I currently hold a very senior position at work. Money isn’t what you’d expect for the title/responsibility (this is classic of the sector/I work for a start up) but looks amazing on my CV and I was lucky to land it with the experience I had/at my age (early 30s). Thing is it’s a huge amount of work and a HUGE amount of stress. I’m PT in hours and pay but in terms of how much headspace and stress it takes up, it’s FT+. I have a 3 year old DS and I’m starting to think I’d rather take a couple of steps down so I get to properly enjoy him and these precious years (he’s an only) rather than let this sap so much of my energy and look back with regret. I can handle the pay cut but long-term it would impact the career I’ve worked so hard for, it would look like I just couldn’t hack it. But then I’m not happy at the peak I’ve worked so hard to climb to, so do I even want to be up here or is it just social conditioning that we should always want to go up and up the ladder? Or is this just a case of short term burn out and I’ll regret the change? I keep going back and forth in my head. Has anyone else made similar moves with young DC and then regained momentum in their career down the line?
YABU - it’s worth the stress now for the long-term career benefit
YANBU - you can revive a career, take the step down