Is anyone here a high earner and DOESN’T work stupid hours?

[Llamasally]

If yes, what do you do? How do you avoid working long hours? Are you a high performer /successful/up for promotion?

I’m curious, as so far my experience is that they go unavoidably hand in hand, but I feel this is wrong and you should be rewarded on your achievements, skills, performance- not willingness to give 100% of yourself or to be always ‘on’. When considering promotion opportunities on the horizon I find this the scariest thing tbh. I’m not prepared to give up my life, am I being unrealistic??

By high earner I’m talking six figures - just because that’s how I would personally categorise - not because other salaries are not high enough etc)

Have you thought of contracting or consulting? I’m not a high earner by your definition myself but I know people who don’t have to give it all to get good money as contractors. The hours tend to be stable and work is a business transaction not taking over your life. The downside is no holiday or sick pay and sometimes job insecurity. Also you get less training and development.

I am - I earn between £500k - £1.5m pa depending on how my stock performs. Depends on what your definition of core hours is. I work mostly 830-6, with some catch up (c 30mins 2x pw) after kids in bed. Very very rarely work weekends. But have the odd weeks where I work much more than that. And to get where I am now have had to put in some seriously long hours.

But now I don’t feel particularly hard worked. I could also be much more senior / better paid but am choosing to coast (for want of a better word) now a little bit now as have young kids.

Following...

Yes, me. My contracted hours are 40 a week but I rarely even work that. I also get lots of holiday time, including public holidays it averages 11 weeks a year.

I have fairly niche IT job in a supranational European organisation. I'm definitely not a high performer in fact I'm a bit of a slacker and am rarely stressed by work. Often there isn't enough to do which can get boring at times.

My salary is the equivalent of 230k pounds per year and yes I do realise how incredibly lucky I am!

The only sacrifice was I had to leave the UK to take this job. I appreciate this probably doesn't help you at all OP.

Good thread. I am also interested in mid paying jobs without long hours!

My DH owns a construction business. It used to be very long hours while he built the business up, lots of 7 day weeks, but it was all worth it. He has a great set of men working for him, some are young and with no DV and want the weekends so takes on a lot of work. He now works 5 days a week, always home for dinner with the DC. Earns 6 figures.

Depends what counts as high earner and crazy hours. I used to work in finance and DH still does. Hours were mainly 9-5 sometimes 6. Occasional odd hour or two working from home at the weekend. Base salary was £150k with a bonus of around £200k or more.

I’m not one but I know a few. Mostly people who put in the serious work and long hours early on in their career, got promoted a few times, proved themselves and are now beyond that stage and dictate their own hours/calendars. They also have a lot of qualifications and niche skills in eg engineering or very obscure bits of law - so they can pick and choose what they do because they’re in high demand.

I should also add that we were earning that salary after 2 odd years in that field (both came in totally fresh and had never worked in finance before - I didn't even really know what stocks/bonds etc were). It was competitive to get employed though and the roles we took up only take people with top PhDs in a relevant (technical) field.

Marketing freelancer for tech businesses. Very flexible working around my son.

Me. I work for a large global corporation. Have done for over twenty years, I’ve been promoted nine times in that period. I don’t want to say exactly what I do. I did my long hours on the way up. And then some. Its now about what I know and guide others to do and deliver.

I earn about £80k + bonus (so about £100-105k gross) and work a fairly standard 40-45 hr week, with occasional overtime and weekends if it's mental - so maybe sometimes 60 hrs. Holidays are good.

BUT I'm 42, relatively senior in a global firm, and work in a niche role. I've spent the better part of 15 years on my career path - childfree by choice, so no time out of that - and worked INSANE hours when I was younger and more junior to get here. I've also put a lot of time and money into my own training and CPD.

It's not just a case of 'what job can I start doing tomorrow that pays loads for relatively little input'.

Yes I am.
Earn >£500 and probably work < 30 hours a week most of the time (although there are very intense weeks - maybe 6/7 every year when I work > 70 hours). I work in a bank and have done the same job for ever so I can do it (to a very high standard) in my sleep. What has helped as well is being a woman in a male dominated industry which is trying very hard to attract and retain female talents (one of the performance metrics of my top managers is related to senior female retention). It’s helped me being promoted and benefiting from pay rises as they are trying to address the gender pay gap.
However I must admit that my career has very much been a tale of two halves with the first ten years being very intense and stressful whereas in the last ten years I feel I have been ripping of the benefits of all the time I invested at the start, allowing me to “coast” whilst continuing to perform to a very high standard. I could work more to achieve more if I was ambitious but I’m not interested. I prefer to enjoy life and spend time with my family.

