Does everyone on MN - except me - have a high flying highly paid highly stressful job

[IamtheMistressofmyFate]

Is anyone a hairdresser married to a mechanic? Nursery nurse married to a delivery driver?

I keep reading about women having to go back to work or they'll fall off the career ladder and never recover. Everyone seems so BUSY and STRESSED and high flying. Or they've burnt out and have downsized so they can bake bread.

Is anyone else just pootling along like me - not setting the world alight with their brilliance and ambition?

I’m a childminder. Have been for over 18 years. I’ve never been ambitious. My only ambition in life was to have kids which I did. I kind of fell into childminding cos I needed to earn money & wanted to stay home too. I love my job. I’m not making a fortune but I’ve enough to pay the mortgage & bills, send dd to college, keep us well fed & clothed and we’ve had nice holidays. I don’t need to make millions.

Until last year I had a high flying job, got made redundant and went to work in the family business.
The stress of this job - accounts admin - is horrendous, knowing if I mess up payroll I've got 30 angry builders at the end of the phone every Friday.
In comparison, my "high flying" job was a piece of piss!

What I do could be classed as admin, although its niche and well paid.

I'm planning on giving it up and going self employed as a dog groomer.

DP is a manager.

Would like nothing more than to be a sahm/housewife now as I'm over working. I'd rather my time was my own. There's more to life than working.

Ah, I do have what people class as a ‘high flying’ husband. He does all the cooking and a fair bit of the housework though!

I used to work retail. It was a job not a career. Now I am a sahm. I have more time now to develop hobbies and interests that are important to me and make me more of 'who I am' than my job ever did. I am seriously thinking of putting afol (adult fan of Lego) on the next census because if in 100 years time if people want to know about my life then that is a fairly important part of it.

I was a SAHM for years, eventually took up childminding, now do lunchtimes at the local school. No stress here, mind you, not much money either, but we're all happy and that's what counts.

Currently SAHM and partners a chef in a pub. We get by okay and it works for us

No executive husband here - he’s a SAHD who runs a small business from home during school hours. I do have a highly paid highly stressful job though. Not so sure about the high flying!

Nah, I'm a sahm. Have been home educating but they're probably going to school so may get a job.

Dh does have a fairly high flying job, but one that pays well for flexible hours with people he likes doing interesting work. So we're pretty chilled to be honest.

I've had the stressful part but not the high flying part

I haven't had the high paid bit either

Current job is less stressful than previous one, and I'm comfortable but not raking it in.

I made a conscious decision not to go for a long hours, high-flying career after my parents died before retirement age. Decided there was more to life than work and money.

I work part-time in an admin role with a couple of extra responsibilities. It’s flexible and the people are nice. OH is middle management.

Before kids I was fairly successful though

Whenever there's a post about income, the average income of the MNetters that post theirs is way too high to be representative of reality. Either those with lower incomes don't post, those with higher incomes post (?braggy) or there's a bit of truth bending

Agree Monkey

I'm a teacher and so is DP. I want to leave though- I have no balance and have got ill from the stress and anxiety. I used to work in retail and sometimes regret training

Nobody ever has a degree either. They always have a Masters.

I'm a cook on minimum wage. (actually I'm not at the moment, I'm having a baby at any minute but when I am working that's what I do!) The most stressful job I ever had was running a nightclub. I've never worked in an office.

God no. I'm a 34 year old single mum working as a waitress. It fits in around school (10-3), so I don't have to worry about childcare in term time. My life is stressful enough without a stressful job chucked into the mix.

I’m a low paid, part time library assistant. I love it. Under a previous username I was ripped to shreds on here for not wanting to work full time in a job worthy of my 20year old degree (despite the fact that most of my library colleagues are graduates as well).

If everyone was doing the so called high flying jobs, who would cut our hair, deliver our post, stock our supermarkets? I think it’s about time these sort of jobs were more appreciated.

Honestly, I'd very much doubt that all these six figure salary earners are telling the truth.

Nope, I took a 6K paycut in March when I changed jobs and my annual wage is now 16.5K (but I was paying 5K a year on a train ticket to London a year on my previous job which was 23K.). DH is on 25K. I’m an admin assistant. Love it, 20 min drive to work, home by 5 to 6 each night. I never worry about work in the evenings/weekends, have fab colleagues and lovely customers and couldn’t give a monkeys that I’m now “lower” than I was 15 years ago.

You have to remember though that some people on MN may just ‘embelish’ a little about things sometimes. Jobs/wages included.

I’m business admin but have just been promoted. My boss has decided that this new role in a skilled area is worth £184 extra a year, the rest on the payrise being for the extra hours I have to work (and meaning I still will be on tax credits).
Now I’ve queries it he’s nit picking and ripping my work to shreads......

So no, no where near the ‘high flyers’, or ever likely to be so......

Part time student (though job hunting) married to DH will middling office job.

Billiandthesillies - Your post made me laugh! I do agree that just because your not high flying that your not immune to stress. I think the worst and most stressful part of my job started when we employed a few people.
I think stressful is different from high flying as it depends on the nature of the job, working on a till with long queues for the length of your shift can be stressful. When for petrol pumps are in overdrive, customers want to pick up or drop off their cars, the phone is ringing, suppliers are dropping off parts and others just want a price for a service all at the same time for a 30 minute period when your the only one on the counter makes you just want to run away from a seemingly modest job. Even the modest jobs have their moments.
Sadly sometimes people will say " well whats to stress about you just need to stand their and serve", but its the volume and intensity for a period of time that gets you when everyone seems to come all at once and their all in a rush. It can drive you insane.

There is no way that everyone on here is telling the truth. Every second thread it's like 'I earn 60,000 a year' and considering only something like 5% of people earn that much or more, and the vast majority of those are men, so people are definitely bullshitting.

God knows why, maybe their fantasy life is more fulfilling than their actual life.

Nah. I'm a stay at home benefit scrounger who's unmarried to an ambulance driver...not a paramedic, but who someone kindly pointed out he's 'just' a patient transporter.

No high fliers in this gaff. One of us left school with an O level or two in something artsy (him) and the other is a university dropout and total loser (me).