Accepted a low paying job - should my work reflect this?

[bluerooms]

I recently took a low paying job, it pays £13.50 an hour.
I have been self employed but had a dip in client work & was under pressure by dh because we have a wedding to pay for.
This way it's stable income and any client work is a bonus.
Pre self employment days my hourly salary would've been around £20ph (£35 self employed)
Being honest, my heart isn't going to be in this job at all, and the pay doesn't help matters.
Btw I am aware that this is potentially selfish and Ive taken a job I don't want that someone else might've loved but needs must etc.
Anyway, I knew i'd get the job due to my experience vs what they were paying. So now my question is, do I work like i'm worth what i've been paid previously or do I work a bit more than the bare minimum to reflect the £1 more than min wage they are paying me? (From April 25 anyway) ??

I really would not be able to do the bare minimum in any area of life. I like to do a good job and have pride in whatever I am doing. It would almost be more of an effort to work out how not to work hard.

was under pressure by dh because we have a wedding to pay for.
This seeps with resentment. Why did your partner have to pressurise you to work? Why don’t you want to do your bit and finance the wedding? Why is it his responsibility?

I've worked minimum wage jobs and well paid jobs, for good bosses and bad ones and I've always gone above and beyond. Not because of the money but because of pride in myself and my own work ethic. I take pride in doing my best, and personally feel that the attitude of just doing the minimum because the wage is low is very poor and I imagine quite demoralising in the long run.

It really depends on the job. I worked as a family support worker on £13 per hour roughly 7 years ago. I had a heavy case load working with vulnerable children, delivered parenting classes attended safeguarding and Sen meetings. I was contracted for 24 hours a week but ended up doing about 40 hours a weeks to get the paperwork done making my wage at around £8 an hour!! Never again.

My current job is £13.50 and i go to work exactly on time , leave on time and never think about it in between.

I took a low-ish paying job, which enabled me to do the school run every day, and I worked just as hard as ever. Once I was no longer needed at the school gates, a promotion and a hefty pay raise were waiting for me.

Is there potential for growth, or for networking/a glowing reference?

Thank you for saying this. I earn less than £13.50 in my care assistant job, and it is very hard work, physically, mentally and emotionally.

This. Anything that affects other people do it properly

You've obviously never worked in social care/care home settings were things slowly drop because people decide to work to their pay structure. In a lot of the SW and Maternity units, the issues has been the culture and it starts with a lack of pride in your work. It's always nice to be told that you stand out amongst the other staff, but when you aren't doing anything remarkable, it's also depressing. I know people who work in shops who won't pack bags/open doors etc for (disabled/elderly) people and I can't imagine it does much for their MH.

Took an almost 50% pay cut to go from a very skilled in-person professional job to a remote starter position at a more family-friendly employer. I work to the best of my ability for them as I take pride in what I do and appreciate and respect my colleagues and their experience.

Hopefully, eventually this will be seen and acknowledged and I will be able to progress.

Surely you do the job you signed up for without arbitrarily deciding that you're only being paid for a proportion of it. TBH your OP just sounds like a roundabout way of saying that low earners must be lazy.

If it were me they'd get all my effort but not all of my knowledge.

This is why employing older people feels like a risk to companies. They will not out the maximum effort in because they feel the job is beneath them

This is what puts us off recruiting people with more experience than the job requires (I admit it verges on ageism), they won't try, they won't work hard and won't demonstrate any enthusiasm - their work to rule will affect the morale of other members of the team.
OP I suggest you do yourself and your employer a favour and go get a job that suits your level of experience and gives you the salary you think you deserve.

Do the job to the best of your ability but do not go above and beyond unless it's a care role .

Absolutely do your best .

I wouldn't take a job I wasn't prepared to put any effort into personally. I took a big drop in pay and level of responsibility after our kids were born but I still do my best, for the sake of my colleagues as much as anything else. It's not fair to slack off.

Don’t be led by resentment. You applied for the job; do a good job for your own self respect at least.

It's a moot point because with your attitude you aren't going to last five minutes.

Most important thing in any job at that level is a can do attitude.

In addition to what other people have said, you're never going to increase your pay if you're doing the minimum. Why people think of jobs like benefits and they'll still be getting the same in 2 or 3 or 5 years' time I'll never understand. It's your starting point, not your final income for life.

Presumably you can't get a better paying job, or you wouldn't be taking this lowly one. That pay is what someone is prepared to pay for your skills, either keep looking for someone to pay you what you feel you are worth, or suck it up and get doing what they're paying you for.

Place marking as it will be interesting to see if @bluerooms finds the role the doddle they seem to think it will be and whether they manage to temper that stinking attitude.

For anyone on linkedin, there's a fab post doing the rounds right now about a woman who has started work as a temp worker at tesco and LOVES the job so much after an appalling experience with redundancy and toxic workplaces. worth searching out and a breath of fresh air after all this nonsense.

Dh had a phone call from an ex CFO of a big company, ex after a restructuring, asking if dh if he knew of any opportunities. Dh asked around and the only thing he came up with was a Junior Accountant role, the guy applied and got the job. He stayed in his lane but he did an absolutely fabulous job - navigated the tricky over-qualified bit - didn't get all uppity when he was managed by someone who would have been a very junior member of the team in his last job. Dh said he handled the situation with determination, hard work and humility, everyone found him a pleasure to work with. The role of CFO came up the following year and he got it.
It's hard when you recruit not to see people with experience behave like the OP, it's hard to believe they will do a great job and not unsettle everyone with their dissatisfaction - but we have to believe the OP is an exception - one we'd try to get rid of before we were stuck with them.

Yes it’s about the same as an Admin role in the police and we all work to the best of our ability and put everything into it. I think most public sector workers are paid about that much unless in management

You work at the level of the person you were at interviewed and who they selected.

You don’t now get to decide that it’s beneath you.

Do the best you can, don't be an arse, don't mooch around like it's beneath you. You never know what opportunities might open up, but if you act like a twat those will pass you by.