Anyone in a job paying £50K+ working 40 h per week or less?

[notnearlythereyet]

Inspired by the work vs. life balance thread.

I have a Masters degree and five additional qualifications (all related to my profession and three of them postgraduate). I am on around £50 K and should be at a place in my career when I am reaping the benefits of my studies and 10 years of experience. Instead, I work 50-60 hours per week, suffer from work-related stress and anxiety and dream about retiring, although I love my profession and feel like I make a difference (full disclosure: I work in a school but work through around half of my holidays).

If you have a career related to your studies/experience, you are happy and have a good work-life balance (e.g. working 40 h/week) and earn £50K+, what is your job? I struggle to think of a career where you can earn a decent living and not be pushed to work more than 8h/day. I would like to advise my daughter and students on career choices that won’t ‘break’ them AND provide a good living, because I feel I failed to see the realities of the career path I chose.

Also-are you in a career that you feel ‘failed’ yyou in providing the work-life balance you hoped for, I would love to hear about it too.

Yep, myself and several colleagues work part time (me 30hrs) and all earn well over £50k pa. We work in IT in governance/programme management roles. I started as a business analyst after graduating and worked up through various project & programme management roles. I now work for a retailer who is very pro-flexible working and encouraging women into Snr roles so know I am lucky. There are still a lot more men in IT than women but has never bothered me and is a great career path even for non techies like me!!!!

I work in the pharmaceutical industry (biomedical/biological sciences type of degree) and have 20 years experience in clinical research. I currently earn 60k including bonus for 3.5 days work (26 hours) so I do all School drops off and pick ups bar one, have flexibility to work from home one day a week, sometimes more. I started 4 days a week at my current company 10 years ago and decreased my hours when DC1 went to school, then rearranged my hours across 5 days when DC2 went to school. I often work extra hours if I’m travelling or have a lot of meetings but at the same time I have a lot of flexibility to catch up at home if I go to school assemblies/plays etc.
Clinical research is definitely female dominated. No real gender pay gap at my company.

Oh and the leave is really good I universities too - I get six weeks annual leave plus two weeks when the uni is closed each year incremental salary scale (never had that anywhere else I’ve worked), much better pension scheme than anywhere else I’ve worked. And the pay rise each year gets negotiated nationally so is a lot more transparent than when I worked in small company.

One thing I’ve had in previous job was performance related pay. Total nightmare.

I make more than that and work about 40 hours a week, more or less. I am a business analyst and manage a team of business analysts and no one on my team makes less than £50K.

Data Warehouse Manager and earn £50k for 37.5 hours per week. 33 days holiday plus bank holidays each year too.
Work also very flexible and I can work from home or flex hours as needed.

I work from home and work about 30 hours a week (although I’m contracted to 37.5 ssshhh) I work in the training sector and earn £45k

I live in the north and generally work 3 days per week, from home. DH and I have our own company and my consultancy rate is £1000/day, his is a little higher and he works 5 days. However, I do travel quite a bit so need to be flexible. We're both from an academic background.

It is very easy to pick up part time work as a GP. Salaried GPs would get £50k plus for a three-day ~30 hour week in many parts of the country, including areas with much lower living costs than the south-east. Earnings will be higher as a partner in a solid practice, and it's still possible to be part-time. Or you can be self-employed as a locum but that's harder to fit round family life if the hours and days vary from week to week.

I work 4 days a week for £35K.

Not a bad work life balance as 3 days in the office and 1 WFH day.

I’m also studying, so unfortunately that zaps all my free time, so my life balance isn’t great!

Yup, 37hrs on ~£55k in engineering (first level of management but still get to do the fun stuff) working on fabulous products in the auto industry. I have an engineering degree and put the effort in before having kids, but don't have the motivation nowadays that the graduates coming into the company have. I still really enjoy it, some projects and opportunities are amazing but there are more mundane days, but every career has those right?!
I'm an ambassador for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths and would definitely advise the younger generations to study those subjects. There are such a vast array of job opportunities with engineering qualifications. Some of my uni friends went into other careers afterwards such as accountancy, business, architecture, sport engineering, motorsport, medical engineering, start-up businesses etc and all have exciting jobs they love, and I can't think of any earning less than £50k with ~40hrs.

Yes. Me. I have been very clear with my board that i generally dont do extra hours. I am the boss mind you.

£218k here, I’m a commercial director which means I remit sales, product and some legal stuff. I work 18hr days sometimes but 4 hours another day - consequence of a private company we have all helped build ( I am not an owner, but a board member, so this is probably my max) . I’m in this position by specialising in a fairly arrow area of a fast growing tech vertical. Probably got 5 or 10 years left before everyone catches up.

I work from home as project manager in the pharmaceutical industry and earn just under 80k. My hours are quite flexible but alot of my team are in USA so I also have to be flexible with evening calls sometimes after children in bed. My job is interesting and very varied but I also get stressed at times. I probably work a bit over 40 hours most weeks but also finish early on a Friday around 245pm.

@RidingMyBike teaching is now performance related pay regardless of how many SEN kids you might have, or kids with difficult backgrounds etc. It's a joke! I honestly wonder why I do this job sometimes!

I work in FinTech, not that many women. Salary £125k. Not many women so usually heavily in demand - I have headhunters contact me weekly. Usually arrive around 9.30 and leave around 6. Some people get in at 8.30 and leave at 5; there is a degree of flexibility. Admittedly there is some travel involved but it's not a bad sector for work/life balance in London.

I was on around £55k, but decided I wanted to reduce my hours. I've found it impossible to get a job on the same pay grade but fewer hours.
So now by choice I work 4 days a a week but only earn £20k.

Not me but DP works about 40hrs per week and earns around £110k.
Works from home 3 days per week in the office 2 days. DP in IT .

Rafferty - how did you get into project management in pharma?

I need a new job. Now how do I quickly get into insurance??

Automotive R&D Design Engineer here making 52k/yr and work life balance is a struggle. I have significantly cut back on my hours since having a baby 16 months ago and they haven't complained.

I work 40 hours most weeks (extra when business needs dictate), commute 25 mins each way and earn 65K. I’m in food safety but it has taken me quite a long time to find a role that had a sufficiently resourced and capable department that means I don’t have to work silly hours

Any Legal PAs here? I have been stuck on a pro rata salary of £38k but do a 31 hour week now. With commuting costs rising and my salary has been standstill for a few years, wondering what the market is like. Bonuses are rubbish too in my firm for support staff, like literally a couple hundred if I am lucky. I have been in the industry for 10+ years, in current firm for 10 years. The only way to get an increase in salary would be to move firms I think but not sure if I would get the hours I want... though think in house PAs get paid more.

I admire you all. I am so in the wrong job. I could only dream of those kind of incomes!!!!

Same @Meadowflowers.

AnduinsGirl wow! Are you SLT? I'm a teacher working 60-70 hours a week and earning £37K...