Ever Changed Your Job To A Lower Paid One?

[IfOnlyOurEyesSawSouls]

Hello

I am wondering if any of you have ever chose to leave your stressful job for one that is lower paid ... ie approx a third less in salary.

If so how has it impacted upon your life and that of your family?

How has it affected your physical & mental wellbeing, your relationships, social life and activities that you like to do?

Positives & negatives please & thankyou 😊

I did. I had to get a permanent job to remortgage (divorce). I had contracted with the people and liked them.

Money was tighter especially as I forgot to factor a pension in. Managing my mortgage got a bit too tight. I could afford that and to live but not much else. Decided to downsize the house to be more comfortable.

Regret the job now (don't regret the house) Once you go down the grades people assume that's were you have worked up to. I also have an utter twat of a line manager. Hadn't worked with him before, he plays favourites and undermines anyone else. It's Friday and I'm already dreading going back to work on Tuesday.

Look for a better job nearer your existing pay grade.

Oh @Hoggytat I empathise.
Work anxiety is so consuming

I did. Was initially really happy but the job wasn't perfect and after a couple of years I found that I was a bit resentful that I was 'worth' a lot more than I was getting and I was working just as hard. The hours were great for junior school pickups though. Now my kids are older I've moved back to my old pay grade, but with fewer hours. Works for me.

Yes I earn much less than half or my previous salary. Absolutely glad I did it. It was partly out of choice and partly out of necessity.

I was in a very pressured stressful job. It became too much in the last year and I want coping well at all mentally. They were making people redundant and held on long enough and made myself difficult enough that they made me redundant. This enabled me to have a year off during which time I started to develop physical health issues.

Wasn't sure what to do but there was an area I had always wanted to go into but wasn't sure if I would like it in reality. Managed to get an entry level position on a very low salary and trained internally to get into the job I wanted to do which I really love.

Unfortunately my physical health issues that had started on my year off (I think triggered by the stress of my firmer job) developed into a chronic health.condition. This has meant I can only work very limited hours and limits my role. However I never would have been able to manage my previous job at all so am so glad I made the move.

I love my new job which is great for both my physical and mental health. Wish I could do more hours and have more scope for development but that's not possible right now. No job is without stress at times but this job is way less stressful than my last job and I enjoy it and it has meaning and purpose. The hours are manageable, I have a great manager and my employer is very supportive. These are all important factors for low stress. If you have a lower level no responsibility job, but are bored and have a horrible manager or difficult employer then that is really stressful.

I am also lucky I that I have a husband who earns a good salary which has enabled me to make this life choice, so although it is a consideration and there would be less pressure in my husband as the main breadwinner, we can afford for me to earn this little. One worry is what happens if my husband becomes ill. He did have good income protection with his last employer but we are still waiting to hear whether his new employer offers the same benefit. If not we would definitely need to purchase cover.

I also have very little pension with my current employer and that is also a concern longer term.

Thankyou @MiniMum97 that is a really interesting & helpful post.

I too have a chronic health illness ( fibromyalgia ) that does not respond well to stress ... I really need to focus on my wellbeing rather than affording a holiday abroad every year and sprucing up the house.

Yes. Twice actually. I took a job that paid half what I was earning as I was really stressed. I didn't think carefully enough about the job I was going to though, just saw it as an emergency escape route and absolutely hated it. I was fired after a few months. A long time later, I was signed off with work related stress from another job, resigned, and now earn much much less. I am far happier. Mental ill health is not worth the mega bucks for me.

I did once - corporate law to in house. It was before I had a child though.

Recently saw what I think would be my dream job but it’s half my current salary and I just can’t afford to take it. I’m not hugely unhappy where I am now so that’s a quite different.

I did. I love my new job and don’t regret it, but money is definitely much tighter. We currently have two cars but one will have to go soon. We’ll need to stop having a cleaner, and our holiday plans have changed completely. So it’s not like we’re starving or anything but sometimes those things do make me feel a bit sad. My new job is wonderful though.

Yep 7k wage cut in return for good hours no stress and a nicer atmosphere.

I'm about to take a £5k pay cut for a new job in a nicer environment with a better team that I will be managing than the one I currently manage. I will also halve my travel time so some of the pay cut will be negated by the reduction in fuel. I've made the decision because I'm sick of the stress and I want my family to have more time with their mum.

I took a paycut of around 10% to leave a v stressful career. However I got promoted after 6 months onto a little more than I had been on previously and then again after another 2 years onto a fair whack more. Am much, much happier.

