Doing very little for this salary? Panic

[Greenwip]

I’m earning close to 70k. I do have times where I am worked to the bone and very stressed (maybe 7 days since start of the year so averaging one day a month). The rest of the time I work 90% of the time from home and have naps, a bath, food shop etc in between a few emails and remote meetings. It sounds great and sometimes it is but I am constantly worried about job security. I wonder if this is more common than I think?

You are focussing on the customer service side - I never said OP is involved with this nor works in the public sector - just gave an example of how poor things have been since WFH became more prevalent. There have been many posts here from others who also seem to do non-related stuff during the working day. There will be an impact on the employer if staff are not pulling their weight. So are you happy for your taxes to be paid to those who are paid for a full week's work whilst only doing 2 or 3 days?

But customer service is what you were initially talking about. You mentioned not being able to contact companies if you have an issue. Which, given what you've said about your circumstances, clearly relates to customer service type issues rather than eg you wanting a chat about their organisation wide IT strategy management.

You then said the people above those type of staff weren't doing their jobs if the lower paid staff weren't available. But again, you have no idea if that's relevant to OP or not. And that's the whole point. There are roles within organisations that simply have nothing to do with how quickly you can get through to someone on the phone when you want to make a complaint, change your tariff or whatever.

In terms of the 2 to 3 days, depends on OPs role. There are jobs where you're basically paid to be available when needed, and are salaried because it's quicker, cheaper and more efficient than trying to get that kind of expertise from a contractor.

If she falls into that category, absolutely. I'm much happier for her to be employed in the manner she is than for someone to come up with some makework to distract her during the quiet periods, or to outsource her and her skills not necessarily be available as quickly if she's a contractor. But it really depends on the job.

Good luck to you but the old adage that people on higher wages are there on account of working harder is pure bs. I worked in several industries and had mid level qualifications that I had to keep up to date with at my own expense as well as dealing with changing technology, also at my own expense. Every work day was at least 10 hours for a flat salary and night/weekend call out. Very few pay increases for technical workers and constantly increasing work load. Same for my other half. £70k would have been beyond comprehension, and no work from home even though my company sold teleconferencing technology to other companies.

I wouldn't say it's "one rule for plebs"!

I would say that if you work hard to get where you are then one you've got a good couple of decades of experience under your belt then you are paid for what you can offer rather than for working flat out every second.

I have spent over 20 years in finance - working my way up through experience and qualifications - and can now probably earn a decent salary based on what I can offer the company. Rather than say, someone who comes in to do an admin role with a patchy and varied work history who has to run around answering the phone, doing filing, going to the post office. I've been there and done that 20 years ago!

We actually sat down with DSD last week and had a conversation about the harder she works now, (generally) the easier it is as you get older.

Same. Degree, masters (at own expense) and a further 6 years of low paid training to get to where I am, which is pretty much as high as I can go with my role in public sector health and on pay of 55k. Work flat out every day without a break, even on wfh days. Constant pressure to take overtime or work evenings/weekends. Definitely think I chose wrongly, although it's a highly skilled role and one I am proud of.

I hear you, I come from working class/poverty background and grafted at the 'coalface'. Breaking through the invisible membrane to this world took me by surprise! I feel very fortunate (6yrs ago i was a bankrupt single mum with only my old car to my name). I try to support charities as much as I can. I'm about to start a new role and when this contract finishes, I think my next step will be into charity work. I dont need more money, only build my pension up because i got off to a bad start there. I'm not a designer gear sunny holiday private jet person 🤷‍♀️

CalmMintReader is being tone deaf. Like the OP I am anxious at my inactivity. This is not a thread with the purpose of bragging. It's WTF is going on, will I lose my job over this.

It's soul destroying to be not busy and be questioning why. There are threads for lazy workers using mouse jigglers but this isn't that thread.

There’s a lot of bitterness here from posters who seem don’t seem to understand that some jobs pay well for someone’s experience rather than for how much their bum is sat on a seat…

‘Bloody hell my partner is on NMW and every minute is monitored. One rule for the plebs.’

I’m a pleb, or maybe ex-pleb??? Grew up very poor, did well a school, 1st ever to go to Uni or further education… now a high earner in a low stress, short hours job.
Sometimes it’s the choices you make, people you meet, and path you go on. Until I was about 30 I was scraping by, in the arts barely able to pay the bills, and live it though I did I decided to make a change to a big Corp.

