To give up this "easy" money?

[DietC0keandLime]

I currently work for a fairly small manufacturing business, when I joined the office was an absolute mess and the business on the brink of collapsing, so I was given a profit share in the business as an incentive to help turn it around, but I don't own shares or anything like that.

The business has really grown over the past ten years since I started, and I have ended up being paid really well these past couple of years for what I do (around £50k, the role would normally be about £20-25k if not for the profit share) and I think that would continue to be the case for the next few years as well.

The owner of the business is really lovely, but I don't actually like the job for the most part, I find it really stressful, my mental health has been quite bad for the past year and I think it is a big contributing factor. There's nowhere for me to grow within the company, and I feel like I'm just fed up.

I really want to completely retrain in something different, I have a career in mind but I would need to go back to Uni and do a full degree to even get started in it, which would take 3/4 years and the maximum salary I could ever realistically earn would be £40k. Probably this industry would be more demanding and have it's own stresses, but I think it would be more rewarding as well.

I'm 35, no kids, but DH isn't supportive. He can't believe I'm even considering it. He thinks I've dropped really lucky with my current job and I'd be crazy to give up the "easy" money. DH earns around £70k, we've made good financial decisions in the past and we only have a small mortgage and have an additional joint income of £1k per month on two rental properties we inherited. I don't expect him to support me through Uni, I would get a loan to cover my half of the bills and have a small amount of savings too.

I'm grateful for my current job, I really am, I feel guilty for thinking about giving it up but I hate the thought of still being here in five years time. It's like Groundhog Day.

I need some perspective please. What do you think, WIBU to change careers?

The idea of a change is a good one but I wouldn’t say now is a good time to go into teaching.
It’s a hugely stressful job, the demands on school teams have increased enormously so I’d think really carefully about how much stress that might pile on you.

@JosephineDeBeauharnais

This is your one and only life.

This. And it’s too short to be miserable doing something you don’t enjoy because the money’s good. Especially when your financial position is secure without the “easy money”.

My husband and I are both teachers. I would find fulfill elsewhere or consider another career. You would earn half what you earn now to begin with for probably double the hours. I don't want to write a whole post on the downfalls of the job as i do like my job but I would not recommend it in your position.

Can you reduce your hours to do more of what you enjoy? Even volunteering in a school/youth group so you get the nicer bits without the stresses.

Teaching is brutal as is the whole of the public sector at the moment. If you have an income from your rentals do a TA role in a school that provides on the job training, then you can gradually decide if you want to teach. 50k in the public sector = middle management.

It’s not just “working with children” though, there’s the government targets, the bureaucracy and politics, the curriculum limitations, the relentlessness. I think you need to be absolutely certain what you’re letting yourself in for.

I wanted to work with children and considered becoming a teacher. I spent a couple of weeks shadowing in class and spoke a lot to teachers. I fucked it off pretty sharpish and I’d never, ever want to go anywhere near it now.

I became a children’s social worker instead, which gives you some idea of the strength of feeling against teaching 😂

It obviously isn't easy money if it's stressing you out doing the job- it's patronizing of him to say that.

Most of the teachers I know want to leave. I already did. The stress can be unreal.

I'd think carefully.

I tried to go into secondary teaching and did a few months of a PGCE. That was when serious cracks in my mental health first showed, with panic attacks etc. It's not fun. I don't know of many teachers who particularly enjoy it and find it anything but very stressful.

If your chosen career is likely to be equally stressful, tiring and could affect your mental health, why jump from the frying pan into what is probably going to be the fires of hell that teaching seems to be. Stay put, save up and work towards retiring very early would be my advice.

OP can you do shadow shifts with someone to see if you really would like teaching , or working with children. Have you thought about dropping some hours in your current job ?

It’s not easy if you loathe it and it makes you ill. It’s actually very costly. Career coach here. Never too late to begin again.

do it OP. You are financially secure. Seize the day!

Definitely make the move.

I made a similar change about 12 years ago - I was working in Finance and moved to a start up in a completely different industry. Even with regular rises, and being paid over market value for my current role I am still not earning what I earned 12 years ago, but I am happy!

Who inherited the rental properties? You say we, but unless you’re in an incestuous marriage I doubt they came from both sides of the family! (unless you inherited one each?)
I think they were his inheritance, or you would have said “I” not “we”?
It would certainly strengthen your case if they were yours.