I did, last summer, I was in counselling for anxiety issues which were being severely exaggerated by work. A very rare job came up in a community I love and after working out that we could manage financially I went for it. Money is tight. And I got a proper slating on here for doing it but I am happier, the family is happier and I'm not suffering with the anxiety anymore. I am training in a sideline profession with the aim of making a bit more money freelancing at that once qualified but that's a long term plan and the money will make it a bit easier to manage Christmas, birthdays , holidays etc. On the whole would not change my decision.

I did - I actually took a pretty big step back (think lawyer to paralegal or doctor to nurse) and don't regret it for a second. I don't deal well with stress - my third birth triggered massive anxiety and I'm still dealing with it - and the change of pace has been a godsend. The only thing that irritates me slightly is other people's reactions when they hear of my step back/down. But that's their issue, not mine!

Yes, but this was pre-DC's and mortgage.
I never earnt as much again but my mental health was going down the pan and it wasn't worth it.

Yes -I have been working mostly school hours for a number of years. Luckily we only have a small mortgage. Any large purchase needs saving for. We are good at living on a budget and we don’t holiday abroad often and the house gets a minimal budget. It seems to work for us, but it is not without some financial anxiety.

Did it a few months back as there were no full time positions at my grade and I was refused reduced hours. I'm loving it, four day weekend is worth the very tight budget we are on.

I’ve taken a £30k pay cut in exchange for a stress free life, I had to way up being cash rich or time rich and being able to enjoy more stress free, free time with family and friends is so worth it, I bloody love my new life.

Not one third of previous salary... crikey, some of you are confessing to being very well paid if you can go down to 1/3 of past salary & still being legal wage.

I know people who have changed to jobs that were 20-30% less (not 67%) less without regrets.

I took a 20% pay cut to reduce my commuting from 1hr and leave a very stressy job, to take a much less stressy job and a commute five minutes drive from ds’ school.
Once I’ve taken shorter childcare and far less mileage, the salary cut makes very little difference.

I took a pay cut of over 30% to get out of a job that was making me miserable. But the new job was exactly the same as the old job in terms of the expectations of me and I was bearing the same amount of risk, similar workload, but more junior in the eyes of colleagues and without being able reduce the impact of the long hours by paying for cleaner, ironing, extended childcare, takeaways etc. and I ended up moving back to my old sector.

I did.
I was in a very stressful job but on a shite wage (£20k) which essentially was 24/7 on call, stupid shifts, 17 hour days etc.
After I had DS I switched to a job on £17k which was regular office hours and supposedly less stressful. It was for a while. Then it turned and became more stressful than the last!
With my rose tinted glasses on, I felt like the other one was much better and I should go back but when I asked them if I could come back, they said yes, but I would have to work my son's first birthday and the full week before and after that. And the full Christmas period. I didn't want to miss these so and other things, so I threw myself into a new career and fortunately ended up with a much better paid job which is much less stressful.

Swapped teaching for supply teaching which was basically a 50% pay cut. Now a specialised TA which pays more than supply and i love it.
I don't get any say in the decisions made which means I have none of the accountability either. I go home and don't think about work until I walk back through the doors. It doesn't consume me. I have a life outside of work.

It does help massively that I love my team so I've been lucky there. Wouldn't be such a good job otherwise. I have a plan to earn more in the future but don't regret my decision at all even though we're poor as church mice.

Yes. Lower pay, hours and status.

But I needed something to fit around child. 🙄 usual cliche.

I've turned it around now and am on brilliant hours and more money, annual leave, status. But it has taken YEARS.

Twice. I went from £42k to £28k many years ago, was relatively painless as I was young and had no mortgage or commitments, s few years later I went from £28k to £21k- this didn’t work out at all and luckily I got my other job back. It’s not something I would consider now that I have children and a mortgage. The amount I earn now is the minimum I could earn and be comfortable.

I left a well paid but soulless and existentially pointless job for a more stressful one on slightly under half the salary, not sure that's what you're looking for

I'm not sure what I was thinking... Though the fist one (PA in an investment bank was a young person's game - there was almost nobody under 35 on an ordinary salary grade, just a few very senior people. Long hours were expected although ironically there often wasn't much to do, but availability 12+ hours a day was expected, plus socialising with the team. It wasn't stressful most of the time but did feel like selling your soul...

I went into teaching - did the graduate teacher programme in an inner London school in special measures. Baptism of fire. Was certainly more interesting.

I left teaching after 6 years though, when I had my own first child.

I couldn't have stayed at the first job for ever, but the teaching interlude wasn't necessarily a good idea... Gave me some interesting stories I guess