To think that SOME high earners don't work that hard?

[Usernamemcname]

I'm a domestic cleaner. The people I clean for are usually quite well off, five bedrooms in a posh suburb of an expensive city. They are often in whilst I clean, sometimes they come back whilst I'm here.
I see a lot and I know they are in quite high paid jobs. Yet they always seem to be 'working from home' also known as fannying about the kitchen a lot and playing X Box. A lot of them either start late (10am so they miss the traffic) and finish early. One dad picks his daughter up from school every day even though his wife is at home!
I was always told that you have to work hard to get what you want in life, so why do I have to work two jobs whilst my partner works 45+ hours and we just scrape by? What have these people done to be so lucky? They're not old, seem around my age, what jobs do they do and why can't I do them, I have a degree.
Life just seems unfair sometimes. Unless it's a doctor, I'm sure I could have a crack at it.

Yanbu and yabu

My ex earns 6 figures. Before he did though there was a lot of hard bits. He's lived abroad, he commuted to a different country to where the kids and I lived every week for 3 years. That's a lot of hours (unpaid ) travelling and hanging round airports. When we lived in the same country he was commuting 3 hours a day. When he worked from home it would appear that he wasn't working much but he worked in sync with the US so would eat with his then work on many days. He often worked on his laptop Sat/Sun. He doesn't work as hard as this now that he's at a certain level but he's not at golfing all day and collecting a pay check for 2 hours a week at the office sort of level.

On the other hand I earn more than paramedics and some nurses and I haven't studied nearly as hard as them after getting into uni. I worked hard at A-levels and have an degree from a top uni (First) but I have an easy job where there's no mental load once I leave the office and the commute is 15 mins with free parking. I can take toilet breaks and I'm sat down at a computer most of the day.

@titchy

When someone with 20 years experience and several professional qualifications charges you £300 for half an hours work - remember you're not paying for the half hour - you're paying for the 20 years of experience that means they can do in half an hour what would take you weeks.

I've never seen it better put!

@ShirleyPhallus Bringing the mental load home with me? One of my jobs is in mental health where one of our service users used to hit his head against the wall so hard he vomited, sometimes this horrific presentation would go on for days. That's tough on anyone.
My other job as a cleaner involves working for one of dd's preschool friends whose mum properly treats me as the help. I clean all three of their toilets and then hear dd's little mate saying 'why is dd's mummy playing in our toilet?' His mum tells him to not talk to me. I don't think she wants him to be friends with my dd to be honest.
Sometimes I don't know what I've done to deserve this life. I was the smartest kid in my primary, I speak two languages, I got a first in my dissertation. People have never given me a chance and I always end up stuck, not able to go upwards. I applied for graduate schemes after Uni. I didn't get anywhere so I ended up in a cafe so I could pay rent. Every day is just surviving.

Being smart does get you through the doors and is another kind of random birth luck, but it’s not sufficient - we’ve got plenty of friends that bailed out earlier as they didn’t want to do the additional study, the international moves or the long, long hours.

Of course there are some high earners that didn’t work so hard - I work in IT and one of the things I love about my area especially 10-20 years ago is there were so many people that went into it from a low qualification base and worked their way up. Harder to do now, sadly.

I know what you're saying, it isn't fair. But the one thing I would say is a lot of higher jobs don't end at 5 and that's the end of it. It can be very hard to switch off, the additional responsibility, answering for not only your own work but of those in the team you manage. The position I'm in now isn't as physically challenging as my first job, but mentally it's a different kettle of fish and that needs to pay well. I work from home regularly, I may fanny about a bit sometimes but I have to put in extra at other times. Before an audit I could be working most evenings etc. I manage my workload but I have the flexibility it doesn't have to all be 9-5 but doesn't mean I'm not putting my hours in. I suspect that's the case for a lot of people.

I earn multiple 6 figures a year and work 10 to 15 hours a week, sometimes less. I've designed my business to make money without me having to do much actual work. I do social media, reply to emails etc. Most of my sales happen without me doing much more. I specifically designed it like this but it's taken 4 years to get to this.

The 'work hard do well' mantra is a fallacy. Not everyone needs to work hard, some work very hard and don't do particularly well, others need luck, brains, the list goes on.

@Usernamemcname that properly sucks about your client treating you like that, that’s a whole other mumsnet thread about that woman.

DH is a high earner on a salary (rather than self-employed) and even he himself admits he doesn’t work very hard these days, but what he does do is obviously worth that amount of money to the company he works for, same as all other salaried high earners. There are no free rides any more at any level.

Having said that, he worked hard and earned sod all to get the qualifications and experience he needed to get his present job.

