to maternity leave, would you get a decent amount based on your new wage. That's what matters at this stage. Just for instance if you fell pregnant quickly.

[lorelei9]

Stealth, I was thinking the replies are similar, e.g the "won't you be bored" comment.

To be fair they are totally different subjects.

[IguanaTail]

I wouldn't train to be a teacher if work-life balance is even slightly in the equation.