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.

I’m sure my cleaner thinks this about us. Dh is in top 1% of earners and manages to fit in his hobbies most days around meetings/conference calls. But what she doesn’t see is the risk taking, aggro and uncertainty.

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.

Sometimes you have to make your own chances and opportunities. Nothing will just fall into your lap. Have you enquired about extra training and possibility of moving up in your main job? Or moving sideways and then up? Or even looked for a different job if progression is not possible where you are?

So many of us ended up for a while in jobs we didn't particularly want but we had to pay bills. But that important part is 'for a while'. While we were there we kept applying and applying and applying. Not getting into grad scheme is not the end of the world.

I don't know how old you are and when you got your degree (and as pp pointed out in what you got your degree?) but you can still make it in life. If you drop the "No one's given me chance, it's so unfair" attitude. Sorry, but it's truth.

Scarletoharaseyebrows Is the American tv show 'The Office' by any chance? I may or may not do this myself.

I have friends in minimum wage jobs who wouldn't be prepared to travel, be on call 24/7 for a week or two a month, take calls at 5am, stay in the office until midnight, meet a deadline at 2am.... its swings and roundabouts.

Yeesh, I wouldn't be prepared to do any of that and still managed to get to 45k by 25.

@ItIsWhatItIsInnit lucky you! It isn't constant so I enjoy the quieter times. Overall I think the pros outweigh the cons.

People have never given me a chance

Why not?

@puppymouse - I was chuffed but the job was super dull, and the office was cold, dark and dead - so I moved somewhere more fun for 10k less.

Also OP, I don't really get how you ended up stuck in your job - even if you only managed to get a cafe job at first, you should carry on applying to the sorts of jobs you want while you're working. Don't stay somewhere if it's crap. Job-hopping isn't as looked down on nowadays, I'm 26 and most of my friends are on their 3rd job after graduating.

If the jobs you want require some sort of skill, then train up in it - for example coding, marketing, there's lots of free online courses. Take entry-level roles and take training opportunities in the company, like external courses. You can't make no effort to get out of your position then moan about being in it.

Get a friend to check your CV and practise your interview/presentation technique. Maybe your CV is in a bad format or you're not interviewing as well as you can?

Unfortunately people are not paid based on how hard they work. Salary structure is more complex. Sometimes the salary and work match, but often it does not.

or doing drugs tends not to count
Reanimated - the vast majority of businesses take drug offences very seriously.

Plenty of high earners don't work "smart" or "hard" as many of them are actually crap at their jobs!

DH is a high earner and he works really,
Really hard, travels a lot, has loads of stressful responsibility and works crazy hours. He has to be available 24/7. We have had holidays cancelled at the last minute and he has missed birthdays etc.

I think he works 'harder' than anyone else I know although his work isn't physical.

We don't complain about it because he gets paid so well. 🤷🏻‍♀️.

YANBU. Some high earners don't work that hard. Some low earners don't work that hard.

Plenty of high earners don't work "smart" or "hard" as many of them are actually crap at their jobs!

My company specialises in working at height. Its company policy that theres random drug tests. For fairness itaneven done at head office. Never worked anywhere that does do random drug tests.

Agree with you OP. Me and my DH are not super high income earners, but are on what I consider good incomes at £60 000 each. We don't really work hard at all. We can't work from home, it's not that type of job, but often at work we aren't doing much. Many of my colleagues are even lazier than us.

My job probably looks like this. Including bonus etc i earn 6 figures. I don't work long hours. It's very flexible. There's quite a lot of phone calls, meetings.

But unless you've got some specialist qualifications you haven't mentioned & a lot of very specific technical experience, nope OP, I'm pretty sure you can't do my job.

In those calls and meetings, I will answer questions relating to complicated & often subjective aspects of law of UK & loads of other countries. I will answer quickly & confidently & make judgement calls. On the basis of what I say, millions of £ will get moved around, and I will be responsible if things go tits up.

I'm paid for the value the work I do creates, and for the fact that there are not enough people skilled & experienced enough to do it, not the hours.

Oh and there are often calculations or reports I have to produce that are mentally hard. Like I will sit there dredging through a huge amount of info making sense of it, and will have to use everyy scrap of brain power i have to work out an answer and write that up in a way that can be explained to others.

1300 £60,000 for not working very hard....
In my organisation that is a middle management salary. I would have to jump up three levels from where I am to earn that.

DisneyMadeMeDoIt

My DH is a Dr (intensive care) and I recently tried to help him study for a professional exam. I learnt 2 things;
- I’m an utter moron in comparison.
- There is a level of maths/science that I honestly didn’t know existed.

Haha I’m with you. DH is a doctor, we met when he was in his final year of medical school and I remember one time trying to help him revise for exams: ‘ask me about anything on this page’. I’m not a stupid person, though I suck at science and maths (beyond being fine with the day to day basics) and tend to find stuff in those areas the most difficult. I could barely make sense of what he was even trying to learn, let alone synthesise some/any of the info well enough to formulate a question lol. Now he’s studying for professional exams on an ongoing basis and I sometimes take a look over his shoulder at what he’s learning and it completely blows my mind he’s able to not only learn so much information but retain it and use it, on so many different topics within medicine. When we met I remember thinking I’d never met anyone as smart as him but then seeing the hard work that went into it too, during my degree we had around four hours of lectures during the final year and other than maybe another six hours on top of academic stuff that was it. He would go weeks at a time where I’d be lucky enough to see him for a coffee because he was studying sixteen hours per day.

