To consider a drop of £10,000 in salary?

[redrose80]

I work in a public sector job where I earn £37,000pa. It is a secure job which I know I am lucky to have in this current climate. We are all WFH until at least the new year. I have good annual leave and flexi leave entitlement.

But I have been the victim of bullying and disability discrimination for years. I have had to get my union involved but my grievance has been on hold due to covid 19 (yes they could deal it anyway but they won't so I'm in limbo)

I've been actively searching for jobs over the past 3 years and despite multiple applications, have only had 2 interviews.

I believe my lack of application success is because a, my disabilities are off putting, even though I've worked full time since 16 so I'm not incapable and b, because my skills and experience are very niche. However, I have undertaken additional qualifications to expand my range of career options.

Anyway I have submitted an application to a university job that I could do with my eyes shut. Its one of the best matching jobs I've seen of all I have applied for. It is really ideal. The salary range was advertised as £33,000-£35,000. Lower than what I'm on but I felt it was manageable.

Only after applying did I realise it was an 0.9FTE job which I think means the starting salary could be £27,000.

Now I'm not sure whether to withdraw my application or not. Its a big drop and my DM says with all the qualifications and experience I have, I shouldn't have to take a drop in salary. DH says he wants me to be happy but the money would be an issue.

The university website salaries can be negotiated subject to experience and budget. In this current climate, would it be too optimistic of me to hope that I could start at a higher salary (if successful)?

So AIBU to apply or should I withdraw, stay in my shitty job, and keep looking even though I've had no luck these past 3 years?

You’ve both had experience then of redundancy and subsequent debt. I’m not surprised he’s concerned then. Some people think there is no price on happiness. Others (me) want to know just how much price and just how unhappy. Job security is more important to me than money - if it were the other way round, the money loss wouldn’t bother me at all! It’s good to talk it through here to clarify your own feelings - but only you know what really matters to you.
I definitely would withdraw the application though - why decide when you don’t have to? And as this sounds like a new field for you, interview practice would be good.

Don’t withdraw.
I applied for a University job paying significantly less than I was on before. It was my absolute dream job and I wasn’t happy where I was so I was prepared to take the drop in salary. When I was offered the job they spent ages getting special dispensation to start me higher than the advertised salary range as they didn’t think it was fair I’d have to take a drop in salary (even though I was happy to and applied on that basis). They were insistent I absolutely had to have more money!

I’m not saying they’ll do this, as the financial situation now is very different to a couple of years ago, but certainly they might start you a bit higher than the bottom if they think you’re the ideal candidate. Also unless starting salary is top of a band Universities often move you up a salary spine point each year so at least the salary will increase whereas in my previous work there had been several years of pay freezes.

Could you cope on that lower salary for a couple of years knowing that after that it’ll be going up each year?

I would if I could afford it. I can’t, so I wouldn’t.

just spoke to DH

He says he wants me to be happy.

He says apply for the experience, ask to negotiate on salary (assuming I'm successful) and if they won't negotiate, we can decide then what to do.

It would be £400 less pm

I do not think it attracts as many oversea students as the others in our city. The degrees they offer are very vocational and work based and are mainly around health care, sports and teaching.

That probably means that they will be even less likely to be able to afford to negotiate. They will be more reliant on tuition fees than a more research focused uni and the inevitable drop in tuition income this year will hit them hard. Remember that 'better' unis will be trying to recruit more home UGs this summer to offset some of their loses from overseas students. Even though there is a limit to how many more they can take this year (+5% of projected recruitment), it doesn't take many RG unis increasing their intake by a little to put a lot of pressure on less prestigious/popular institutions.
I would also be cautious about the working environment in a uni. Some are pretty toxic places to work - they have changed a lot in the past decade of marketization and there is plenty of bullying going on, especially in support services. This will only get worse over the next couple of years as job loses increase pressure on people.
Do you know anyone that works there that can tell you what it's like?

Try to negotiate that you work a 9-day fortnight rather than 4.5 days a week as you will then have one day less of travel expenses. It will also be clearer to everyone that your day off is your day off and if you're asked to work you need either to be paid overtime or time off in lieu, rather than your hours gradually creeping up as you're asked to stay longer on your half-days for no extra pay.

Is it a term-time only position? You may find that you need to pro-rata the weeks over the year as well as the hours over a week to find your actual salary, e.g. the FTE might be for 46 weeks but you actually work 39.

Ultimately, you then need to balance the benefits of additional free time against the lower salary, which is a personal decision. If it were me, now, I'd do it in a heart-beat (and have done similar to get a better work-life balance), but ten years ago couldn't have afforded to.

Also worth remembering that 10k on paper sounds a lot more than it is in reality. My husband earns 10k more than me but picks up 400 a month more which, at 100 per week, doesn't feel.like it tallies up with the 10k figure. He would drop to my salary if it meant losing the pressures of his job, so if you can afford it I would say go for it

Go for the job and if you get it see if you can negotiate more - you never know. Terrible shame not to go for it just assuming they can’t bump it up.

@ThereIsNoSuchThingAsRoadTax its in Scotland so no tuiton fees here

I have a former colleague who works there who says the non salary benefits are better (eg more annual leave) and it is more family friendly (better work/life balance). She hated my current workplace although the university job she is now doing is more money and the one I'm looking at is less.

@CloudyGladys

No mention of it being term time, no.

its in Scotland so no tuiton fees here
Of course there are. They're just not paid by the student (if the student is Scottish). The uni still gets paid to teach per student and it still charges overseas student a lot.