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?

And I'm a teacher, husband is a mechanic. We have enough to get buy and to save up a bit.

It is indeed all relative.

My gran had to feed 8 kids on what was left of her husband's pay from the mines once he'd finished boozing. That's stressful. Having to "juggle work and home" whilst clattering about in heels and clutching a flat white doesn't strike me as being particularly stressful.

Nursery Nurse married to a Mechanic..

Not me.

Former chef, now sahm with a scientist partner. Not especially well paid considering it's a graduate career (chemistry, under 30k) but we're pretty comfortable.

I'm ex retail now sahm.
DH is a manager in a smallish company. Not badly paid, but some way off £100k!
We manage.
The irony of it is, even with school.age kids we'd be worse off if I went back to my old job.

Yes, loads are. I was too, but it’s fucking boring isn’t it? I now have a really fulfilling career.

I've not worked full time in over 2 years, been a Carer for my son and done a few odds and ends in between that. Now that he's started a SEN school that we trust, I'm going back to work.
I'm absolutely ecstatic to be 'one of those women' I absolutely thrive off the stress and it's definitely a BIG job with a decent wage. My husbands self employed career is taking off as well. In the next few months we will have gone from being completely reliant on benefits to earning double what our income has been for the last 4 years.
Absolutely cannot wait. I've got my Filofax at the ready! 

I work in a dress shop 6 hours a week

Dh does earn well though, he is very laidback at home and doesnt bring stress back with him

Not as well paid as some on here or their partners!!!

No. I work in a senior office role.

No stress as I refuse to work with it! I left two jobs because of the pressure put on me to have this ready by yesterday.

Well done imsoexhausted

I m self employed as a trainer and DH has just returned to work as a labourer after 4 years as a SAHD to take some of the pressure off me as I was working 80 hour weeks and it is was making me ill. we aren't high flying or rich but we are happy!

ShannonRockallMalin - yes, 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.

I do a normal 9-5 leave work at work office job. Dp is an electrician. Works 8-4. Under20 min commute each. Wouldnt have it any other way.

Oh i forgot to address the stress/busy issue. Yes this can Bevan incredibly stressy house, but we've got 2 autistic kids so....

The strangest thingnon MN is that they will spout that "£45k a year isn't a good salary. I earn £650k and my DH earns £600 it's still a struggle to make ends meet. We had to only go on two holidays this year, and thas's only because we swapped to Aldi for essentials"

They live in cloud cuckoo land!

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

I wouldn't be so sure about that. I'm on the lowest management grade, don't work in london but my total remuneration is approx 90k pa. I think there is a hidden social scandal around how the corporate classes have enriched themselves since the 80/90s. We have some visibility of how much FTSE100 CEOs get paid and that generates some half-hearted debate but I think Joe Public would be astounded if it was better known how much even less senior people get paid in the larger corporations. The imbalance between the public and private sector and the shop floor and management is ridiculous.

Bevan...? stupid autofill should just say be. And my 'I' was in lower case. What a knob

No poorer husbands in sight!

I'm on £100k+ and my DP earns less than £15k.

I guess I did have a high flying job, it was 6 figures, travel, car etc. My EXDH was a SAHD after an army career so I was able to do it.

Then he left after serial cheating, I got sick and lost my job, and ended up downgrading my self a couple of steps on the ladder (Director to manager) and taking a huge pay cut to work locally in another company.

Never worked past 6.30pm. Only 3 trips in 4 years. I loved it.

They've restructured due to financial crisis and my role has been removed.

I'm on really good unemployment benefit in the country I'm in so I'm thinking of just taking time out and being "dole scum" to quote Viz.

So I've been all over the shop and since being a single mother I'm sliding down the staircase really. But I'm surprised at how little I give a shit anymore.

Oh and my partner is in construction, the mud slinging hard labour kind not the management/architecture kind.

I think it's a mixed bag on here really.

Welcome to all retail, hospitality, normal admin, domestic and childcare workers 😁

Having to "juggle work and home" whilst clattering about in heels and clutching a flat white doesn't strike me as being particularly stressful.

Yes the old chestnut of ‘MC or UP have no issue in the world whereas us WC are to hard up’
And ‘my gran knew what struggling means’

You have no idea about the life of those high flyers.
And there will always be someone worse than you.

Stop been so judgemental.
As you have seen, there are plenty of people on MN who aren’t high flyers.
You have people who were high flyers and have lost it all due to ill health.
You have people who aren’t high flyers but have done well and others not so well.
And you have a few people who are really high flyers.
Basically, as it is the case in RL, you have a mix....

I work in school admin and get tax credits.

Wish I did earn a lot more though . Too late to scale dizzy heights, but am looking to move towards better paid legal admin.

Still admin though 🙄.

@TooTrueToBeGood is spot on, it's not well known for some reason but there are A LOT of jobs paying in the higher tax bracket.

I'm definitely not high flying OP. I'm an Illustrator, currently out of work and probably going to be looking for a part time job in the new year - very worried I will be unemployable as I've not been 'employed' as such for about 10 years as I got made redundant after maternity leave, ended up being a SAHM whilst studying for a diploma in illustration and since 2013 have been self employed and freelancing. Not sure 'can draw penguins' will help much on my cv. So no, not high flying, feel like a failure career wise in fact.

My DH has got a good, very responsible pressured job, but not a huge earner compared to many.

My partner and I both work in software support. Combined income of just over 51k per year, which is not a lot in the south east. We both like our jobs and want to progress, but it's not something we stress ourselves about. We're more focused on family time with our son. We may never be high earners, but as long as we're not scraping the pennies, we're happy :)