To ask how much work you actually and honestly do if you’re highly paid? I am worrying!

[workworkbaby]

I’m on 58k. I know it’s not huuuge money, but it’s decent. Honestly, I do very little. I worry all the time about job security and have mentioned to managers I have capacity to do more etc. Sometimes more will land and other times not. As I work largely from home I often find myself just hanging around. I wonder if this is common? I have a toddler in nursery so I can collect them early sometimes which I love so I’m not complaining but I do worry… anyone else?

Exactly! AND teachers!!!

I think the key to being paid well is being in a higher margin private sector industry and having a role where there is more demand than people with your experience. If your employer can pay more and needs someone on that role they will. Tech, financial services companies for example.

That way, you don’t have to work yourself into the ground and your employer has no choice but to respond to market forces and pay more to get the candidates.

NHS, education etc, your skills are highly in demand but your wages are dictated by one employer so there aren’t many demands you can make.

If your employer can pay more and needs someone on that role they will. Tech, financial services companies for example.

This is an important point. If you want high salaries, you'll find them in industries where there's a lot of money sloshing around. The best paid people I know are in finance, tech, healthcare (US/private).

Smaller creative type industries won't be able to compete with that.

As little as I can get away with. I would say I do about 30 hrs a week and never work late or at weekends. I am a higher rate tax payer but not on mega money. Too old to be arsed now.

Of course you are not! Me too! Only it is difficult to laugh with an open mouth, but I manage! These posters are hilarious!

Did you get any responses?! Reading these is a bit torturous (I’m a deputy head and it never ends). I’d love but I know what fields these are..

I agree with this.

I had no idea what I'd end up earning when I started my graduate role. To me, the opportunity was going to allow me to study for 3 more years, learn via on the job work experience and get paid for it! (ACA) I'd figure out what I really wanted to do afterwards.

However, I discovered that I both enjoyed it AND was good at it, however I'd never have guessed that after 20 years of working, I'd be earning 10 x more than what I started on as a graduate, 20 years previously.

@ORLt it takes a few seconds to post on MN, I don't understand why you think a high earner would be too rushed off their feet to take any time for a break; it isn't slave labour

I've actually found that the more senior I get, the more autonomy I have over my time; I plan my day around what needs to be done, and if I have school things for DC then I plan them in too.

I'm genuinely curious as to why you think the high earning posts mustn't be true.

Wfh full time in tech sector earning 90k. I used to work really hard and put in lots of extra hour. Now I only really work during school hours. I just have to make sure I am around to answer emails/messages during the other times.

@HiHoOfftowork , just wanted to say that both books have been delivered, and I have copied and pasted your posts into a document so I can go back and read them often. 😁
I hope you are someone's mentor! Thank you again. 🙏

Probably because there's a constant narrative fed to us from our schooldays through to adult life from politicians, that if you want to get on and earn more you need to work hard. Part of this narrative is that high earners work hard and deserve the extra money.

@SaltyGod can I ask what you do and your salary bracket? It sounds a bit like my job but then maybe a level up, I'm looking for inspiration to move up a bit if possible. My ambition has tanked since having DC but when the youngest starts school I'd like to have a rough plan.

On about 50k and a lot of pps situations sound similar to mine. Mostly working from home (going to the office is a day long coffee break since COVID) and there are days when I'm so flat out I don't get lunch. Few and far between though and most days are punctuated with housekeeping breaks, doing washing, hoovering or even baking 😅. Sometimes feel guilty but know my expertise isn't easy to come by and have no problem pulling a 13 hour day when it's been needed.

Think there’s massive disparity between public and private sector. Me, DH and Dsis are all public sector. I earn the least but have the least responsibility and quiet days WFH. I can’t really complain.
My DH earns about 20k more and has a professional role, it’s a role with a high level of responsibility so I think his pay should really be a bit more reflective of that. My DSis works like crazy with a very high level of responsibility in social care, she earns in the 65k region. If there was an equivalent in the private sector she would be easily in the 6 figure region but that’s public service for you.
DBIL however is the only private sector worker, works long days but he himself would say he doesn’t have a taxing job and his night shifts he generally gets to sleep the whole thing. He’s equivalent to DH wage wise but certainly not stress level wise.

@RubySlippersTakeMeHomeAgain I would imagine most people work hard though. Personally I don't think the amount of effort people put in is reflected in their salary, as this thread demonstrates.

I am able to post on MN regularly, because I do a quick scan of a few active threads and post comments everyday. It doesn't impact on my job at all, as I'm not sat on here for hours during the daytime (unless it's a weekend when DC are with their Dad!).

I too would like to know what all these "niche" roles are. I'm a primary school teacher. On a good day I'll be in the building itself 8.15 - 4.15 (if I need to take my own DC somewhere) , more often 5.15, and it is non stop. 8.45 - 3.15 I am surrounded by 30 small children. 1 hour "lunch break" is like normal work for office people - it's when I sit at my desk and print resources or mark books etc.

As get older I find just the hours with the children to be so tiring. Constantly on-alert. Then I still have to do 1-2 hours every day once I get home, plus at least a couple of hours at the weekend. All for the princely sum of £45,000 (and I am at the higher end of the pay scale). I've been doing this for 20 years so it's not like all the above posters who apparently worked hard for a few years and can now rest on their laurels.

It's too late for me to start again at the bottom now but I'd like to advise my DC what sort of career to look for.

