Work disillusionment

[workomelette3863]

I’m in my early fifties and I’m so sick of working. I feel like I was sold a lie as a university student in the late nineties.

On the face of it, my CV reads as quite successful. I’m now in a senior role, on the senior leadership team, and I am constantly told how great I am at my job. This has been the case in every role I’ve done. And I’ve changed sectors and roles over the years.

But Jesus Christ I’m so sick of the shit pay for the amount of responsibility I have. I get paid £42K and I have a multi million pound income target. Amongst line management responsibilities and a whole host of other high level shit I get drawn into. I’m known as the person who gets stuff done. And if I don’t know how to do it, I’ll work it out as I go along.

But my pension is tiny. I am from very working class roots and any (small) inheritance I would have received is already all gone on care home fees. When you start poor and the state don’t put a limit on the % of assets they will take for care home fees, well it’s catastrophic economically speaking.

There’s another thread going about someone a similar age and their problem is that they have so much money in their pension pot that they don’t know what to do with it. That thread made me feel like crap.

I’ve worked since I was 13 years old. I am not a lucky boomer. I feel like what is the point in working hard.

I can’t even take on a mindset of just don’t lean in at work, because I’ve got a team full of junior staff who need constant hand holding and cry, shout and complain regularly about the most basic asks. And I’m constantly updating board members about income streams. It’s exhausting.

Why are you so low paid if you are a senior manager and have the responsibility you have?

Have you looked for similar positions elsewhere?

Is it the charity sector ? I have not long been made redundant from a charity sector job. I was disillusioned with my pay considering some of the clients I had to deal with and stuff I was expected to do but then found out from a colleague roughly what my manager was being paid. Manager was part of a SMT and on about the same as you. The responsibility she had, managing multiple teams and services recruiting, writing bids for tenders to try to secure funding, quality audits, managing budgets etc.I was really shocked and no idea why she kept doing itas was well past state retirement age. . Must have loved her job I guess.

Yes I’ve looked. Things that come up that I could feasibly apply to are few and far between. I think my salary is indicative of a general trend now which is that many are expected to work wonders for very little. I do continue to look but the next step up is really sell your soul level stress for not much more.

Whose care home fees are you paying for, and why?

Edit: sorry, misread. Got it. You're not actually paying them.

Yes it is. I’m limited due to the fact I need wfh and I don’t live in the SE. However, even when I browse private sector jobs where I’d have transferable skills, when I work out commute costs and the huge increase in hours out of the house and commute time - it’s not worth it. The numbers just don’t justify it. My children are still school age so I can’t be home very later from a commute for example.

Agree. I am waiting to start a new job when all checks are done. I have almost nine years experience in this line of work ( charity sector, quite specialized and these jobs don't really exist outside of the charity sector ) yet the pay is a few thousand above NMW now that NMW has risen. It really does grind you down. This will thankfully be my last role before I retire, it can't come soon enough tbh.

Well physically I’m dealing with all life admin and transferring my relative’s money weekly on their behalf, and the local authority insist on sending me a copy of the invoice, to my house, to make me watch the pot drain. So that’s just an added depressive thing I have to deal with for zero returns.

Me too! But I don’t think I’ll ever get to retire. It’s such a slog. I feel like I did something wrong, even though I followed all the rules.

Have you never looked at salaries in other jobs before and notice you were behind the curve? Why not just try a different sector years ago if you are fairly senior with transferrable skills? I don't come from money which meant I am more focused on earning it myself.

It doesn't have to be a step up. From what you have described you could easily earn more in a similar position elsewhere.

Your answers sound incredibly negative as though you have resigned yourself to this situation forever. You need to start applying for positions.

I’ve tried other sectors yes but didn’t secure anything. Competition is rife. I was paid more as a senior teacher back in the day, but the government froze all pay for about a decade and reduced the retirement benefits substantially. Also, it was leave education or end up in a psych ward from stress after Gove came in and ruined everything. I was high successful as a teacher. Believe me- I’ve focussed on earning my own money since the day I could walk away from the disadvantaged area I grew up in. It’s not from lack of motivation.

I never stop applying. They take up a lot of my week.