Why 3/4 years to retrain?
Why not learn directly in school - is it called SchoolDirect? Something like that. Or a one year PGCE?

You could earn more than the £40K you state as a teacher, if you want to climb the ladder.

I’d have serious think about the stress though. As you mention that being an issue in your current job - what exactly is it that you find stressful, and is that something that will be common in teaching?

Overall, I’d say go for it... I don’t think it’s fair to expect someone else to support you - though I would hope that a spouse would. But sounds like you don’t need that.

I do really see his point though, because of the easy money - I would only support this if I felt you really had thought it through and were suited to teaching.

I was going to say 100% YANBU and then I saw it was to go into teaching. It’s a no from me. I know that’s not what you want to hear but I just couldn’t imagine giving up what you have to go into that career. Sooooo many people retrain and take a pay cut and then want out within 5 years.

Ha Ha that you think teaching would be less stessful.

Before making such a bad decision why don't you see if you can shake it up where you are? You could
ask for an assistant
ask for a revolving role where you work in different parts of the company
go on a sabbatical with a client or partner company
take some time off

I dont think you are going to get what you want from teaching.

I know 3 people who retrained after their mid 20s into teaching and regretted it.

A better start would be trying to negotiate a 4 day a week, perhaps with a staff member to to support you to take some of the work load off.

If you find you current job that stressful it has affected your MH, why on earth do you want to go into teaching ? It can be as stressful as hell. I think you need to take time to think this through

Career change teacher here. I did my degree through OU then did a 1 year PGCE (I chose secondary even though I wanted to teach primary, because I needed the bursary that was being offered to train in a shortage subject.) I absolutely love teaching - I have never felt so valued and fulfilled.
Yes it’s bloody hard work and I never switch off - but if I won the lottery tonight I would still keep teaching.
It’s not for everyone (I always wanted to teach but life choices got in the way).
I qualified at 46 and was promoted 3 times in 3 years and I’m currently a middle leader working towards my next promotion.
I’m lucky that I work in a great school though.

Can you make the job more interesting? Rewarding? Change something in regards to what you do to make it a better place to work?
Ask for more of the things you like and try to make them see another person could do the things you don’t like.

[quote DietC0keandLime]@Cuntryhouse potentially, but it wouldn't make a difference to the job in the end, I would still be doing the same job as I am now.

@Burnt0utMum I don't think so, the course I want to do has a lot of placements required, it's basically a 40 hour a week course.[/quote]
40 hour a week course 😂😂😂 Even when I trained many years ago it was a good 60, and teaching is way more stressful than it was then.

Don’t get me wrong, I love working with children and find that aspect so rewarding (though less than it used to be as there are so many more parents who complain at the drop of a hat and I often have to teach in a way that goes against what I think children should be doing and how they should be learning). You can’t do what you want to do in the way you want to do it any more - those days are long gone. There is a ridiculous amount of red tape and pointless beaurocratic stress. If I was going to leave a stressful job because it was impacting upon my mental health, teaching in its current format would be the last thing I’d recommend.

Personally, I would be having a conversation with the owner of the company. If the office was a mess when you started, it sounds like you have played an important role in the changing fortunes. They probably value your contribution. Explain clearly, and without emotion, what you find challenging about your current role, the value you bring the business, and how you would like your role to change going forward. Say, for example, it was 3.5 days and you didn't do specific tasks, would that make it more palatable? Or are there are some aspects of the business you find more interesting where you think you could make a valuable contribution. It sounds to me like you should be fully exploring this option before ditching it.

I say all this as someone who left a job after nearly 20 years because the grass looked a lot greener, after 2 years turned out it wasn't, and I went back, but in a different role.

I would look carefully into career choices about working with children. Apart from teaching you could start as a TA or work in nurseries etc. Could you reduce your hours slightly to do some volunteering first like scouts or something? I would try and gain some work experience before embarking on a degree. But I would not stay in a well paid job if this wasn't something I would want to do with my life especially in your pretty comfortable financial situation and no children.

Do you want to go into primary or secondary teaching? Do you already have a degree? If you follow school centred teacher training if you have a relevant degree you could do the course with PGCE in a year. Or you could do it part time and maybe go part time in your current job.

If you’re already stressed, I’m not sure teaching would remove the stress, you’d more than likely end up even more stressed out.