High salaries are paid for knowledge and expertise that other people just don't have or can't/don't want to get. The right degree subject and Master's specialism can equal a very easy and comfortable life. What's your degree in OP? There are so many fields crying out for employees right now (anything to do with maths, data or stats) where it's truly 9-5 flexi, no ridiculous hours and no ridiculous travelling.

OP I would also add that you can’t be sure they are actually earning the money from their job. I know quite a few people who have additional incomes from trust funds, property investments etc. Sure they have professional type careers but they don’t need to work long hours to fund their lifestyle so they just work as many hours as suits them.
Most high earners I know (high 6 figures) do work long hours and have a reasonable amount of job related stress too. But arguably it’s not as hard as being on your feet all day as a cleaner. The inequality in pay in this country is shocking.

I think the rule does apply to footballers and actor too. People may think they don't work hard but it is supply and demand.

Many people want to be footballers so youd think there is a huge supply of footballers. But the actual number with skills and health needed to perform at a high level is quite limited which means those few can command a higher salary.

Some people love football and are willing to pay for it so the demand, and therefore, the money is there to pay footballers.

@Usernamemcname I didn’t see that you also had another job, I saw only that you are a cleaner. The other part of my post says that I don’t work as hard as NHS nurses - id count mental health workers in that bracket too. Sorry for misreading your post but I do stand by the fact that cleaners don’t take home the mental load in the way that other careers do

I worked 60/70 hours a week plus travelling

I earned 40-70 k. Plus bonuses. I never fannied about - I worked my arse off.

DH is a delegater and overseer, buck stops with him though and he is responsible for trillions of turnover annually so whilst you might think the works not hard the responsibility is what they're being paid for.

Yes, plenty of people on high salaries do work hard, or carry a lot of responsibility, or have spent years working hard to get to their current highly-paid level. But there are still plenty of senior executives who get paid enormous amounts of money for doing very little, and who are in their jobs because of who they know rather than any special skills they may possess. 'Just work harder and you can earn lots more' is bullshit. Loads of people are both diligent and skilful, but don't have a network of wealthy, well-connected relatives or family friends; people who don't have rich parents are much less likely to be able to work their way up in desirable industries because they cannot spend years working for no money in order to 'get noticed' - exploitative internships are another big barrier to career success.

I think you sound a bit defeatist to be honest.

Clearly you are clever and driven. So what’s going wrong when you apply for better jobs?

I've worked in a mental health unit and all your protestations about nurses working hard makes me shake with laughter. Never met such a bunch of shirkers who whined like they worked their backsides off but would drown if thrown into the real world. The corruption, laziness and incompetence was staggering.

Never met such a bunch of shirkers who whined like they worked their backsides off but would drown if thrown into the real world.

Was it an imaginary mental health unit?

I think you will find any jobs require minimum or no skills will be like this.

You are lucky if you naturally have excellent social skills, every door will be open for you.

The world would be a totally different and better place if everyone was paid for their true worth in a job, nurses for example would be way up there but unfortunately our society gives no respect to the roles that really matter, preferring to reward financial services, etc

@Usernamemcname my brother didn't get onto any grand schemes either. His 2:2 in philosophy wasnt about to open any doors into the investment banks he wanted to work in. He persisted though, emailed people in the companies directly, finally got his foot in the door. He's now retired at 45.

My sister couldn't get a break with the grad schemes either. She ended up taking a lowly media sales job, flogging ad space. Fast forward 20 years and shes v successful media buyer earning a six figure sum.

I apologise in advance, cause I'm going to sound rude, but it really surprises me that you don't know the next steps to progress your career. Surely you apply for promotions in your admin role, or you work to expand your cleaning business.

grad schemes

Because they have done their work . My dh is a director and works from home . He is paid for his smart decisions and managing of people and budgets etc . He works from home and is often watching tv and playing x box but he has worked his way up from an apprentice and kept his head down and focused on his career . He deserves everything he has .. I work a minimum wage job to keep
Me busy and it's very hard physical work but I enjoy it so I do understand the irony of it all.

What you don't see is that high earners often never switch off. They may not be breaking sweat 7 hours per day, but they'll be answering the phone and emails in the evenings, weekends and whilst on holiday. They'll be reading reports, planning, thinking whilst travelling, etc.

Someone on minimum wage can usually switch off at the end of their shift and not worry or do anything work related until the start of their next shift.

I'm not a high earner, I don't even earn enough to pay higher rate tax, but I have my own business. To the outside world, I don't work hard because the office is only open mornings, so people will think I only work half days. But in reality, I can often spend all evening and several hours at the weekend, working, and on a recent holiday, I was "working" probably 3/4 hours per day which was emails and phone calls which simply never stop when you're in a management/ownership position.