To take a 30% salary reduction to take a job I possibly would enjoy more?

[TheBigDilemma]

To avoid drip feeding, this is the situation.

1. I am divorced, I live of my income and nothing else

2. My current salary is not huge. After all my basic expenses (bills, mortgage and groceries), I have about £400 left over to be spent on eventualities (car maintenance, house repairs, clothes, vet fees, going out but it us mostly spent in unexpected but absolutely necessary expenses, and saving for the very odd visit to see my family abroad (every 2 years but it has been 4 from the last one)

3. I live well but frugally. After 15 years raising my son on my own (he is now in uni) . I’m used to stretch my money, I menu plan, I am very careful with my expenses, most of my clothes and what is in my house comes from charity shops.

4. I hate my current job, I spend the day copy pasting stuff from a system to spreadsheets and from spreadsheets to the system. I have no influence, no say but the team is nice, with exception of a woman who is a bully but I am told I need to put up with because she has had mental health problems for several years. I am upset at least 3 times a week, I am at the verge of tears at least once a week.

5. I have been supporting or providing cover for people with mental health issues for at least 8 years. This has doubled the amount of work I do but not my salary, it also has involved putting up with plenty of abuse from the people I am supposed to be helping as I do not complete the tasks EXACTLY as they want despite not being properly trained for the job as the absences come always at the last minute and on peak season. There is no gratitude for my long hours (and leaving DS to be raised by the iPad) I normally get shouted about, accused of trying to steal their jobs and some other shit that I am told I need to put up with as they have mental health issues. The stress has been such I have ended having a breakdown myself a couple of years ago. For the record, when I was down… no cover was organised for me as my boss thought I was sooo efficient I would be able to catch up with the job myself on my return. I didn’t, I’m still feeling very broken, frail and resentful.

6. I have put up with this job because, it is safe, paid better than other jobs, and most importantly, was flexible enough to allow me to run to pick up DS from school when he was I’ll and make up for any lost time working from home at night, etc.

7. I am highly qualified, I have years of management experience, I am very creative and good at optimising processes, I get along with the people I manage and love to be in a position of responsibility. I have not done any proper management for a good few years, mostly due to my divorce… in a nutshell, I couldn’t commute as the afterschool club hours didn’t allow for me to drop off and pick up within the opening hours, so it made sense to take this other local job as I could be there for my son, who has no contact with his dad, and also because much of the extra amount I would get for these jobs was going to be spent in train fares.

8. the new job I have been offered involves quite a bit of management, working independently and coordinating a nice small team. I would love to do it, pays more or less the same as my current job despite the extra responsibility BUT it is part time, which would be great after so much stress but hence the 30% reduction of salary.

I have spent my life putting my son’s needs and financial security first. He is now at uni and so far coping fine with student loans. AIBU for ditching my safe job for this part time one that could provide more satisfaction but leave me with no money to deal with unexpected expenses?by his also means I will not be able to afford visiting my parents at all anymore (they are old and at an expensive longhaul flight away)

I need to make a decision by Monday.

Life, for most, is NOT short. OP is already in a financially vulnerable situation and has poor pension provision.

@Loopytiles my new phrase is "Life's too short to be unhappy, but too long to live in penury".

I would just bare in mind that as it sounds like you know from the past, being short on money also brings its own stresses. Sounds like you're a valuable asset to your current team but rightly should be paid more, you might be in a strong place to negotiate better hours/more pay? If you want to leave and have the back up of the new job anyway there isn't much to lose.i did similar a few years back and was searching for a better paid job within a few months as although MH is of course really really important, it was affected in other ways by pinching pennies.

Do the sums, I am not sure the 30% less pay will cover your expenses from what you have written. Could you look at remote roles which pay better if there is nothing better locally? FT work can be enjoyable, in the right job. PT work can be stressful in the wrong role.

If you can afford it do it. I was in similar position and took the lower paid job. Am still in it and I love it, after 6 months in the new job my boss was so happy with my work he gave me a pay rise to pretty much what I'd been on in the awful job so it worked out, good luck xx

You are only paying off your mortgage interest only? How old are you?

There's no wonder your house is a steal when you're only paying interest only. I don't think you can rely on it for your pension really, you'll still owe a lot of money.

You're stuck between a rock and a hard place really. Your current job is awful, completely awful and there's no wonder you want to leave. But the new one isn't great either. As others have said, there's no way you'll be working 22 hours only. They are being sneaky with that job, especially the working nights part. Guaranteed you'll be doing full time hours+ in that job for 22 hours worth of work. You'll be more stressed, less money and more going out thanks to our government. And it's not like you'll be able to do another job unless it's at the weekend so you'll have no downtime.

Neither option is great. Both suck. Is there really no other job available in your area, even if its not exactly what you do? Skills are transferable.

