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)

Adding to what @Hawse said, I don't earn 6 figures but do have a decent salary that could support the whole family, pay bills, etc. if needed, and then some. I have a local government pension, yearly guaranteed pay rises and bonuses and work flexi time, while being able to leave early if I finish my work for the day without having to have it authorised or lose pay. I could work my way up to earning 6 figures, but that would include going full-time and being available to work 24/7 (senior members of staff have been called while on holiday and have had to make arrangements to return immediately in urgent situations), which is not for me.

Just another viewpoint really, sometimes a job with less pay but less demands will work out better, just depends on the person. I worked in finance a few years ago now and hated it, way too much emphasis on targets, almost none on wellbeing and work/life balance and and too much work to comfortably handle (where I was, anyway). OTOH a friend who still works there has worked their way to the top and really enjoys it, neither option is bad if it's right for you.

@FHOJfinf18 "Friends I went to uni with are now all high earners and no longer work crazy hours...."

mine too! like some posters here, they went into banking after their PhDs :D At this age i also cant go and start over, especially with kids. Sigh, at least we can enjoy the science...

My husband is an IT contractor and earns anything from £150k upwards, he’s working from home at the moment due to the pandemic and all his clients this last year have been happy that’s he’s home based and his current client doesn’t want that arrangement to end, there was a time when he was working worldwide or country wide and it nearly destroyed our marriage so this is a nice new for us, there’s tends to be some compromise if your wanting a high salary so make sure your prepared for the sacrifice

@Fondizone - yeah I think the problem is that I really don't anymore. So I am feeling a bit jealous. My sister did the same as me - but left for pharma after her Ph.D. and is already out-earning me while being ten years younger. It's hard because as an academic, I was clearly bright and hard-working enough to go into the city/management consultancy but decided those were all a bit soulless. That was probably the wrong call

I've been a freelance IT contractor for 20 years. Usually charge 500-600 a day. I only work my contracted hours - usually 37.5 hours a week. Sometimes do this over 3 or 4 days depending on the client.

In 20 years I've never had a direct report, had to manage a team, do a performance review, etc - so firmly on the bottom rung of the corporate ladder. I'm hired purely for my technical and domain knowledge.

UN and EU jobs. But, as PP have noted, to do one of those you do need to be a subject matter expert.

I'm surprised at the amount of high earners working standard hours. I'm not a high earner but know/work with and for lots who are. They all do long hours - though for a lot of them it's because they love their jobs.

Not me but my DH seems to get away with mostly doing bugger all and earning six figures in I.T.

@Linguaphile

UN and EU jobs. But, as PP have noted, to do one of those you do need to be a subject matter expert.

Yep. This is me. In my case being a subject matter expert was what got my foot in the door in the EU level organisation where I now work. I worked freelance for them for four years before being hired permanently.

But being an SME is not why I am highly paid now. Virtually everyone I work with is paid similar or more. I'm 53 and at my experience level in the organisation where I work a 200k or even 300k plus salary is normal.

What I'm trying to say is that I am in no way outstanding at my job. I work regular hours. I'm not responsible for anything terribly significant. Nobody reports to me. I have never been promoted in any meaningful way. I was just in the right place at the right time with the right experience.

I'm reading this thread out of curiosity and interest at what people do to earn so much money. I could never imagine earning that much and to be fair ive never aspired to earn 6 figures (which probably explains why im not!). Our household income is £80k, though im only part time and so this will increase to £100k when I go back full time in a year or so. Most of the people I know earn between £30-50k and I've never met anyone earning 6 figures (based on knowing their jobs and lifestyle) But this thread is really fascinating to read!

Us....DH is a management consultant earns ave. £120k, excellent pension and stock....me Global FD £150k inc bonus's plus some stock. Both work typical 8-6, he some weekend/late night stuff but not outrageous. I love my job...him not so much but feels easy 'ish money especially given the current circumstances.

