To ask how hard you work for your >100k job

[Shed82]

name Changed for this as high earner post.

am early 40s and several months into a >100k salary, eg this month I took home £7k after tax, and feel it’s an achievement to get to this level of income. But obviously it comes with increased stress and responsibility. I wonder what sort of hours others work for their six figure roles/what stress you feel and ultimately whether you think it’s worth it.

I don’t earn this but am close friends with people both within my firm and outside who do. From my perspective it’s absolutely not worth it for the hours they work and things they miss out on.

A person I work closely with has had to work the last 3 weekends, giving up a weekend away and other family plans.

A friend in a different company hasn’t had a holiday where they don’t end up doing some work in years.

I’d love the money, it’s double what I make but I do not want that life and have made a deliberate decision not to work towards promotions. I treasure my time outside of work too much.

Hours aren't excessive, I'm very firm that I do school drop off and pick up, even if it occasionally means I'm on a Teams call on my phone.

It is stressful sometimes though, big decisions, lots of financial risks, being accountable for things that could be very detrimental to the business if I do it wrong.

There is also more urgency and the expectation that if needs be I'll be available to deal with an emergency regardless of the time or what else is happening.

I'm currently on maternity leave but prior to this I was on £100k+ and I would say there were times when I worked my contracted hours, and times when I did a couple hours extra in the evenings. It varies according to the time of year and what was happening internally. I wouldn't say I work THAT hard but I think I've been lucky to find an amazing organisation with an excellent line manager who believes in work/life balance. I also think that if you're doing lots of overtime, you're masking a problem, and need to put the business case in for whatever resource you need.

Thanks for the replies. I’m able to do all the drop off and some but really not that many of the pick ups. We also value work/life balance and there are a lot of us in the organisation with young children. I also have to work some weekends though so that’s the downside.

The other thing I’m really mindful of, and good at so far, is avoiding lifestyle creep.

I earn this in my own Ltd company. I don’t work weekends and work 7-8 hour days, beyond the odd event in evening say once a month and I think in 3 years I’ve worked late into the night three times for deadlines. I have slack Friday afternoons and random days off. On the other hand, I wouldn’t get sick pay etc if I needed it so save a lot and pay extra into my private pension etc. when I worked in house on £65k I had so much stress I was ill with it. So it’s more about the environment and expectations than the salary imo

I'm assuming you're a bit of £100k if you're clearing £7k a month net.

*over

Also agree lifestyle creep is the biggest trap. I try and live on my ‘old’ salary and anything extra is saved / mortgage overpays etc.

pre covid, i was in office (london) at 8.30 for daily meeting, leaving around 6.30-7pm most nights. (that was as an accountant for a small company).

we all wfh now so thats 2 hours saved a day. so it was busy but not exactly life or death nor really complex stuff, just a heck of a lot to juggle each month.

No kids so i didn't have any issue about lifestyle - my partner works equally hard and if we wanted to do something one evening it was no issue to leave work on time.

Cash wise, i actually sacrficed around half my earnings into my pension to save tax and NI so i never got used to higher amounts (i was able to use up prior years allowance b/f for a bit)

i now do similar role but just 1 day a week, whilst studying. thats busier on those days (plus random calls rest of the week from people) but i am lucky to have a very well paid part time job.

I was on £100k, and ditched the job because it was too much - I value my own time and sleep, and I was increasingly getting less of both. I've since taken a £15k pay cut for a more comfortable life - I still have easily enough money to not have to worry about money, but everything else in my life is better.

It helps that I've also got a side hustle that makes around £12k/year that only sucks up about two or three hours a week...I know, privileged, but there's about 5 years of it not making any money at all prior to that.

I know lots of people that work extremely hard and have poor worklife balance for 40% of that. As far as I am aware the manager above my manager works her usual hours and takes home much more than me, whereas my manager works overtime a lot. She is very underpaid IMO. It depends on the job you do rather than the salary a lot of the time.

I think they want me to do unpaid overtime as the NHS thinks they have the right to demand it, but my son is severely disabled and I rarely get a good night's sleep because of his sleep disorder, so no way I'm doing that for the salary they pay me. I only do it if I really have to, and have been in that position recently.

I don't work massively long hours usually but occasionally it's required and you just crack on with it. What's overwhelming is the responsibility, managing a large team of senior people and all that it entails. Making big decisions, being accountable for large targets, having to know everything and be on A game all the time. I find people are asking me questions all day, I feel like I make 100 decisions a day.

One of my coping strategies is to be very strict on meetings and timings. Don't let anything over run and don't get involved in anything which isn't to do with me (see so many people fall prey to this)

I have always been of the opinion that salary doesn't relate to hours, but to seniority and experience. The responsibility and stress levels are much higher but my hours are not, although I am available almost 24/7 in the event of an emergency.

Yep this exactly.

Dh earns well over this and I would say works 50 hours a week. Sometimes a bit more. Never weekends and mostly wfh. He also takes the view they’re paying for extensive experience/seniority. Working out well

I've not worked for almost two years, so on a salary of zero at moment and the foreseeable (long covid). However, I worked quite intense hours and often weekends. To be fair, I did this on a third of that salary too - so just went it alone so I got the financial benefit instead. When I had kids, I reduced my hours and day rate, tried to wfh more and cut down some meetings. Sometimes part days meant a loss - so travelling two hours for a two hour meeting, plus travel time contingency would cost more in emergency childcare rate - had to do this sometimes though.

@burnoutbabe i need to do that. I need to get net adjusted income below £100k to avoid this 60 per cent marginal rate. Going to get an accountant and speak to payroll about overpaying pension.

Surely as with any job you don't HAVE to put the extra hours in? I'm always astounded by how many people do a 50+ hour week in a salaried job.

I was on 120k and loved my job, but it was very flexible. DH is on a lot more and although it isn't flexible, it's reliable and consistent. No big stressful events or projects anymore, just a steady level of spinning plates. He loves it, and it's worth it. He works 9-5, 1 hour lunch break. 8 week holiday plus bank hols and a week for Christmas. Lots of other benefits to the job including health insurance and childcare cover

I have good hours, great work life balance, lots of perks,

But a lot of stress.

@coolcahuna I really relate to this - absolutely it’s the responsibility and needing A game all the time, making big decisions constantly. I think this is the biggest change for me.

I've on track to do it this year and got under 100k by putting more into my pension. Last year I didn't really realise and didn't do the calcs properly

Absolutely agree with this.

I do pretty much 9-5 hours, still do childcare pick ups / drop offs 50:50 with my husband who has similar salary

I’m definitely paid for experience rather than graft of hours, but if the shit hit the fan I’d be available and expected to work all hours to fix it

it’s quite a misconception that people on high salaries need to be working all hours

I'm in the office usual hours but will pick up and deal with emails at all times (unless I'm asleep). If something big is going on then work till it's done.