Also with regards to your unpleasant coworker. Have you or anyone tried putting responsibility back on your manager?
If someone was shouting at me, I'd simply say ( if it's an admin level job) please don't speak to me like that, if you raise your voice to me again this conversation is over and I'm speaking to manager. Go to manager every single time - it is not reasonable for me to be shouted at by X, please speak to her - do it every single time and your problem could soon be resolved.

Take the job. You’ll end up going off sick in your current job anyway - feeling how you are right now only goes one way.

Take it and accept it may not be the forever job, but a footstep back into a management job and towards building your career back up.

Good luck, you deserve it!

Will the drop open you up to any UC assistance?

Much like @sassbott I was in a job that was making me grumpy, stressed and frankly miserable to live with the environment was so toxic and I was doing way more than my actual job plus a long day with commute. One day I just quit i couldn't take it anymore and having spent a year failing to find a job I was offered 2 within the month as I was proactively looking and motivated to find something.
I now work in a completely different industry for the most amazing firm- I sleep, I can enjoy my weekend without worrying about work, I can choose to wfh or go to the office, they genuinely care about their employees' welfare and I want to do well. I took a pay cut and we've had to adjust and it's not been easy but doable and I have a DH salary so not all on my shoulders.

So, I'm all for quality of life and you definitely need to move jobs but this new one does sound like financially you will be in a precarious position and I'd keep looking - proactively and aggressively looking not just a quick scan of Indeed once a week - for a a more flexible role that pays you enough to not just survive but have enough to cover emergencies and unexpected costs that always arise.

I don't think you will have enough money with this new job.
I think you should see if there is anyway if improving this sun your current place, while dusting off your CV and having a look at what else is out there.
I think in your current job every time you get shouted at by the person with mental health problems you should go to your line manager or HR. Every time. It is affecting your mental health. How is that ok when they are making allowances for years for this other person?
Would reducing your hours slightly in your current job give you a better work life balance?

Your MH is important OP. But it’s unlikely to improve if you’re worried about money.
£400 a month isn’t a lot for extras, if you have a pet and car. You’d be living hand fo mouth.

Only take the job if you can do other work alongside it

Or maybe it is time to downsize - move house and get rid of your mortgage and go part time?

The new job sounds like a bit of a piss take. They only want to pay you for 22 hours but they want you to be available pretty much the whole time so you can’t work, study, volunteer or have any other normal commitments outside work. The pay cut would put you in a very precarious financial situation and you won’t be able to make it up elsewhere. Sorry but this isn’t the new job for you - there must be others, with your skills.

I didn't make it all the way through because you concentrated so much on blaming people with MH issues when at the moment you're in the same position. Anyway bottom line is if you can afford it do it.

If you can still afford to live then I would take it. As PP said, maybe look at other income options too eg. a lodger (although that could potentially be stressful) something you could do at home, on the side for a bit of extra cash?

Could you live without a car?

My non serious suggestion:

If your current job is as described it seems ripe for automation (my companies current buzz word). Look at tools like Power Automate. Power Bi, UiPath. Learn how to automate your current job, request home working and let the bots do your work while you do the new job at the same time.

If you take the PT job, I would take the time to investigate;

Your state pension forecast & how many years you need to work to pay the 35 years NI contributions to receive a full state pension. You can check this via www.gov.uk

Your private pension forecast

If you have savings, can they work harder for you

How & when do you plan to pay off your mortgage

Will you need a second PT job

Honestly, I think you need to seriously consider the realities of a 30% pay drop if your concurrent salary is not completely comfortable. By that I mean if your current salary doesn't enable you to blow money on whatever you fancy each month and have savings left for new phone/boiler/car repairs/flights to visit parents, then I would seriously think about whether you can afford to live on a third less.

You say your house is worth 5x more than the debt on it, but how are you planning on paying off that debt when you need to? If you are planning to sell, you will need to downsize significantly surely, as the house you buy will also have gone up 5x since you bought your current home? You need to work put how much extra you need to save per month to pay off the house when the mortgage expires. Can you afford to do that?

It is an employees market right now. Can you get your cv off to a few recruiters and apply for some full time management jobs? I think you might struggle going pt. I have also been in jobs I hated and completely understand the desperation to get out

I only moved the mortgage to interest only a few months, thinking of keeping paying the capital but having more flexibility in case DS needed more money for uni. I have been paying towards the capital but that will need to stop if I get the part time job.

The house is worth just shy of £500k according to a bricks and mortar valuation carried out recently. The house is now too big for me and I am not doing to well with the stairs already so I am not considering staying here more than a few years so it will be sold anyway and I still can buy a house outright. At this time I am paying about £100 a month in mortgage.

I have thought of renting two rooms out but I am not sure if I would enjoy having other people around especially at this time when everyone works from home.

It may not be as much as 30% less as you will be paying less tax.

I hear what you are saying about lodgers, you could also consider Monday to Friday instead.

The value of your house is quite a big drip feed. I think that gives you options

Take the new job! Your happiness is worth more.

Get a 2nd job if needed, bar work or something adhoc

i did it. Turns out that i'm not actually that much worse off after tax etc. Life really is too short.