Would you go for an easy no stress but boring job or a stressful but interesting job if pay was same?

[Gregoriancalendar]

My current job is busy, constant interruptions with stuff that gets landed on me. I need to be super organsied, juggling lots of different things. You come into work and you won't know what the day will bring. Things get landed on you from management that means dropping everything. From a learning perspective it's been great. I need to be "on" all the time and have my phone email with me even when not at work just in case something happens but only a few times I've needed to do a bit of work when on leave / evenings etc.

Work takes alot of my head space / energy and I'm knackered by the time I come home. sometimes I wonder would it be better to just have an easy and boring job where I don't need to think or do anything and have more mental space for my family and myself. There's a job that's come up in another organisation which looks boring but no hassle. I know someone who works there in another department and she's said it's really chilled out and the managers seem nice etc and I'm wondering if I should go for it. It's actually even a bit more money than what I'm on now too.

Commuting etc is similar and there even looks like there might be scope for a few days long term home working too. But it wouldn't be something that would help me "grow" if you see what I mean. It would be very same-y but zero stress. It sounds like the complete opposite of what I'm doing right now. I'm in my 40s and not ambitious at all so I wouldn't see it as a step back or anything like that. I want to spend more time with my kids and have more energy to do things with my family and for myself. I sometimes feel I give the best of me to work and not for myself or my family.

Wwyd?

Bring bored and having no control over things can be very stressful.

Absolutely not. My mental health comes first.

Would the less stress position jeopardise future ability to return to more challenging/rewarding position if you wanted to ? This would give me pause.
Bit like moving out of eg london knowing you’d never be able to afford to move back.
Big decision - good luck.

@MillieEpple

Bring bored and having no control over things can be very stressful.

Research has shown that factory workers are more prone to work-related stress and stress-related illness than factory managers - contrary to the popular belief that jobs are more stressful the more responsibility you have, the autonomy that comes with responsibility may actually be less stressful than being directed by others constantly.

But a lot of people are talking as if OP is switching from high-powered to a much lower grade, and I don't think that's the case: she said she'd be paid more in the new job just that it seems less stressful. If you think the corporate culture seems calmer then that's a definite plus, but I actually think it's quite hard to work out how stressful the work is until you do it - lots of jobs that seem like they would be no bother are very different when doing them because of internal issues, like the demands of other people. I think there's a conception among people who do jobs of demonstrable importance - HCPs, for example - that it must be very unstressful if you have a job that doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things, but that has its own stress and you can't just openly go 'well, this job is pointless so I won't bother really doing it'. So depending on why you think the job would be so much easier I'd be cautious, OP.

I need to be "on" all the time and have my phone email with me even when not at work just in case something happens but only a few times I've needed to do a bit of work when on leave / evenings etc.

I've got your current type of job, but the difference is (and it's an important difference), I work effectively during the day and don't compromise my work life balance.

It's an illusion that you have to be plugged in beyond your hours, no you don't, you're allowing your management to walk over you by letting them dump on you and not control the way you divide up your time. If you can get that under control, people will respect you more and you get to keep your interesting job.

Definitely the lower stress job, in your situation (eg children and work/life balance) and absolutely if I was a few years from retirement (I have been in that position). Especially if the money was the same or, like in your example, slightly better as those extra funds would go straight into my pension scheme.

You'd need to work out what you'd do with any increased mental energy - and also resist carrying over the current pattern of being "on call" mentally outside normal office hours.

Good luck with whatever decision you make. 🌹

Somewhere in between if that's possible. I went for boring and part time thinking part time would make it do-able, and help with the DC stuff, pickups, holidays etc. The last part is certainly true but there is no way at all of progressing unless moving to another job, and if I want something more interesting I will probably have to retrain. A lot of rather catch-22 responsibilities around finance were added to the job. These have got more complicated and take much longer over the years, and there's nobody else willing to get to grips with them with me so it's now all mine - really would make a difference if this were shared.

It's really getting to me now. Absolute split personality about it - no motivation and feel very dispensable so very sensitive to any thoughtlessness. Grateful to be wfh and paid but has destroyed any connection with the team (who are there for each other every day). Went for vol severance but haven't been granted it so this feels worse on the other side. The lethargy and pointlessness itself is stressful, I can't switch off from it. I know I'm capable of doing a good job at whatever, and giving some value to a team or operation, but it doesn't seem to matter either way.

Actually, reading your post carefully and thinking more about it, if you were to go for the post that's opposite to yours at the moment, you should have a good think about other reasons you would have for wanting it, especially work-related. The ones you give are about yourself, your family and the commute, which are very good ones and most important to you but are personally-based, and probably wouldn't be convincing if it came to an interview.

Thanks guys. Some food for thought here.

I'm not in some high powered well paid job. I work as a pa in a education setting along with another couple of people. It isn't stressful in the sense of I dont her crap off other people, it doesn't affect my mental health or keep me awake at night. Nothing like that. It's just busy, lots of things to organise for others, juggling their diaries, organising and minuting meetings, most are scheduled in advance buy many will be sprung upon me to organise and attend in say 2 days time etc. Over the lockdown things went quieter and I honestly loved it, WFH and just having less work to do. I do get the dreaded Sunday night feeling every week though. The people are ok, I just do my work and go home and don't really connect with them like I have in other places I've worked.

The new job is nothing to do with PA support at all. Absolutely no meetings to organise or minute or juggle others' diaries. It's in a completely different area doing something completely different.

@Gregoriancalendar

ChanceChanceChance yes! I so would love to do some fun evening class like pottery or painting or something for such a long time. But I just don't have the energy right now.

I'm not actually doing fun classes (which I would like to), but boring career ones. But yes the space in my brain means I can do other things, I go home fresh.

Actually I'm moving roles myself soon - to an opportunity I couldn't have got without my night classes, which I couldn't have done without my low stress job!

Sometimes tortoise and hare is true in real life

Good luck with whatever you choose.

Interesting and stressful job (mine is there is never enough hours in the day and I work well under a certain amount of stress)

Being bored at work would really stress me out in a way that would be detrimental to my self esteem no matter how easy the work is