It’s like a different world to me. I laugh when people complain about GP salaries being too high. People have no idea what goes into getting to that level.

Sorry I didn't reply, I crashed out on the sofa at 8pm and now I'm off to work. Will reply later.

OP are you still applying for jobs that are paid higher, or the field that you are interested in?

I have a friend who I have decided to reduce contact with recently as she constantly says to me how it's not fair that she doesn't earn the same as me and how I don't work as hard as her. We both grew up in a deprived area in poverty. We both worked in an admin pool 18 years ago. She took 4 years off to be at home with her DC, I didn't. I worked and studied when my DD was a baby and missed out on a lot of time with her (in nursery between 7-6, breakfast and after school club all through primary school). I then moved 300 miles away were I thought there would be more opportunities (still in the same organisation). I worked long hours with a 4 hour daily commute with no family support nearby and it was fucking hard! My friend kept telling me it was a mistake and discouraged me from moving constantly. I've worked my way up, and just hit a 6 figure salary. I can now WFH and work hours that suit me. I think if you are not born into privilege were your DP have connections to help you have to take risks and work hard. My friend can't see the sacrifices I've made, she just sees it that we started in the same place so should be at the same level. She constantly makes digs about me taking my DD on holiday, or that I'm home when my DD gets in from school and how her DC would love that but I've been 'lucky' to do the job I do. I've offered to help her apply for jobs but shes not interested (doesn't want to work the hours or the commute would be 20 mins longer). My job now is not easier just a different type of hard work.

Sorry I realise that's slightly off topic, but it was quite cathartic! Sometimes you don't know the work/jobs people have done to get where they are. If your in London I'm happy to have a chat about the organisation I work in (always has vacancies) if you tell us what field of work you are interested in.

I earn over 50k, so not mega high, but certainly a very high salary by any non-twatty measure.

My WFH days are my hardest, most concentrated days.

I work a 37.5h week. Very few exceptions. I can decide my own schedule.

I wouldn't say I'm working hard where I am now, but I worked very hard to get here. Very hard all through my twenties, including adapting to multiple different business disciplines. Still helping out with our entry level work too if that's what was needed. Working late repeatedly, working weekends, if that's what was needed.

I now have the stress of making sure this company that I've worked hard for stays afloat in challenging circumstances. To do this I don't need to work hard. But I do need to be clever. Take the right risks. Keep everyone on board with our plan. Work to gain their trust in our plan. Balance the budget. Etc, etc, etc.

For me, there's simply no comparison between how it feels to be responsible for all that versus being given a list of tasks to complete.

Eye roll. Just eye roll at the OP.

Sure my cleaner thinks this about me & she's right. I work 3 days from home & earn more than a nurse teacher n lots others who really work proper hard & make a real difference. But I worked as a cleaner waiting tables through college & had 2 years after college in minimum wage jobs working 2 jobs til I finally found a job I liked & was good at still starting at 10k though. After about 8 years I was on 8 times that but I did work 'smart' n put hours in. Now am part time & no longer a mgr but get paid alot for what I do (analyst) & can do from home. What can I say the difference is education, mindset (I was never gonna be happy waiting tables all my life) I delivered results when it counts (still do) & was also lucky. If you think you can do what your employers do why don't you find out their route to where they are. No one just suddenly lands a position like that.

What jelliebellies said. People who are privileged usually minimise a natural advantages they have.

It is a very interesting thread. Thank you fo everyone for their contributions. I think it shows a lot of us who earn a lot work very hard (I do some work on just about 365 days of the year for a start and currently every Saturday and Sunday although not as much as int he week for example) or have done in the past and/or have rare skills or passed doctor exams (my father took medical exams until he was 30 as he read physics first so was a bit old and my parents put off babies for 10 years so my mother's teaching salary could support him) or law exams (I have) and not just that but also are perhaps in some cases better than others in our fields.

I agree with Ginseng that educatino can make a big difference. The reason my parents got out of relatively poorer backgrounds in the NE including my mother's family many of who mined coal was getting an education and also vocational qualifications - teaching, medicine (my father, his brother, my sibling) and in my case and my daughters - law. As i think I said up the thread my last cleaner's son read law and then did the same LPC (law) course my daughters did. I don't know if I was an example for her and her family but he certainly chose a career better paid than his mother's and she came here from abroad 20= years ago and has worked very hard indeed.

For the original poster can we help her? She got a first in her dissertation so she presumably didn't do very well in her degree otherwise that would have been mentioned I assume so thatmay haev been the first problem she had or may be she graduated in a recession - I did and had to apply to 139 firms over about 6 months and had 25 interviews before getting my first job in law (I was probably bad at interviewing or something!)