Now the artsy stuff is a hobby which the Corp job allows me to spend a lot of time at - 15 years later though. It wasn’t overnight.

I'm another ex-pleb but one that had a mother who showed up to uni days and kept asking 'what job will she do with this' much to my horror at the time. Mum pushed me hard to only do a degree that would lead to a good job. STEM was an easy choice because I also enjoyed it. The first 15 years I worked bloody hard and surely studied hard. But now in Senior management that's just not how I contribute. I'm here to steer, not paddle.

It's not bitterness, it's incredulity! I had over 30 years experience of my role of which there were probably only around 30 positions available across the UK. There is a lot of 'well, I'm paid for my experience and knowledge' - I was too but it was in the public sector. I have asked this question a couple of times now but I will try again but will re-phrase it. Would you be happy for your taxes to pay me a full time salary for working a couple of days per week?

@WhatShallIdo11 Sure, if you were delivering the goals needed to hit the targets set.

Yes, I don't know why this is so surprising.

There’s a lot of bitterness here from posters who seem don’t seem to understand that some jobs pay well for someone’s experience rather than for how much their bum is sat on a seat

So why is OP in a panic and stressed about her bum not being on her seat and feels she needs to account for it as it's monitored?

Plenty of lower paid jobs where you work hard also pay for someone's experience.

'There’s a lot of bitterness here from posters who seem don’t seem to understand that some jobs pay well for someone’s experience rather than for how much their bum is sat on a seat'

But my employer wants my bum on my seat while I use my professional experience 7.5 hours per day, 5 days per week 😂.

I think it's a bit of a lottery really.

Agree. Which I suspect might be part of the reason why OP is feeling panicky.

No, sorry. Everyone I've ever met who is actually useful is kept occupied by people asking for their input. I think a lot of us have met the type who think they are employed only for experience; if you are senior but nobody is asking you questions / asking for you to mentor them / asking for your input to process change / asking for you to speak at a conference / asking you to help rate a new supplier / help on a prospect call... then you have low value and zero respect in the organisation. Newsflash that there are ALWAYs a raft of improvements to work that also rely on that experience, it's just laziness and bad management allowing numpties to hang out in the bath thinking they're ever so clever. Top of every redundancy list, just a shame others re-employ them.

@GRex I totally agree!!! Any company can always make improvements to what they are doing. If you are employed with expertise and knowledge and nobody is asking for your input to improve things, its because they do not rate your ability to help. Either that or you are lazy and only does what really needs doing, ignoring everything else.

Because she's new to it?

Believe me, I've tried to get people interested in my side projects at work, but at the end of the day, they only want me when it's urgent. It's my job to deal with the urgency and to be prepared for that.

But I have also worked with people who absolutely, 100%, do not want to make the big decisions or responsibility, and who unequivocally have said that they like having a job where they have busy work and no take home worries.

What strikes me about these posts is a lack of awareness that private or not, somebody is paying for it. Whether it's someone arguing with a chat bot over a phone bill or someone who just realised the price of something they desperately want has just gone up. The employers paying staff to do so little are billing clients who are billing other clients and somewhere down the chain is the consumer being squeezed by the COL crisis. Meanwhile those wfh doing so little save on childcare costs, on public transport and food etc thereby contributing very little to the economy. I'm not saying anyone should feel apologetic for getting so lucky but maybe be a bit more aware that your gain is indirectly another's loss.

Over posting, but one other thought. Being busy makes the working day whizz past; clock- watching is tedious; these are generally known and discussed facts in office environments. £70k is a decent line manager level salary, so you'd expect someone with a moderate IQ at least. So for OP to choose boredom over their company's success just seems a bit weird. I'd love to know why, though I guess she's checked out.

Does this work for all terms and conditions that are better than some parts of the workforce have, or just remote working? As an example, my pension provision is nothing remotely approaching that available to, say, a nurse. Ought they to be taking this into account if they discuss their terms and conditions, or does it just work one way?

Also, the 'contributing very little to the economy' part is an extremely odd claim. It seems to be based on a view that only money spent on childcare, public transport and in cafes counts as the economy. If a remote worker is saving money on commuting and they spend it on, say, days out or clothes instead, apparently that counts less as a contribution than, say nursery fees. Even if they don't have kids. To say nothing of people who work in person but walk or cycle!

Are there any vacancies as Id like to apply

Exactly - very well put