Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that you can be content working in a poorly paid job

136 replies

GandolfBold · 19/02/2018 20:57

Because BIL thinks you cant, and that I am kidding myself (work as a support worker on just above NMW which I love) if I think I am content.

He said that people may think they are happy, but they would be happier if they earned more money.

As a bit of a back story, all my family work minimum wage-ish jobs, and BIL is quite snobby about it.

I cant be the only one, can I?

OP posts:
Dolphincrossing · 20/02/2018 07:46

You can, definitely, but it can be difficult to be content living with pressing financial matters.

If there are two of you in a poorly paid job, there’s more wriggle room. Single and working for NMW is not fun.

LifeBeginsAtGin · 20/02/2018 07:46

It's a choice. You do so knowing that life may be tough, you may not be able to afford your own home or have enough money to pay into a pension to have a decent retirement.

heinztomatosoup · 20/02/2018 07:48

Don't tell my boss but I would do my job for nothing! Although I am in the fortunate position of a high earning DH so salary is not so critical. It's all about the management and the team that makes it so enjoyable.

Fekko · 20/02/2018 07:48

It depends if you can cover your bills and have a little left over at the end of the month. Having a job you love won’t atop the stress of not being able to cover your bills.

I worked for a charity and absolutely loved it but it couldn’t be a long term thing as we have bills! If we had a large household income I’d be back like a shot.

murmuration · 20/02/2018 07:57

All of the research seems to suggest that you need a certain amount of money to make you happy, but beyond that level, more money doesn't actually make you happier.

I've read this as well.

sandy - but that's your perception of what would be the case, not the actuality. You might be unhappier than someone at £15K, for example, due to your increased buying power and thus money worries that come with it. Thus you'd end up in those stats as supporting the research!

Most of it I've read says that people on higher salaries actually have more money worries than those on just-making-it salaries (but less than those who can't afford to eat!). The thought is that more money would fix things, but the evidence is those with more have just as much if not more stress.

TeachesOfPeaches · 20/02/2018 07:59

I speak to lots of contract lawyers that work in corporate banks. They admit the job is boring but they get a 6 figure salary. criminal law is much more interesting but a fraction of the pay.

Moominfan · 20/02/2018 08:04

I hate juggling money and not being able to afford things but at the same I do love my support worker job. Makes me angry it's so poorly paid for what we do. We'll never leave our charges to go on strike and demand better pay so i don't see it changing. I Have worked towards better paid jobs. Don't enjoy them as much but don't want to spend my life poor. A few older colleagues kids have now left home and they're no longer topped up with tc ect and they are working all the hours God sends to just pay all their bills. Yet the job is really physical and they can't do it forever.

insancerre · 20/02/2018 08:07

Dh earns 3 times what I earn
He hates his job where I love mine
Money isn't everything

Bluntness100 · 20/02/2018 08:08

I think though if you have someone else, a partner, the state or a parent for example, paying the majority of the bills, it's easier to enjoy being in a low paid job.

The cricital point comes when you have to survive on that salary alone with no help from anywhere. As a pp said, if uou can make ends meet on what you earn, and as I said, you're not materialistic or ambitious you can be very happy. But being "Poor" can be soul destroying on a day to day basis.

So I'm not sure "I love my low paid job but my husband pays the majority of the bills" really is in the spirit of the question.

The question is would you love it quite so much if you had to pay for everything from your own earnings with no help from anywhere else, or would you grow to resent it due to the relative poverty it left you in?

Fekko · 20/02/2018 08:08

But if he was t earning well could you afford to do your job?

Runninglateeveryday · 20/02/2018 08:08

I loved my role as a support worker, however it was not substainable , the pay was shit by the time I'd paid rent and council tax there was no wages left. I could never do anything such as go on holiday or eat out and having to borrow to do a food shop. If I was mortgage free I'd love to do that again. So now I have a job I hate but can afford to actually live and have the occasional treat!

bigbootsj · 20/02/2018 08:09

Some people are so ungrateful. Ive been desperately searching for a job since last august and I've got absolutely nowhere. I'd be very happy in a minimum wage job!

TeachesOfPeaches · 20/02/2018 08:12

Bluntness no that isn't the question. It's simply whether you can be happy with a minimum wage job not whether you like being poor. Each persons answer will be different due to their circumstances.

