We work hard.

[Meili04]

I keep seeing this on threads about Middle income families having to make cutbacks. The hardest job I ever had was when I worked in a care home as a care assistant doing 12.5 hour shifts for minimum wage. I now do a different job I have more paperwork to do and responsibility but I earn lots more and it's less tiring work. Same with my OH he works from home and his work is a lot less hard then it was when he started out and gets more pay.

AIBU to think if you are earning more money sometimes it's down to luck/personality/ rare skills more so than simply working hard?

Not unreasonable. In my experience the ones who work hardest are the ones paid lowest

YANBU. Numerous sociological studies have shown that higher income people tend to over credit their work ethic and under acknowledge the role of luck, privilege and opportunity when portraying the reasons for their success. Sadly, this is more common in higher income people that were upwardly mobile in socio-economic terms with more modest origins. There is a ‘if I can do it, anyone can’ and it’s cousin a ‘if you haven’t done it, it’s because you chose poorly or didn’t work as hard compared to me’ prevailing attitude.

you’re being too binary
of course there are people who get where they are through luck / help / whatever. I know a few. But you’ll probably find the majority of middle earners just put consistent work into the right area to end up where they are. So yeah, they do work hard, and have likely studied / taken on responsibility to get there.

Earning money is generally down to how highly the market values your skills. I’ve been lucky that my skill set is one that earns a premium despite me spending all day sat on my arse at a computer. Sometimes I had tough decisions to make and sometimes I worked long hours but nurses, teachers, carers, security guards all do tougher jobs for far less pay. There should be more parity between what jobs pay.

I have only ever been in paid employment for NMW, or close to it. We got worked to the bone. Later on, we carried phones that meant our supervisors could track us too. We used to keep saying the batteries were shit, and leaving them on charge. Boss was literally watching us on a screen in his office.
One time, I was told off by the same manager for doing nothing whilst waiting for a lift.
This was not Amazon or anything like that. Was NHS.

I think different jobs are tieing in different ways. A manual job is physically tiring so is a job of being on your feet all day. But another job can be mentally tiring or high stress. It doesn't mean that one is greater or working harder then the other.

My DB has the attitude that you only work hard or do real work if your in a manual type job. But that's not reality.

Some of the higher paid jobs are down to luck others not however my job certainly wasn't and I worked my fair share of 60+ hours a week to gain enough experience in order to apply for my current job.

My DB has the attitude that you only work hard or do real work if your in a manual type job. But that's not reality

That was the same attitude I was brought up with. Leave school with the bare minimum, and get into a manual work job. That was a "proper job". My parents drummed into me that an office job was not a "real" job.

Reminds me of this:

btw that meme obviously generalises and places "African women" as a heterogeneous group, which they're not, and relies on a stereotype of Africa + African women. The underlying point is a fair one though with a kernel of truth. The economically poorest people in many countries are women, and the levels of poverty on the African continent is worse than for our country (although who knows where we're heading...).

YANBU. I work hard and I'm only paid £21k.

I think it's about working smarter, not harder. I had a baby at 18 so I didn't go to university and didn't have much childcare help to progress much. I'm trying to make up for it now by getting experience rather than qualifications.

Do you mean physically hard or mentally hard or both? A porter may work mentally hard, a surgeon would work mentally hard. A labourer would work physically hard, an engineer works mentally hard. I work mentally hard and long hours and it’s knackering.

I work incredibly hard to be where I am. But it's an office wfh job and it gets belittled and minimised because it's not a real job.

’worked hard’ doesn’t mean just one thing.

It doesn’t just mean physically hard. I don’t know anyone who earns middle income and upwards that assumes no one’s job is more physically demanding than theirs.

You can work hard on your career, by using you own time to study and upskill, putting extra hours in, spending a lot of time researching your industry and competitors to float ideas where you work, looking at other industries to improve your own, use your knowledge to make risky but lucrative (if it works out) moves and the list goes on.

