I get paid a lot of money for doing very little

[Thrilley]

I'm not proud at all, I'm a bit bored, but also recognise I have it pretty good.

I lead a small operations team, 3 people including me. I took the job mostly because it paid the same as my old job, but for only 3 days pw, whereas before I was FT.

Partly, I have little to do becuase my no2 is very good and very keen to take on new work. I'm enjoying developing her and there's no doubt she's doing some work that should be mine. She seems happy with this/glad of the training though. Regardless, I think our team of 2.6 people is probably 1 too many, the others aren't over worked either.

However, no one outside the team seems to have noticed, no one seems to care about cost, everyone is very happy with the service we deliver and none of us is likely to easily find similar work for similar money

So, I keep quiet....? It doesn't seem quite ethical, but neither does volunteering one of our jobs!

Same same. It’s dreamy. Don’t overthink it. £80k to work a few hours a day at a job I really like

2 primaries and a secondary.

You think people won't notice, but they will be. They always do. I'd pre-empt it and let you kine manager know

Yes, me too.

Maybe there are two kinds of people/employees on that front though.

Must be nice.

Don’t feel guilty. I am also a band 7 ( AHP) and after 17 years in a hospital, I now work for an ICB, it’s a lot lower stress and I get the work done, but at a much more leisurely pace. Took a while to adjust and stop wondering if I should be more busy all the time ,till I realised everyone else is more or less working at the same pace.

It's really upsetting reading of people on MN who get paid lots more than me for doing waaaaayy less. Some even brag about it, the way they are "getting away with it." I just hope if those people are parents they realise the work put in by low-paid dedicated people who stay in these jobs in schools, not for the money, because the money is completely shit, but because the alternative is basically a school that falls apart

So you do your job just for love and to support the school, not because you need money? If someone offered you one of these high paid jobs working fewer hours you’d turn them down?

Gosh, I could have written your post, I am in almost exactly the same boat!

I manage a slightly bigger team of consultants, and they and the service we offer generates quite a large sum of money for the business without me actually needing to do much (team is very experienced and self-sufficient)

I work 4 days but my job could comfortably be done in 2.5. I get paid a huge sum.

I’m fairly senior but “off to the side” of the main business and we just get left to our own devices.

I’ve volunteering for extra responsibilities but it didn’t really lead to anything so I now think “why bother?!”. I did actually volunteer for something small and they paid me an extra bonus for doing it!

I’m sometimes a bit bored but have literally zero stress which makes me so happy (previous role was pretty stressful).

You’ve perfectly summarised exactly what they are paying you well for. You don’t do all the doing as it were, but you have total control and you own the consequences. I’m sure if the work ramped up, you’d deliver just as well. You shouldn’t feel guilty, but you should feel pleased that you work for a company that recognises the importance of actual leadership rather than this valueless presenteeism that I keep reading about. It just sounds to me like both your company and you have a solid grasp on what needs to be done and wellness. Congrats on getting to this point!

I should say I do appreciate I’m ridiculously lucky by any standards - I did have to work very hard to get to where I am but I know lots of people work hard in stressful jobs for derisory pay. I do bits of charitable volunteering, donate a lot to charity (and pay a lot in tax!) but accept I am probably still and ars3hole for being in this position.

The thing is…this is what work should be like. Getting paid well for a reasonable and manageable amount of work. Weve been conditioned to think this is ‘slacking’ by people who make money off of us. It’s capitalism for you. Don't forget the predictions during the working revolutions were that we’d be working less and less as thing were automated.

@ICouldBeVioletSky you are not an arsehole for being paid well to do a skilled job.

🤣

Defo stay quiet but be aware that if your business’s things go south you’ll need a back up plan.

Where I work they started restricting the idle time before screens would lock, and they hired an external company to monitor all of our activity online to help them decide who to make redundant.

I wish my job was quiet. I’m getting fed up of mine. There were 4 of us and now there’s 2. My colleague is in a lot of meetings, so I pick up the slack. Tbh, lots of people are leaving, might just join them 😂
Depends on if you can see yourself doing this job in the next 5 years, still bored.

Interesting question for me as I'm in quite a unique situation in that I'm lucky enough not to need the money. I could probably stop work tomorrow if I wanted to and would be ok financially until retirement. I took quite a big salary cut from a previous school which was a very unhappy place to work with many changes of head in a short space of time. I made that move because I could afford to and fancied a change of key stage. It wasn't the wrong move for me because my colleagues are awesome as are the kids and as corny as it sounds, I feel genuinely like I "make a difference" every hour that I'm there so it is fulfilling in that way.

So I guess the answer to your question NOW is that no, I guess I wouldn't take on a high paying job working fewer hours because I don't think they tend to exist for the type of job satisfaction I aim for now.

If you'd asked me that a few years back, when money was much more important to me, then I guess yes, I would probably have jumped at a job like OP's.

As it is, doing the job I currently do while not really needing the money, has opened my eyes to the world of low paid public sector jobs where people work their socks off doing so for very little money and it makes me really angry how little they are valued in society by a lot of people, even parents. Not to mention how difficult it is to recruit people who don't have the benefit of a partner who bears the financial brunt.

Start learning a programming language on the weekends. There are a lot of free resources. Start with Javascript, it is easier compared to others.YouTube has some good teachers. If you like them, get retrained.

You don't sound like an arsehole to me - you realise you are fortunate. You are doing the volunteering.

How much do you earn and what is it? I'm not in a dissimilar role to school business manager and its KILLING me. Its so hectic and I work a LOT of hours and am always on the edge of burnour.

I'm just starting to feel that less money is fine for less stress. I don't even want to coast, I just want my job to fit into my hours.

Haven't RTFT but there's a thread like this every few weeks 😂.

There'll be comments like 'you get paid for your brain/ expertise' 🙄.

Just like some of us who are also paid for our brains but are also working our arses off, logging off from checking blood results and clinic letters at 23.00. If I sound jealous, I am!

How much do you get paid OP?

I sometimes think I get paid too much for my job. I can often do full week in four days and have a very relaxing Friday. Then I have weeks like this where I've not finished before 11pm all week so think it all balances out!

Operations manager in the private sector, for medium sized business. The role is basically the same as SBM, finance, premises, HR, admin. H&S but fewer sraff and no childrenor parents

£70k. I had to go into London to get it, but wfh approx 50% of my time.

I adore my job but when I am working it requires exam-level intensity of concentration for 7-9 hours a day.

I think I'd love a job like yours, but do you have to pretend to be busy? I wouldn't mind if I could get the work done in half a day and then do my own thing but wasting time faking working would drive me nuts.

@SingingRobin You'll have many transferable skills and many civil service jobs might suit you more than you think. An ex-colleague left teaching for the civil service and now does something to do with project management. He is so much happier and the reduction of work stress has changed his whole body language and demeanour etc.