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.

None of it’s fair. You’ll get people trying to tell you why they’re justified in earning what they earn or why they’re particularly hard done by, but there’s just no point in comparisons. Of course how much you earn doesn’t reflect how hard you work, or how valuable your work is, or how much you have to offer. You’ll also get people telling you that they pulled themselves up their bootstraps and obviously that’s marvellous for them, but who knows what little strokes of luck or advantages they’re forgetting about. If your circumstances feel incredibly tough it’s not useful to be told that you should just work harder to fix them.

That said, maybe it’s helpful to realise that it may well be in your power to change things, it’s just not necessarily about working harder - because as this thread shows, you can’t rely on hard work automatically leading to more reward. Instead it’s probably about being strategic and long term and accepting that it’s tougher if the odds are against you but working out what your advantages are and trying to maximise them.

Currently not on a 6 figure salary but hopefully next promotion (Probably 8 years away) will place me on that. It's a significant jump but I am still on a higher than average salary.

I left college with a good degree joined my organisation and worked my way up through the ranks, worked hard, did professional qualification by night and weekends (big sacrifice imo) continued to put in the hours and hard work and now...20 years on...I'm starting to reap the rewards. But I have big responsibilities, hard decisions to make and many teams to coordinate.

I don't doubt there are others out there my age that could very well do my job but they haven't made the sacrifices or put the time in that I have and these are the things that help you to climb the ladder and eventually get those high figure earnings.

My cleaner probably thinks my dh has an easy life, he does to some degree. She comes in a very often DH is still in bed, he then goes to the gym. Starts work around 12. BUT he has worked very hard in previous years to get to this stage.
She probably thinks what the hell do I do all day after she’s cleaned the house 4 times s week and I’m a Sahm.

Hold the front page! You’re right. They’re clearly really clever - or lucky - or both...

I suppose my boss’s cleaners think that. She’s often at home, disappears because the farrier is round or to pick a kid up from boarding school.

She’s paid for her experience, people love her and she makes sales in the millions.

She grafted to get into Oxford, to get her Masters, was in America only flying home once a fortnight for most of her twenties and worked in an aggressive male dominated industry where 12+ hour days were expected.

Now she’s on wayyy less than she was on in her last role in a bank, but still 6 figs. And definitely worth it to our company!

That said she’s not a layabout now - she’ll pick up if you ring in a panic at 7pm and last night pulled together some financial modelling on a Sunday night because I’ve been struggling to do so myself.

Can you tell I love her?!

Hi OP - if you speak 2 languages why not set up as a tutor? Or offer foreign language conversation classes? Or do document translation?
You could also do a PGCE and become a teacher in that language, or in whichever degree subject yours was? That'd likely boost your income and you could make some extra tutoring/taking in marking etc? It'd have more career progression opportunity than cleaning etc (I say this as I get the impression you are not enjoying your current roles)

DH is able to work from home whenever he likes as long as his team is ok and the work is all done. He earns more or less six figures.

He always tells me that he gets paid for what he knows, not what he does.

@Doodar can I ask what you do do with your time? (Not meant in a rudeness but curious way!)

Lots of mums in DD’s school are SAHMs with nannies who do the school runs and cleaners and I do wonder (definitely with a hint of envy as I drop DD off at the boarding house breakfast club under cover of night before steaming down the motorway!)

Also DH often starts work at 10/11 from home because he’s been on the phone to a team of developers launching a new system on a Sunday night to avoid business hours.

We have no cleaner to judge though (sob!)

I was broke in my twenties, two jobs temping and working as a cleaner, walked miles to save a tube fare, never socialised (literally for years), fed myself on under £10 a week. Then I got a lucky break and worked like a madwoman for about 10 years, putting up with all sorts to compete with people who were better qualified than me or just preferred because their face fitted better. For the last 25 years I've been that employer you describe, at the other end of the spectrum with a seemingly easy and well off life. You have to be hard working, clever both literally and emotionally, and you have to have some luck too. Get yourself on the right ladder, even if it's the bottom rung, never feel sorry for yourself, and always deliver.

I graduated in 2003, I’m still gaining qualifications now, 16 years later, towards my career, to keep skills up to date, to gain new skills. Taking risks on new jobs. Accepting you may be living out of hotels 1-4 nights a week. Accepting that your 37.5 hour week, in reality will be 60+ hours. Maybe that’s why?