Not me but DH. Works 100% from home in global IT consultancy, 38 hours per week, very occasionally (less than once a month) has a meeting on a Saturday morning, very laid back.

Six figures plus good bonus. He tells me that he gets paid for what he knows, not what he does.

Yes. Earn c. 145k dependent on bonus and stock. My advice? Work for a big company where there are enough people that you aren’t by any means a high earner, find an niche where you are the expert , be comfortable enough to coast.

I earn a six figure salary in a large public sector body. I knew what I wanted to do, did a degree and postgraduate course in that subject, then earned 20 years experience in the public sector and consultancy means that I’m highly skilled in a complex area. I have a 37.5 hr contract but working condensed hours so that I have a short work day on one day to do the school drop off & pick up. Even more flexibility now I’m working from home.

... and to get where I am now have had to put in some seriously long hours

I think this is a very valid point, most people who are high earners now and not doing 60+ hours a week did those kind of hours earlier in their career & are now reaping the benefits.

@fruitandflowers

I am - I earn between £500k - £1.5m pa depending on how my stock performs. Depends on what your definition of core hours is. I work mostly 830-6, with some catch up (c 30mins 2x pw) after kids in bed. Very very rarely work weekends. But have the odd weeks where I work much more than that. And to get where I am now have had to put in some seriously long hours.

But now I don’t feel particularly hard worked. I could also be much more senior / better paid but am choosing to coast (for want of a better word) now a little bit now as have young kids.

Sorry 1.5million???

Fuck my £28k salary is crap 😂

I have a business which i started over 10 years ago. Since having children I have stepped back so for the past 6 years I have only needed to work around 6-10 hours a month.

Most people work really hard the first few years as they establish themselves and then usually reach a level where they end up with a higher pay for less hours worked because they are so senior that they can delegate a lot of the work while earning the higher paycheck.

High paying job and crazy hours don’t necessarily work hand in hand but usually you kind of have to fit within those categories:

• Someone willing to put in the hours and energy for a few years until reaching a certain level of seniority.
• Someone working in a niche field where their knowledge is quite specific making them very valuable to a company due to the lack of other people with similar knowledge or a similar skillset.
• Someone who has learned to have their money work for them (usually through investing) meaning that physical work and input is minimal.

So no, you don’t need to sell your soul to earn a lot of money. I would say that ironically the more pay you have the more flexibility you have and trust companies/people put in you to accomplish your work on your own terms efficiently.

And depending on what your goals are, putting in the extra work at the beginning can be worth it to reap the rewards a few years down the line.

I'm a partner in a niche City law firm. Most of our lawyers earn six figures and we don't flog them - if we see a full time employee regularly clocking more than 50hrs a week we check if they're OK.

Having said that, I do think your ambition of getting to that sort of salary without demonstrating some significant commitment somewhat smacks of entitlement. I don't think that people need to be "always on" but equally thinking you can earn serious money without showing some flexibility and personal investment in the business you work for is unrealistic. It also suggests you may not be that interested in the work that you would be doing to achieve those financial goals, and I think that's a fast track to discontentment.

As everyone is saying, there are generally only two routes to this utopia:

1. put in the insane hours to get yourself promoted to a senior position where you are paid for your accountability and responsibility, or
2. use your smarts to become a SME - a ‘subject matter expert’ where the demand for what you know is huge Either will get you there and if you can do both, then you can earn really big bucks and also get good job security. Third option of course is to build your own business but that has a high risk element that won’t make it an easy option for many. I thought about adding freelance consultancy to the mix because the money is really good generally, but I think much of the financial edge is coming under attack - tax reforms and market pressures will create instability i think for those who aren’t also ‘SME’. I could be wrong.

@doadeer oh I'd love to DM you about this if you don't mind?

I earn about 130/150k pa, marketing manager - I've never worked more than the standard 9-5/9-6 ever.

@Linning

Most people work really hard the first few years as they establish themselves and then usually reach a level where they end up with a higher pay for less hours worked because they are so senior that they can delegate a lot of the work while earning the higher paycheck.

High paying job and crazy hours don’t necessarily work hand in hand but usually you kind of have to fit within those categories:

• Someone willing to put in the hours and energy for a few years until reaching a certain level of seniority.
• Someone working in a niche field where their knowledge is quite specific making them very valuable to a company due to the lack of other people with similar knowledge or a similar skillset.
• Someone who has learned to have their money work for them (usually through investing) meaning that physical work and input is minimal.

So no, you don’t need to sell your soul to earn a lot of money. I would say that ironically the more pay you have the more flexibility you have and trust companies/people put in you to accomplish your work on your own terms efficiently.

And depending on what your goals are, putting in the extra work at the beginning can be worth it to reap the rewards a few years down the line.

This. Perfect post.