That doesn’t mean that carers don’t also work hard. It’s a completely different type of ‘worked hard’.

one persons worked hard is not the same as someone else’s. And saying you have worked hard, doesn’t mean others haven’t. That’s not the argument they are making. No threads are saying middle income families deserve more help because they work harder than anyone else. It’s because middle income families are being hit just as hard as everyone else. But there will never be help available to them, although they maybe in a difficult position, financially.

There’s so much talk about higher tax brackets, pensioners, benefit recipients but it is often the middle earners that get the rubbish end of most things. It is a bit shitty when you are working hard, but also in the group that is also assumed to be fine so doesn’t any consideration.

Its also possible to understand that other groups need more help, but also be frustrated that you could do with some support and have the issue ignored.

I worked hard in a shit job with low pay. It convinced me to work harder retrain and now I earn 5 times that. You say it's luck but I've found the harder I work the luckier I get.

YANBU. Many people work hard. The trick is working hard in a well paid role or industry.

YANBU. If you want a well paid job, get yourself a skill or qualification that is in demand and not very common. Anyone can work hard, so this isn't a good way of differentiating yourself.

The 'hard work' came before the job.

It might not be working hard in the same month you pick up a pay cheque, but all the hard work that has come before it. Often higher earners will be the ones who did all their homework at school, worked hard to get A Levels, worked hard to get a degree, worked hard in their first job and have got to a place where they earn a decent wage for their knowledge, skills and experience despite their job not being what we think of as ‘hard work’.

There is some luck involved, but no one is going to be earning middle income money without putting in the hard work somewhere down the line.

It's not just your job that you work hard at, I worked hard as a single mum, working full time, studying at uni at the same time, all child care , school runs etc

I worked harder as a qualified nurse on a ward than I did as an auxiliary nurse in a nursing home.

This

I would agree with most here. Physically Hard jobs Leave your body tired, the mentally hard Jobs leave your mind tired. The amount of stress I feel about my job even outside of work is ridiculous and I imagine it’s the same for physical jobs on their bodies, only they come with their own stress as they’ll also be worrying more about bills etc.

I think it varies and is non-linear. Those paid lowest tend to do hard manual work, care especially. I think the easiest part of my career was in the mid £40k range where I had lots of stimulating work but not much accountability. I’m in leadership now, earn more, but carry the stress on behalf of my team who are paid 20% less than I am, but after tax I probably don’t get as much more as you would think. I like my team and want to keep them for as long as possible which means I absorb as much of the stress as possible and work the longest hours. One team member has really been taking the brunt of a big project. I’ll be sure to give the next stressful piece to someone else.

I’ve done both physically hard jobs and mentally hard jobs and personally, I find the mentally hard jobs harder. Ok with the physical ones you might be knackered but usually when the day is done it’s done. You can switch off. The ongoing stress of a mentally hard job impacts you in every way. You can’t switch off and that makes you feel exhausted.

All of my minimum wage jobs had set start and finish times. My professional roles, you’re expected to stay late or arrive early (or both!) if there are things that need to be done. Your workload can exceed your hours but you can’t just leave it. In my last role my manager would even message me while I was on holiday asking me this and that.

In my case I did progress through hard work. I was raising DC, working and studying at the same time. It was really tough. Yes of course some people do get opportunities handed to them and/or they have a really good start in life to enable them to make the most of education etc. But it isn’t the case with everyone.

This.

I feel like I've done it all, having grown up dirt poor on a council estate to a single parent 1st gen immigrant.

2 paper rounds and a milk round at 13. Numerous back breaking menial jobs through school and college. Now running an engineering consultancy.

Menial work is hard but engineering is mind bendingly difficult. Running a business is hard work too but obviously not in the same way.

Luck or hard work? I genuinely don't know. Stats are 100% against minorities from poor backgrounds succeeding. I've worked my ass off my whole life and still do. But I still feel fortunate every day.