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

[Quibble123]

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?

Dh is paid 55k for an 40 hour week. He works in the 3rd sector. If he were doing an equivalent job in the private or public sectors he'd be on 25k more and doing more hours but that's a price we are willing to pay to actually see him and have him participate in family life.

*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. *

this shit just boils my piss. Senior operational (and nursing/AHP) managers in the NHS work 50- 60 hour weeks (a third of this unpaid overtime) and are ‘always on’ so responding to issues on evenings & weekends & on holiday. clinical staff without management responsibility will work exceptionally hard but generally get paid for their hours and leave their jobs at work (of course notwithstanding the emotional load).

As someone upthread pointed out, data shows that there are comparatively fewer managers in the NHS than in other healthcare systems. Clinical staff also appreciate how hard senior managers work - most don’t want to take that career route themselves because they see first hand the stress and pressure it brings.

If you are informed you will know that the wastage in the system is at central and regional administration level. But the Ill-informed trotting out of the old daily mail-sponsored ‘too many overpaid managers doing fuck all’ bile just makes you look ignorant and gullible.

I'm a teacher too. I work about 47-49 hours per week but only occasionally work at a weekend (an hour or so) and a tiny bit in the holidays. So those hours are almost entirely during the week term time. I've been in the profession for 14 years and am now on £62k . Because of the pay off of the holidays, I'm comfortable with my work/life balance.

That's a distinction I think needs highlighting more clearly.
There are some clearly critical management roles and I don't doubt your account that they are stretched to breaking point.

But I was contacted by an old school friend on linked in recently and her and most of her network seem to do the most insanely pointless sounding (but presumably well paid) roles in central/regional NHS structures

Plus from my own job I just find the multiplicity of "organisations" within the NHS means there are often 4 or 5 expensive lawyers all appointed by different branches of the public sector/NHS , plus multiple well paid managers, just to negotiate how to open one new building

I do 35 hours per week. If I work more I get the time back.

I'm on a top 5% wage.

I’ve only managed to earn up to 40k (about 10 years ago) and would take work home, impacting on home life- not constantly but about 2/4 weeks because of how deadlines fell.

I’ve retrained as an allied health professional. First job on wards in hospital- very rigid need to work 8-4 and some weekends but then if you worked 15 minutes extra they made you take that time back 😂 amazing (but the rigid 8-4 was limiting). Now work in social services. Very flexible with hours but also working over to get the work done. But by working over I mean maybe a few hours a week not 50 hours.

Either way these jobs are a big pay cut (think high twenties l/ low thirties to start with) and would take going back to retrain as they need a specific degree. I’d also suggest that some of the stuff you see/ hear/ deal with can be intense and can take a bit to process.

I left 62 hours for 35 because I was sleep deprived, miserable and cranky

50 hours a week, around 32k.

I’m my own boss and I love my job. I used to work 37.5hrs, have a 1.5 hour each way commute, add in cost of petrol, and earn less. I work at home, do not work over hours (unless it’s a course I fancy doing) and I do not even consider looking at anything over the weekend. 5 weeks AL.

I do 37 hours and earn a good wage as a Project Manager. I have a strict rule that I don’t answer calls or emails outside of work time. I also don’t send emails or phone colleagues outside of their working time. As long as I’m working to full capacity within my 37 hours then that’s enough.

If I couldn’t keep up then I’d have to speak to the line manager but it hasn’t happened yet and I don’t feel over worked. It’s about setting boundaries from the outset.

I also wouldn’t advise the charity sector. I temped at one whilst waiting for my current job to start and also worked at one about 16 years ago. Both were the same. Extremely low wages with crap pensions. Far more office politics that even the public sector jobs I’ve had before and since! It only seems to be the mega, mega, high ups that would be on your salary so you may find you get even more stressed out.

I'm on a similar salary to you and do 45 to 80 hours a week (no over time pay) which I'm not happy about but just seems like the industry norm (architecture)

Wages, terms and conditions and workplace vary enormously in the charity sector.

I'm an in-house corporate secretary, earning about £85k and working a 40-hour week.

This thread has made me resolve to just control my week more. Some long hours are inevitable but actually much as I really care about delivering a good service to the taxpayer etc I realise the more hours we put in the more it gets taken for granted. Quite similar to some of the descriptions of the charity sector tbh. So I am going to try and me more mindful of when I just say 'cant happen' - advice I am much better at giving to my team than applying to myself!