To hope/ think a 35 or 37 hour week is 'normal' for some people

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I have a senior job in higher education. I average 45 to 55 hours a week - cannot remember the last time i had a proper weekend or holiday. I'm really, really tired and have burnt out. The hours and stress impact my health, my homelife, time with my children, etc. I'm done! I've the opportunity to change careers. Similar wage, but different sector and promises a healthy worklife balance. Can I please be reassued, is there anyone out there who can earn an OK wage and still have a life outside of work?

I earn about £32,000 a year and work 24hrs a week. Husband earns about £55,000 a year and works 37.5hrs a week. Both nhs staff.

I work very part time as a charity administrator so doesn't really equate to you (it's 12 hours over 3 days and fits in with our opening hours).

Dh however works approx 65 hours a week as a gp principal and that doesn't include an overnight on call and every 5th weekend (Fri 6pm to Mon 8am) on call.

I'm in the charity sector and earn £51k FTE but work 30 hours a week so less pro rata. I'm middle management and manage to just work my hours and build up flexi some of the time. The next level of management up seems very different and people work all the hours there are...

I’m on a similar wage to you in the charity sector for 37.5h. Sometimes I work more, but I always take any extra back as time owing. My boss is on 5k more than me and regularly works 10+ extra hours a week. I do keep telling him off though as it sets a bad example! (Which I will not follow, and tell my direct reports not to!)

Also SLT in ed. 60k but sometimes do 80hr weeks. Often 60hrs.

I stay in it for the holidays and pension but increasingly I just want a ‘normal’ job where I can close my laptop at 5ish and not open it until 9 the next morning. And watch telly without having to plan lessons and try to empty my bottomless inbox.

Have you seen the fb group 'Exit the classroom and thrive?' Lots of good advice and support there. From a fellow teacher who gets you. Xx

Thats G7 salary band in the civil service (outside London). I don't work more than 37 hours a week (unless I'm accruing flexi time).

Sorry you're at burnout stage OP, hope you find a new job you enjoy.

I had a feeling you might be thinking of charity sector then saw you'd confirmed that. I've worked in many charities and it really depends what type of charity you're going for. I'm part time, 21 hours but 35 would be my FTE and on £37k. I work remotely so very lucky but there's only two of us in our team and I frequently think about work outside of hours, have too much work and have to somehow be good at everything.

I would make the move in your shoes. I’m in a speciality role in sales and last year earned £90k on three days a week. Zero overtime, never ever work weekends. Laptop shut at 5.30pm and leave work at the door until I get back.

downsides are pittance pension, dreadful pay on holidays and stat pay if off sick / mat leave.

I worked 9-5.30 Mon-Fri in an office for decades. Everyone I knew worked 7 or 8 hours a day and that was that.

Things do seem to have changed now, and employers' expectations from their staff are vastly different. A friend of mine works in the City and she has to do 60+ hours a week or she's viewed as not pulling her weight.

I am in the charity sector. My FTE would be about £35k. I work 30 hours/week and rarely go much over this except for the residential conferences I organise, for which I take time back in lieu.

yep, this is me... and yep I'm not a teacher and have a life.

I was a teacher when I was in my early-mid 20s but couldn't hack the stress and long hours.

Now I work in HE in a semi-academic role and love it

Echo everyone else. Don’t move to the charitable sector.
I am head of a charity which means effectively im managed by volunteers (the trustees) any discussion about workload and working hours invariably falls on deaf ears as they don’t get paid for their time. Added to that a strong moral belief in the work, knowing that because of a too small staff team, there’s nobody to delegate to makes it toxic combination.
I am burnt out, depressed and I am a shadow of my former self- any type of self care, and family life has gone out the window.

What would happen if you cut your hours back OP? Would things really fall apart or might that just be your perception.

Also, do you have a long commute, and are the hours erratic? I ask because there is a big difference between putting in hours of 8-6 for five days per week from home (50 hours), and leaving at 7:30 for the office, working until 6, getting home at 730, working again for a couple of hours after dinner, working Saturday afternoon, and Sunday morning (could also be 50 hours). The former is much easier than the latter.

Sometimes it is the feeling of never switching off, rather than the hours, that are the problem. I worked about 60 hours this week, but it was 8-8 each day in my study at home, it was fully under my control, and I completely switched off for the weekend - so it was tiring but didn’t bother me. Maybe you need to feel more in control?

Freelance designer. Obviously that changes through the year with my workload. Sometimes hardly anything, sometimes full full time. As in all the time. Summer is usually dead as everyone’s on summer holidays. So probable averages at about 30 hours a week over the year. But it’s entirely flexible which goes a long way. Take about 30-40k and then there’s company profits.

That's why the NHS is in the state it is.... too many management roles , paying excessive salaries, paying enough to allow the employees to work part time for a decent salary. So why put themselves out to work full time.

Tiers of management should be cut from the NHS to pay frontline staff good wages.

People on here say the country is in a state.... but are happy to sit back and take it easy, work less hours and make life a drudge for the public.

Yes Civil Service I'm looking at you.

You are not wrong. In my defence no one else would do my job and I did 20 years fulltime on the front line ( nights, weekends, blood, sweat, tears and vomit). I still do the other 10 hours patient facing to stay in touch. But yes you have a point.

£52k work 37 hours on the nose, if I do anything outside of those hours I can claim it back. In more junior roles before i had a family I would often do over my hours but now I'm very clear on my boundaries and support my team in doing the same. I work very hard when I'm at work but outside of that nope.

I don't work for the public sector so have no skin in the game, but this is very ignorant. Yes clinical staff should be paid more, but there aren't an excess of managers for the size of the NHS. The reason corporate roles are paid more is because they have to compete with private companies for staff qualified and experienced in these areas; wages for say procurement staff are still below industry levels. You can tell this is the case as admin staff etc are paid criminally low wages so it isn't the case that all NHS non clinical staff are paid loads just because. The notion that the management culture should be looked into is valid, but it's just not true that there's tonnes of managers swanning about who get ridiculous pay, all could earn more elsewhere.

This is true for me my wage on paper is high and I get that lovely gold plated pension ( but have no real need to add to that now) . Freelance I could earn almost double and as I would be self employed have no punitive PAYE or pension contributions.

What are your contracted hours?

Me ? 4 short (7.5 hr) days or 3 long ( 10.5 hour ones) I usually do a hybrid of 2 x 8-5, 1 X 8-6:30 and about 3 hours of flexibility. I have one ( on average) regular clincal day per week.

37.5 hours a week here, £80k salary.

I work an average of 35 hours over 4 days (as in, it is sometimes a little more and sometimes a little less but that is planned and the average is calculated), earn around 65k and have a great pension. My time outside work is absolutely my own.

The downside is it is shift work, the shift times change daily and they are incredibly anti social.

My friends who earn a lot, 100k+, had to put the hours in early on but are now much more able to work a sensible week.

I have more of a life now on a higher wage than when I had one similar to you. Partly because I now manage people who manage projects rather than me managing the project and partly because I just try not to get sucked into drama , panic about stuff that’s not important and don’t feel guilted until doing more hours. I do work in a very unimportant industry though, IT in financial services. Nobody dies if I log off although you’d think it from the bloody drama!