@SavingsQuestions your personal experience sounds very similar to mine, and for that reason also, I am trying very hard to equip my dd with information, options, and above all, self-confidence and self-esteem, so that she doesn't just fall off a cliff without a parachute, which is how my experience of leaving school looks like to me in hindsight!

@FHOJfinf18 ". That was probably the wrong call"

Had a similar case when I was at a crossroads at the end of my postdoc contract and got offered a banking job and a permanent post. Thought idealistically at the time, whereas now the choice could've been different. Priorities all change after kids, and a family...

I'm a senior academic (not in the UK) and work in a field where I can monetise my research, boosting my (generous but not outstanding) basic salary by a third. I start at 9.30 and down tools at 5.30 to pick up the kids. Might answer a couple of emails after that and at the weekend, but that's it.

The city lawyers seem to have Stockholm syndrome if they think that generally getting weekends free means you’re not working crazy hours and that it’s at regular 59hrs / week billed (presumably therefore 60 worked or more) that they start to have concern for their staff. And at a niche firm, ie not even at Kirkland and actually earning real money for the pleasure

*50

I do now, but this is the first year of it and has been prefaced by 20 years of frankly ludicrous working hours. Regularly 5.30am til 8pm out the house and then evening working at home. Working every weekend. I look back now after 4 months out and can't believe that I stuck it for so long...!

My DH. Worked long hours to get there. He is senior and has a team working for him. He is very knowledgeable in his sector and nimble.

I am far cleverer and on a fairly average part time wage! I have realised a lot of “success” is graft, oodles of self belief and grabbing chances.

I work 300-350 hours a month over 75+ hours a week just to take home 31k my basic is 18k the rest is crazy overtime me and my partner are comfortable on this

@Fondizone yep, its a bit annoying as I cant even say that I've failed or wasnt smart enough. I have a very good job at a top London uni.Sadly, the hours are long and the pay is frankly rubbish in comparison to everyone else, especially in London. And it really starts to matter the older I get...Whilst a job in Europe would be fab, the hours are still normally pretty long even if the pay is infinitely better than in the UK

FHO - but you have the moral superiority you are doing something good for society not just benefiting yourself! Many of the people I know with high salaries work in jobs that aren’t good for society (mining, huge corporates with dodgy corporate tax histories, the car industry even banking is just siphoning profit by moving share ownership and financing around). You can sleep easy at night !

I think the work I do benefits society and makes the world better (broadly speaking I work in biotechnology). While I do earn six figures, it's my DH who is (IMO) ridiculously overpaid and earns several times what I do. He's in IT, in a company most of you probably use every day. I guess he's helping make peoples lives easier, and it's not a morally bankrupt industry or company. But in general I agree with -marcydarcy-

@FHOJfinf18 yes as academics in top unis, for a lot of other academics, it seems we've "made it". I do love my research,love watching my group grow academically, and yes impact on society is smt we may feel better about. On the other hand on the micro-me scale, it's hard not to question our choices whilst paying the mortgage or seeing uss propose to cut our retirement funds again and again... I wish the UK had the vision to compare how academics are treated in EU or US with here... It's astonishing this country is still highly ranked.

@KeflavikAirport
Please, tell us about you experience outside the UK! Do you earn a 6 figure salary? Are you able to take proper leave? Do you have a life work balance? Did you wait a long time to have kids?

£185k was my last p60. I work from home about 5 to 6 hours a day some days 9 or 10 but that’s rare and I never work weekends. I work very efficiently. However, it’s taken 20 years of hard graft. I worked 50, 60 hour weeks in my twenties. The more I earn, the more I have in control and flexibility of my hours and workload.

I earn around 225-240k depending on bonus payout. Senior role in finance (subdivisional CFO in FTSE 30 company) and work very nice hours. However I trained at A Big 4 firm and worked horrible hours throughout most of my 20s to get here (37 now). That’s generally the trade off - work like crazy when young without responsibilities and now have loads of flexibility and reasonable hours.