@lavenderlou
I too would like to know what all these "niche" roles are. I'm a primary school teacher.
...
It's too late for me to start again at the bottom now but I'd like to advise my DC what sort of career to look for.

Simple enough to find out. Go onto any job website such as Reed, Indeed, Totaljobs. Have a scroll through the different industries and see which ones pay the most. Bear in mind that the people with cushty roles (high salary, few working hours) didn't walk into those jobs straight out of school; most of them worked their way up the ladder to get to where they are now.

Me: 52 years old, have delivered pizzas, cleaned toilets, stuffed envelopes, worked in cardboard factories...nowadays I earn around 60K as a WFH technical author. I have a uni degree and 10+ years of experience - I didn't start on this salary but have moved jobs many times and kept upskilling to increase my value to employers.

I earn above average (average per/annum is £29K in my county) and have peaks and troughs with respect to workload. However, even the peaks are very manageable.

Technology has vastly cut down the time spent on some activities, and working from home means that when I am working hard, I can give my work 100% focus (no distraction from colleagues etc). When work is not so demanding, I prepare material or resources in anticipation of busier times.

I am sure that, in a few years, my employers will realise that advances in technology have enabled me to perform tasks much quicker and more effectively than before, and then they will add tasks to my workload. However, until then, I am enjoying my work, combining it with my caring responsibilities, and under no pressure to retire due to overload. I consider myself to be very lucky and would hate to be back in a job that sapped me of my energy, time and health.

Those 'niches' exist in their heads, where only they can 'solve problems' like some glamorous bandit 'The cleaner' in Nikita, who comes to clean up after unsuccessful assassination attempts. How hilarious they are with their 'niches'!

It's too late for me to start again at the bottom now but I'd like to advise my DC what sort of career to look for.

It's hard to advise on career itself, without knowing them, but there are more general principles ...

Potential to earn big is better in private sector

Focus on industries where there's a lot of money around. Finance is a constant here, insurance, things like that. Tech is one at the minute, but it may wane a bit. What services will we really need in 10/15 years time?

Keep building skills that there is clear demand for. As opportunities arise to specialise, go for things that are up and coming, or the more dull or complex stuff that others can't be bothered with.

Identify more senior people who have their sights on the top and cultivate relationships. As these people move up, they'll want to build teams around them.

Be prepared to move roles to advance.

If they have the personality to succeed in a sales role, that's always a path with potential. If you can sell, you're always able to demonstrate your worth to the company in a very tangible way. Sales is a very broad church btw, includes professional services and things like that.

The working hard bit is a red herring. Virtually everyone who earns big will have worked very hard for some part of their career to get there.

But becoming more senior and earning well has lots of advantages in terms of setting your own terms/schedule, dropping days, doing consultancy rather than standard employment.

@ORLt Please stop accusing us of making things up. Want to earn £700 per day working from home? Become a business architect. Here's just one job I Googled: didn't look for others as I think this proves my point. Mumsnetters, any business architects out there that want to weigh in on this discussion?

"Business Architect London - Reed.co.uk" https://www.reed.co.uk/jobs/business-architect/51963888?source=searchResults&filter=%2Fjobs%2Fproject-architect-jobs%3FsalaryFrom%3D65000

I was a teacher on 42k, rushed off my feet etc. My friend works in IT for 55k and regularly sits twiddling his fingers with nothing to do.

hear hear, I'm a teacher too but unlike you came late to it so I alreadychanged careers once, but I may have to do it again as this level of work into my old age is unsustainable and relentless. Even in the holidays I'm still working, before anyone mentions long holidays. I just need more balance. And more money. I wish people on here would be more specific about what they do so I can advise my son for his future. There is no way anyone should enter teaching profession these days!

I think we would all like to know what your job is 😅

I would recommend something like a functional IT consulting career for your son, if he has the aptitude for that type of work. So he'd be working for a software provider, essentially.

It can be a tricky balance of getting industry experience in the function you want to specialise in (so the business user side of the coin) while at the same time being qualified/skilled enough in the IT side to get your foot in the door, though.

As an example, we pay our supply chain consultants who specialise in our own particular software somewhere in the region of £80k in their early career with us, with them having 5+ years in industry plus some decent IT knowledge/qualifications when they join us. That would go to £100k+ with experience, without taking on managerial roles. We prefer people with some provable coding or database admin type skill as it helps with client system configuration work, so the right staff are relatively hard to come by.

If you want to see how it pays in general, look for something like SAP or Microsoft Dynamics functional consultant jobs. They're 2 of the biggest, and best known, so there are more jobs, but the more niche software co's will pay more as it's harder to find people. And since there won't be consultants freely available in all countries, there may be a fair bit of global travel which then generally ups the salary further. So you may see SAP consulting salaries quoted as £60-80k, although I know many on much, much more, while specialising in a less ubiquitous package might well average £100k+

They're not the easiest jobs in the world and they get a fair bit of client pressure plus hard deadlines with huge financial implications, but there are great careers to be had and it's an alternative to the oft mentioned "banker" and "software developer" that many on MN seem to think you can just choose to become.

@TheMissingSock1 We ARE stating what our jobs are. I'm a technical author. Average salary is pretty good - not in the same league as many others on here but still quite good. People have said which sectors are well-paid: finance, IT, etc. Just go look on the job boards to see which sectors pay well.