To think if you earn a huge salary then long hours are expected?

[dignifiedlazyness]

I have a cousin who work 60-70 hours minimum a week. Yes this is a heck of a lot, and I’d hate that. But, he is on £400k a year. All he does is complain how many hours he’s putting in, but seems to forget that with fewer hours there would be no business class 5* weekend breaks to New York etc.
I feel like telling him to shut up, or make do with less!

I smell bullshit. My dh is a senior associate in a huge famous law firm and he doesn’t earn 400k.

I mean in the scheme of full on jobs. It’s one thing to never come home if you are on seven figures-you really don’t need to work more than ten years on that kind of salary. But I doubt he’s looking at early retirement on 400k.

I generally work about 45 to 50 hr for 26k so 70hr for 400k ain't too shabby.

I wouldn't be complaining. Bre can probably retire at 40 on a salary like that. 60 hours a week isn't even that many hours, I know people who work that much fot a considerably smaller salary. I did about 50 hours a week as a first year teacher earning £23k

400k is a fucking huge salary. It is deluded and crass to say otherwise Gregory.

DH earns around 165 which ooop north is more than respectable. He easily works over 60 hours a week plus travel and has done for the last thirty years and will until retirement. He is away several times a week, and had been for over thirty years.

If he earned that for 37 hours a week I would be pretty pissed off and I’m married to him!

So you did mean £400k was 'not that much really'

That is genuinely super - crass and I don't say things like that very often.

Gregory wants us all to think Gregory is very rich

Sadly Gregory has just come across as a bit out of touch and boorish

Gregory will now say any negative comments are down to jealously

RTFT!

Well, that's told me!

Anyhoo, yeah it's bullplop. He doesn't earn that much. He's pulling your (rather gullible) leg!

@semperidem he’s probably living in London with very high cost of it living. Then there is the cost of facilitating the salary (suits, cabs, lunches because you can’t make your own, nanny/boarding school, possibly therapy/pt/copious amounts of coke to cope with work load). It costs a lot of money to sustain a high earning job. I think a lot of people don’t realise just how much people pay out in order to be able to work these kinds of jobs in the first place. Once you consider that half of it is lost to tax there may only he just enough left to live comfortably. Not enough to make him think ‘I don’t give a shit that I don’t have a life outside of work’ at any rate. I think a lot of people don’t realise just how difficult it is to work in these firms long term. Unless we’re talkong after tax in which case that’s different isn’t it? But on £400k net I can imagine how a lot of people would be tempted to just quit.

Dh isnt on 400k

But is on over 100k and works about 50-60 hours...there probably is the odd few weeks he works more

Another job did raise its head and would have taken his pay to 300k eventually but he was under no delusions that the new firm would work him very hard

As it is he can work from home occasionally and has quite a bit of flexibility

I think the PP meant that it isn't actually £400k. He will only take home £200k after taxes etc.

I realise how ludicrous it is when I say only!!

At least I'm hoping that's what she/he meant!!

@nothibgontelly jealousy of whom? I would be very much on the fence about being jealous of this guy. On the one hand he has a good career (but it’s not like he’s going to win a noble prize is it?) but I doubt he has much else. I’ve seen what these places do to people and, while I really need the money atm, I would think twice before taking on that kind of role. It’s the equivalent of selling your soul for ten years. People come out the other end completely broken (some firms anyway).

@GregoryPeckingDuck

I am well able to consider the ins and outs, the utter hardship of the role the man does, including the fact he lives in London.

Thanks all the same for the condescending explanation.

Us yokels in the sticks can be educated too. HTH.

Salary is just about conceivable based on my rough knowledge of acquaintances/ friends however the hours seem low(ish)

For comparison all the ones I know work weekends (ie sat and sun mornings) or all sat and sun off.
They never get bank hols and sometimes have to leave mid holiday to go somewhere weird to rural Russia or bloody Zug for 48 hours

These are oxbridge candidates who are considered “bright young things” but all earn way less 150-200k...
One at Morgan Stanley is on 3 something but she is a nutter with almost no social life.

He’s got it very good

I do half those hours (around 35 per week) with the odd bit of travel for about a third of the salary and thank my lucky stars every goddamn day

Cost of nanny and boarding school is relevant only if he has children and if his partner also works long hours. Plenty of people on less than 400k also have to pay for childcare, suits, taxis and other living expenses. I find it very hard to believe that anyone on 400k only just has enough to live comfortably.

60 hours a week in a law firm is an easy life frankly - he should shut up about it. £400K for an associate in a US law firm I could believe bearing in mind big firm UK equity partners can bring home double that.

@hunter you made me realise what it is. In my head I am imagining this guy having a decent sized house in London near to his place ofwork which would eat up most of his earning. I sort of return to default setting when tired and fail to adjust for British things like housing. In the light of that yes, it actually seems like a perfectly adequate salary.

I think he’s likely very tired and stressed. Ofc the salary is probably why he doesn’t quit (and he may want to make partner) but he is still probably extremely stressed and unhappy. It doesn’t go away because he has a good salary.

My friend works in retail. He gets salaried for 37 hours, works 60+ for less than 30k. Yanbu

Gregory even after tax/student loans/pensions he is looking at 15k per month, even in london with a large mortgage and childcare etc there is no way you can consider that to be "not that much"

But it’s not actually that much though.

Yeah, once you add in tax, pension, mortgage, childcare, school fees, staff - you are as poor as a church mouse and so it's all relative.

(That's how that sob story goes, right?)

400k is 'adequate'

Not much improvement

I work in office in City and there are suits and what have you involved

Most would consider 400k to be a lot of money.

Not buying it.

@dignifiedlazyness I was working around 60 hours a week as a full time teacher (before mat leave) for just over £30k.

If he is 8 plus years qualified and at one of the bigger American firms he very well could be on that much with bonus included - friend of mine has just been headhunted for a similar role and it’s a base of 300k and expected to be 415k once bonus included. She isn’t taking it though because it is basically selling your soul, they have rights to all of your time in return for the pay packet. Magic Circle law firms pay less but are better in terms of flexible work and balance.

I am stunned he is not working longer hours though. I would think if he is only doing those hours in that sort of role he is very lucky!