To ask if anyone has quit their good, highly paid stressful job for a smaller one?

[joanneg36]

I am seriously struggling with the 'having it all' at the moment and interested in others' experiences. Has anyone ever quit their 'brilliant' (on paper) job for work/life balance reasons and how did you manage/what did you do next?

I work four days a week in a senior-ish job. London and well paid but not law/city type money. Husband works too and earns similar. My 'four days', like many people, is in reality 7 days work squeezed into 4 and I am on email all hours. Kids are 5 and 1 and I just feel exhausted and as though I can't go on like this.

We could cope financially with me earning less, we'd have to cut back but it would be sacrifices of the meals out/foreign holidays type rather than not being able to pay bills etc. My bigger fear is about risk to my future earning potential and just general fear of unknown. I don't know how easy it would be to find a 'smaller' more part-time job in my industry but I feel I could at least try....

Interested in all thoughts - feel free to tell me to stop moaning and get on with it!

CornishPasty I actually know my kids too.

I wasn't suggesting you, or anyone else other than me, didn't! It was my own personal experience not a slight on anyone else....

What happens if you suddenly get made redundant when the children are tiny and struggle to find another job? I've known a few this has happened to and they've ended up trading down

It's always easier to go down than up in life so best to start as high as you can in career terms.

gandalf life is not always what you make it but there is a certain amount if luck involved. Luck that you have the right skills that the company is wanting at that time, luck that parents are willing and able to help out luck that you did a course which had prospects or you've joined an industry that's growing.

Sometimes the right decisions are only right in retrospect. You can attempt to swing the odds in your favour, but you are reliant on someone wanting you for the job.

This is an incredible thread. So full of a range of experiences. I wonder if it's worth preserving it in some way.

To answer the OP question: I sort of did it - moved from working for a consultancy into the bottom rung of academe. I had a DS aged 1 at the time and asked for a 4 day a week contract. My male boss said "fine, but let me know if you're working five days a week and being paid for four. That's the mistake my wife made." Lo and behold I discovered I was, and more. I went back to full time but one day a week at home. Coupled with the relative flexibility of academic life I was able to be at home for the tricky childhood illness times and yes, like others, to be a presence to vent to during the fun teenage years.

Personally I draw an enormous pleasure from being successful in my career. It makes me glad that my son is palpably proud of both his parents. I should add that what has helped has been a lot of luck (that boss at the start) as well as a DH who stepped off the city law treadmill after seeing a partner aged 40 drop dead from a heart attack, having only seen his children at weekends. He works locally, earns less than me (civil servant) but is 100 times happier than when he was commuting daily into London.

I think it's important that we both were happy to change gear and that, for us, it didn't involve a major financial sacrifice. Whilst we only have a modest house (though that's relative, it's twice the size of my childhood home ) we have enough equity that we can afford to pay DS' university fees. Personally, having grown up in genuine poverty, I would never risk the roof over my head.

gand you look at what you can do and it doesn't always mean downgrading.
Been made redundant is the reason why I retrained. I could have look for a similar job where I was (but hard, not that many around) or do something different. Which is what I chose to do.

What I don't agree with is this idea that there is no other choice than taking the boring, low wage job. If you are very well qualified and have a good retaining, then you also have all the basis to do something different. Now just your low paid job down the road.

Also a lot of jobs that you can find now weren't available when I went to Uni. Some are much better accessed as a mature student.

I fully believe that we a not meant to do the same job day in and day for the 40+ years we are working.

How are you doing OP?