Would you rather have an interesting job that was badly paid or a boring job that was paid very well?

Boring job, that's well paid and has flexibility.

In fact, I think flexibility is one of my key criteria at this stage in my life. What's the point on having a super interesting job if it's inflexible.

Some of my high salary friends have said they wish their salary wasn't so relied upon. I think they have a lot of pressure at work which isn't helped by boarding school fees

job you love always for me!

lol, I did last 16 yrs

I do a job i enjoy, i wouldn't change it for a boring job. But maybe if I was to pick again I would have chosen NHS rather than private route though for higher pay, more overtime, better pension.

I think it depends on what stage of life you are at. If I were still working for an employer and coming up to retirement I would prefer boring and well paid. You can always find something to do in work. My identity is not tied up in a job and never has been. I take my pleasure and my selse of self from the interests I have outside work.

Boring & well paid all the way!

I worked so, so hard to earn my degree for nursing. When I qualified I was walking away with £700 less per month than I earn now, having left the profession in a boring, mundane remote role. I have it a whole lot easier now for more money.

If there was a more boring job for an extra £700 a month than I earn now, I would take it. As a pp said, work to live not vice versa.

I guess this is one of those ones where people are likely to say the opposite of what they chose.

I chose boring (but very stressful and demanding with long hours) and well paid and honestly I am so so jealous of people in interesting jobs.

Equally, though, I do completely agree with the comments on the thread about the importance of money. It’s very difficult to be happy and poor, especially now.

I did the exact opposite! 🤪

I do a boring job that is well paid. I used to wish I’d followed my passions but now I have children I’m glad of the money. We’re not rich but we can pay the mortgage and put food on the table.

What did you do @Angrymum22 ? It sounds like a great balance!

Often the interesting jobs that are well paid are difficult to get into. Competitive at the very start ( A levels and degree level) so only available to the academically elite. The justification for the this is a whole different debate though.

I chose interesting and well paid so that it would fit around family life. It sort of worked and I was able to choose my hours and work/life balance. I could work 2-3 days a week and earn well over the average income but not the full time income that would have put us in the very comfortable income range.

I now work one day a week ( I’m 60 and have taken my well earned pension) and still earn around average income. My lifetime earnings, on which my pension is based, is lower than it would have been had I worked full time but my pension is still considerably higher than the uk average household income.

I do feel very lucky to have had the choice of an interesting and well paid career but it was stressful at times. I will miss working when I give up completely and I am planning to take up some hobbies to try and replace the creative side of the job.

I think that well paid but boring gives you the option to work part time and enjoy work/life balance by accepting an average income.

Boring, definitely.

I'd be more than happy to have a job where every day was the same - emails, phone calls, data inputting, spreadsheets and every morning you knew exactly what the day would hold.

I have a boring but well paid job. Every few years I get so bored I start looking to change but after I've had a few interviews it puts in to perspective how good I have it where I currently am and I have yet to find a job that will tempt me away from the current one. I am a single parent so I do feel like I have to earn more to be able to give my son the same quality of life that his friends have. If we were a two income household I think I would feel differently but for now money has to be a priority.

Interesting but badly paid, which is why I've worked in welfare rights for 18 years.

I've had well-paid but boring jobs, and they sucked the life out of me to the point where the money became irrelevant.

I also work as a support member of staff in a school- it’s not well paid or glamorous!! BUT I work in a fabulous team and really enjoy my time with the students.

On a separate note I’m lucky that my husband earns a good salary so my wages are mostly ‘fun money’ but I don’t think anyone feels fulfilled if they work really hard but cannot enjoy their time outside of work. We all want to have fun, spent time doing our hobbies and buy the occasional treat. There’s nothing immoral in that, at least in my opinion x

Depends on life stage.

I instinctively go for the interesting but badly paid jobs but at the moment I have large outgoings and have to prioritise money.

The older I get the more I realise how important money is. Doing an incredibly important and interesting job is wonderful but if you are on the bones of your arse you are so limited in other aspects of your life.

I am looking forward to a time when I am no longer constantly on the hook for money to support my daughter and can then be a bit more selfish about how I want to work.

I guess the key is to find a job that is boring, well paid AND has a decent annual leave policy!

I used to do boring and well paid. (People made up for it.)

Then I stopped working after having dc2, went back to work in a very low paid but interesting and worthwhile job part time. Dc2 is now secondary age and logic suggests I should now go back to full time dull but well paid roles, but I don’t really want to and it’s been too long to just go back to what I was doing before and are looking at a restart.

I recognise I am very very lucky that dh has found a job that’s relatively well paid but interesting to him so he can cover me earning next to nowt and us having a good lifestyle.

I fantasise daily about two things:

• My preferred job (minimum wage, shit hours, working on Christmas Day etc)
• Early retirement

Can you tell I picked a well paid corporate job!?

It is at least very interesting and related to my wider interests most of the time. It's just that I don't enjoy office work.

Then I remember working outside in a field in the freezing cold probably isn't fun either and if work was supposed to be truly enjoyable, noone would need to be paid increasing amounts to do it.

The way I see it, I am paid X for Y hours of my time. During that time I'll do what my employer wants, to the best standard I can. More money means less hours or an earlier retirement. The higher pay means I'm buying freedom.

My job is boring but well paid, some days it’s soul destroying and I find myself day dreaming about doing something more interesting but I have a lot of flexibility and a great team plus I wouldn’t want to earn less so I trudge on (and book holidays to lessen the boredom).

Being poor must be pretty boring anyway, so I'd rather boring and well paid.

I'm trying to make sure my daughter understands that💝

Boring and well paid 💯💯💯. Being poor is no fun!

I'm a (secondary) teacher and I probably like my job as much as any teacher in England can realistically expect to. I still enjoy teaching after 30 years and my school has very minimal behaviour issues, great colleagues and only intermittently difficult SLT. The only real problem is the workload, but it's a big problem!

If there were a really boring job with a significantly lower workload that I could walk into at 53 and which would pay me a lot more than my UPS3 + Head of subject salary, I would certainly be very tempted, but I don't think such a job exists, especially where I live (rural-ish NW)!

I like my job, but I'm not sure how long the full time workload will be doable tbh. Dh quit teaching 3 years ago but took a salary cut.