Absolutely true.
I know someone who earns a crazy amount of money but always goes away on Fridays so he can have a long weekend with his girlfriend. Also goes on countless holidays and 'works' a lot from home but doesn't have to do much as manages to fit in social calls and school pick ups/shopping. I actually don't know how he gets away with it.

Excellent quote from Liz Hurley:
'The harder I work, the luckier I become.'

OP you're probably my cleaner 🙈

My DH is never in the office before 10 and "works from home" (sleeps/chills out in between work calls) quite a lot!

I’m pretty sure Liz Hurley was quoting someone else

Know a few multi millionaires. Self made ones.

One happily admits he doesn't work anywhere near as hard as he should for the money he earns nowadays.

But he's very generous, & a lovely down to earth guy and I can't begrudge him his good fortune!

That is 100% how the outside world would see my dh when he is working from home.

They dont however see the evenings and weekend working, the getting up early for conferences across world or going away for weeks (once a month) at a time. The year DS was born we worked out after he had been at home for 135 nights that year.

So frankly the day he works from home I think he is 100% permitted time to relax a big and to go in at 10 on some days. He works harder than I did in a supermarket just in a different way.

Unfortunately salaries don't correlate to how hard someone works. My DH is a high earner and earns 25x what I do. He doesn't work 25 x harder though!
If you had cleaned our house today you would probably say that he doesn't work that hard. He works from home and took the dogs for a long walk this morning. He's been to the gym for an hour and a half this afternoon. However he's currently reading DS his bedtime story. He will then continue to work until 10pm dealing with his American colleagues. Weekends are often spent writing presentations. He is away from home for weeks at a time and on those trips he has very little downtime, works bloody hard and comes home exhausted. To a casual observer though he may not seem to work hard!

PooWillyBumBum
Gym, lunches, cook every day. we travel lots so I sort all that out.
Huge house renovation, sourcing stuff for that. I do run the kids around 4 nights a week and at the weekends. I’m always busy. Plus I practically wipe Dh’s arse.
I was the highest earner when we first met though.

Plus it takes a certain person who not only wants to earn the big salaries, but is also willing to accept the responsibilities, and ultimately something that a person further down the chain does or fails to do, can become their responsibility.

The point about high earners is that they can afford the cleaners that want to pick up hours around their other jobs/kids/commitments.

My cleaner would’ve said the same as you when I worked in the City. She wasn’t there at 5am when my day started or at 10pm when it ended.

I’m pretty sure Liz Hurley was quoting someone else

Definitely ... though there's some debate about who:
quoteinvestigator.com/2012/07/21/luck-hard-work/

I’m pretty sure Liz Hurley was quoting someone else

Yes @uckygreeneyes film producer Samuel Goldwyn

you have to look at the big picture.

If you stick to clean for private households, you will only ever earn a maximum of x hours you can do a day times whatever you charge.

Others will work for a bonus that will double their salary at the end of the year.

What promotion or pay increase have you got? If none, why not looking at what else you could do?

It's all about working smart and going for opportunities. It's not just about being jealous of people you know nothing about. The royals might have been born into a life of luxury and uber-privileges that no one else can really get into, but there are so many other examples and possibilities. The beauty of our world at the moment is that anyone can pretty much become anything, it doesn't matter where you were born.

Yes I completely understand this.

I would be considered a high earner, I hit 6 figures at 27/28 when I started my own business. There would be days I could go to an exercise class in the day or get my nails done and if you were there you would think I had it so easy.

However I would just say.... From the age of 15 I worked incredibly hard. At uni I worked 20+ hours a week on minimum wage and self funded a masters which was very tough. I was working 16 hours a day, I came out with a first. When I started in an office job I took on every project going, even if I stayed till 10pm. I studied constantly and worked very hard to learn my craft. I was lucky I work in an affluent industry but I've taken lots of risks others wouldn't, I've pushed myself, failed and tried again.

Now I can do my job very quickly, it might take others who do a similar job 5 hours but I can do it in 1 or 2. If I get everything I need done I can stop work.

But I don't believe for a second I work harder than a cleaner or many other professions.

This meme sums up how it works in my industry