Should I take a job with such a big pay cut?

[deebyhi]

I currently work in a job that I've been in nearly 20 years (with one break away where I tried a new job before being made redundant). It's stressful due to the volume of work (often work 50 hours plus) but at the same time it's familiar, repetitive and boring. I get the Sunday night dread. Lots hate it there.

Im on around £52k and the main perks are private health and dental. Health for my whole family. And "unlimited holiday" although in reality I never take more than 30. I work at home. I'm sort of stuck as I don't want to go higher or take on more responsibility.

This new role has come up (think civil service/NHS type job) that will open up doors I guess but the salary is £30-40k. They say you'd start on lower end. It sounds more rewarding and interesting. And will get me out of this awful sector. Also home based. Limited perks although NHS pension would be decent.

Am I insane for thinking of applying?

I guess I could claim child benefit again (I don't currently as my last position was over £60k) and I sometimes get a bonus. I wonder how much difference it would be in reality.

Can you afford to live on the lower salary if you got the new job?

I'd need to go do the maths. I've lived on similar before. I live quite an ok life currently. I have a personal trainer and get nice haircuts. I don't watch the food shop as well as I could.

That said I do have a bit of debt and I don't do big holidays etc.

We are very average. I have three kids and they are now out of nursery. So limited fees.

Urgh maybe it's not a good idea.

This is it isn't it. I feel trapped in a job I hate. I'm bored but it's comfortable.

Use an online Take Home Pay calculator to see what you would realistically earn each month, based on the bottom of the pay scale and go from there. Do tour sums carefully including everything throughout the year, there are online budget tools you can use fir this, then you'll know if you can manage financially.

I did something similar.
I initially resented the paycut and was surprised by how much I missed the familiarity of my old role.
But after a year was able to look at other internal roles that were more interesting and closer to my old salary, which made it worth it.
And had been at a point that if I hadn't made a change, I may have never, so although it's taken some adjustment am pleased I made the change.

I wouldn't do it if I were you. But I might keep looking for jobs that would pay better and would be of greater interest than the job you have now. You deserve to get paid what you're worth.

I personally would only take a pay cut if i lost my current job and needed another job asap. I accept though that i will stay in an unexciting career so i can provide for my kids financially and build up savings.

Also consider how the loss of private healthcare my impact you. I already had to fork out for private treatment for my 1 year old because of long NGS waits.

Are there other companies in a similar field you can apply to?

The grass isn't always greener.

And that private healthcare and dental for you and your family is worth an absolute fortune, and will be needed more than ever these days!!

I'd stay for that perk alone!

Do you have a pension with current job?

Are there commuting differences in time and expenses. Extra effort in work attire etc?

Really, really look at what your private health and dental covers. My work policy for dental was awful when you actually needed treatment, it didn’t really cover all that much. And it isn’t “free” because you’ll be paying a benefit in kind (it will be affecting your tax code). Ask your HR team how much these policies are costing you if you don’t know.

Personally I’d do it. But I’ve just left a soul-destroying job, taken a short break from career and landed a promotion for an increase in pay. As I am peri, I increasingly can’t afford to jeopardise my health for work - I need exercise and downtime, and time with my kids not working 9pm to 2am on a regular basis.

A 50 hour week with three kids is awful (I was doing 55 to 70 sometimes with two kids), fully wfh. I literally spent every day working out how I could maximise time to accomplish an impossible workload, constantly racing and exhausted therefore not productive. I was offered a promotion but refused is as the senior management roles were horrific. Who wants to work like that in the 21st century?

Id do it and cross my fingers for a better life, tbh.

What would happen if you just took a lot more holiday and stopped working all those hours in your current job?

How would the pay drop affect your quality of life? It's a very significant drop. As an aside, the child benefit threshold is changing so you'll be able to reclaim it in full on your current salary.

If the new job is 35 hours a week, the money works out around the same anyways

You should also take into consideration whether the "pay band" is truly a scale. You say the band is £30-40k and you'd start on the bottom - in the CS, for example, bands are advertised but for most (maybe even all now?) there is now no way of moving up the scale unless you are promoted. So you need to work on the basis that you would start and stay on the bottom on the band, unless you can find out if the organisation still offers some way of working up through the scale.

Do not stay in a job that you hate. Life is too short and you'll make it even shorter by staying if you hate it.

This. I dropped 8-9k a few years ago ( was in less so the percentage was the same (. Got used to it and the change in lifestyle has been amazing (education for elite sport, I don’t play though lol) - I’ve got to do so many things I never knew I would enjoy, travel, flexible hours, meet some pretty famous people etc. Yea I’m more skint but it’s totally been worth it. I can’t imagine how I’d be if I’d stuck in old job.

It’s a tough one - when you’re unhappy in your role it can be tempting to have “the grass is greener” thoughts.

Pay cut aside (as others have said, assume you won’t be able to move up the pay scale quickly), will the other job actually be any less stressful or be a reduction in hours? If it’s NHS, there are plenty of staff on here being run ragged for their wages and talking about toxic management etc. An interesting or rewarding opportunity will rapidly feel less so if you’re putting in slog for less take home.

Also don’t discount the health and dental perks in the current climate and weigh up your current pension vs the NHS one.

£20k is a big drop in income.

Your take home pay difference isn’t as big as you think add on child benefit and pension
it isn’t the enormous cut you think

Tough one, I guess if it was civil service the pension might make up some of the short fall. You can’t claim CB again on your salary from 6th April as they changed the threshold, I’m on 63k and have reclaimed

This. Plus you might not find that the stress/workload is any less because the civil service and NHS is massively understaffed because the pay has fallen so far behind equivalent roles and you're strangled by bureaucracy that makes getting anything done much harder and more time consuming.

How old are your children? Does your job have flexibility for when children are ill or going to watch a school event?
why don’t you use up more holiday?