Bluntness100 · 20/02/2018 08:15

I didn't say the question was whether uou like being poor. Read my post again. I said basically it's much easier to like being in a low paid job when someone else is paying the majority of your bills. Of course it is.

MaxWeber · 20/02/2018 08:17

I'm with Bluntness. I'd be bloody ecstatic if I could find some other mug to pay the mortgage while I went and diddled around in a NMW job.

TeachesOfPeaches · 20/02/2018 08:19

Maxwebber extremely rude to suggest those on NMW jobs don't work hard.

supersop60 · 20/02/2018 08:19

I enjoy my job. The hourly rate is excellent, but because I work in schools, I only work about 36 weeks a year. I love having the free time with the kids, even though we have to cut our cloth carefully.

InDubiousBattle · 20/02/2018 08:23

YABU I don't think it's possible to be content in a very low paid job unless you have a partner who is also earning, financial security from a previous well paid career or financial help from some other source (inheritance, help from family ). I was happy in my relatively low paid job but only because I had dp who was in an ok paid job at the time. On the nmw you can't afford to save, pay into a pension or raise a family. A family friend of mine has always worked in a nmw (or slightly higher ) job which he loves. Since his divorce he now has to live on into independently and it's the pits, he has to live in precarious house shares, has no pension and he had to get rid of the dog he adored.

Spikeyball · 20/02/2018 08:25

Maxwebber being a support worker certainly isn't diddling around. If you think that, you would be useless at it.

Sparks46th · 20/02/2018 08:29

@Sandy,

*Hmmm. I disagree with this research tbh.

I know I'd be a lot happier if I had more money...as would most people I know*

This could be part of what is known as the Focusing Illusion, which is supported by research. In research, people living in New York in winter think they would be happier if they lived in warmer Florida. In practice, Floridians aren't happier than New Yorkers. It is why lottery winners aren't happier in the long run, and why if you earned a bit more money, it probably wouldn't make you much happier (I don't know you, but on average, that seems to be the case).

Bluntness100 · 20/02/2018 08:29

Maxwebber extremely rude to suggest those on NMW jobs don't work hard

You're kind of wanting to have it both ways there. People are posting about how they love their low paid jobs and how higher earners hate theirs. Is it harder to do a job you hate that pays more, of course it is. But someone has to pay the bills, put food on the table and pay the mortgage. No doubt both parties work hard, but it's always going to be harder to do something you dislike because uou need to pay the bills.

So again we come back to if that's you paying the bills and putting food on the table without other financial support, and you're in a low paid job, then yes, you've answered the question, but if someone else is picking up your tab, and breaking their back in something they hate to do it, it's a bit much to gloat about how much you love it.

LifeBeginsAtGin · 20/02/2018 08:35

If you can't afford to heat your home, pay your rent or put on the table how can you be happy?

Nearly every other thread on here is about someone in trouble and the route cause is lack of finances and the fact they work in low paid jobs.

BlindAssassin1 · 20/02/2018 08:39

YANBU - I am more content in my current lower paid job than I have in slightly higher earning and more prestigious roles I've had in the past. I don't have the stress of boredom, or anxiety about the crazy work load that I end up taking home. Which isn't to say I don't work hard, dear god, I very much do! But I don't carry the crap home with me when I leave the building.

I took this job to fit around the DC and it works well. They are in very little extra childcare. Our lifestyle is modest admittedly but I see so many people who are above us financially but also up to their eyes in stress about paying debt, playing keeping up with the Joneses, being overstretched by huge mortgages.

This attitude that 'if you're DH didn't earn so much you'd have to get a better paid job (and suffer like the rest of us presumably) is a bit shitty. Most women are doing these jobs to fit around DC, allowing their DH can carry on in their careers. Its a happy coincidence that the job, though underpaid/ low paid makes them content.

StealthPolarBear · 20/02/2018 08:40

Agree with bluntness. Being happy in av low paid job when needed bills are paid regardless is not the same as surviving on a low paid job.

SussexMedley · 20/02/2018 08:43

Of course you can. Lots of people are. I do think Bluntness et al have good points about it being a major advantage if someone else is covering the living expenses though.

Having enough to get by is one thing, being actually poor is devastating and depressing. Past a certain age it stops feeling romantic and artsy and just becomes shit.