Sunday doom - has anyone actually given up the corporate job and salary?

[Rach247]

I hate my job. Hours and pressure and stress are very high but I’m paid well.

Constantly day-dreaming about packing it in to do something less demanding and genuinely 9-5, work your hours and leave your job at the office, admin type thing. Or something completely different, like being a postie or working in a coffee shop. I know these can be demanding, but in a different way. But the pay would be low by comparison and I have a mortgage and young kids.

Has anyone actually packed in the corporate job for such a lifestyle change, and how did it go?

Not really - I swapped my travelling every day, high stress corporate role for a more specialised, highly technical one in the same field, but which I mostly do from home. It’s 2/3 times the salary I used to get and while it can be high pressure, it’s usually not as it’s relatively easy due to the high level of experience I have. You don’t say what industry so not sure if you have any chance of anything similar!

I've never had a corporate job.

I run my own business part-time. Work 25 hours a week on average.

I did. I was older, and had specific circumstances that pushed me into it, but I have either had money and no time, or time and no money. I was on a very decent package, but had eaten into savings during the difficult times.

I am now on a tenth of what I used to earn, and have swapped corporate life for dog training. I love it. I haven't got a pot to piss in, but I don't care. I can just about scrape by, but I wouldn't go back. I have zero tolerance for corporate aresholes these days. The salary was nice, but my life is so much better in every other way.

My DP did this - sacked it all in and set up his own business based around his hobby in 2011. He’s very happy with the decision.

I stayed in the same kind of work but moved to a very different role. It required some additional training. It took one evening a week and one day at the weekend but only for a year. The salary stayed the same but the role is not so good for promotion. It is sometimes tempting to take on more bits of responsibility but they usually mean more stress for not much reward so I tend to resist. I no longer have the Sunday blues and don’t dread Monday at all. It has 100% been worth it but I probably don’t earn as much as you. DH earns well and was supportive of me retraining and being less stressed. I would keep an eye out for possible jobs and talk to people who are older and happier in their jobs. I found talking to other women about their careers incredibly helpful.

Quite telling how people go off to the public sector for same money and less work. Just about sums up the mess the public sector is in. Inefficient and grossly underproductive.

Haha! Cant think why you would say same money. Earn less than half of what I did in the private sector 20 years ago. But much better life balance.

Can I ask what your role is?

I worked in a mid-management investment banking role and gladly took redundancy last year after many stressful years. I then moved into admin, hoping for a better work life balance in exchange for a lower salary. Honestly, it was one of my worst years of employment. The high stress was gone, but the environment was like being at school. I went from being very respected for my experience & knowledge to being treated like a child and borderline bullied by an older colleague. I am now back at the place I had taken redundancy after realising that the grass was not greener.

Yes.
Started studying whilst working full time, then left the city once qualified, to work self employed. Took up another degree, studied whilst running a full time business.
Am I tired? Yes. Has it been hard work? Yes. Would I do it again? Hell yes. The city was killing me, regardless of how much money I earnt (and no longer do).

I'd love to do this. I'm a teacher so not exactly a high-earner on 45k but I wouldn't want to take a pay cut to get out. I'm jealous of people who can switch off at the end of the day and not have to do anything outside of their working hours 🫠

i wonder if (like me!) you can reframe your attitude towards work and the stresses in it?
Are you taking on more tasks to bridge gaps from colleagues? Are you trying to be perfect when there is no right answer? Are the stakes worth it?

I left a fairly senior role, well paid, crazy hours but very well paid and took an admin role close to home. Huge mistake, am now with a family run business which in the beginning was fantastic then 6 months in the reality of what I’ve done set-in. No HR, no respect, no bonuses that were promised, no pay rises, constantly spoken down too by the owner who’s a misogynist and treated badly despite doubling their profit and expanding their business. I am now 2 years in and feel like walking out every day it’s so bad. The grass isn’t always greener.

This is a great thread to remind us all that the grass isn’t always greener! I work in Finance and I don’t like all the corporate brainwashing, but I earn well, great benefits and do a compressed 4 day week. I fantasise about leaving to do something more meaningful, but I could well end up on a lot less money with different stresses!

Personally I’m mid 40s and need to keep my head down for a few years to boost my pension as. I won’t get chance again.

I have a huge mortgage and kids to support so it’s not even a notion I can dream about tbh. My job is hard work and sometimes I’d love to chuck it all in but it’s just not an option! Couldn’t even take a pay cut and do something else, really a promotion is what I need!

Just from these posts it seems what you go in to is key. A few have said admin is demoralising but other things are better.

I could have written this. I don't know what else I would do. I wish I could just be content but the stress, hours and politics has such a profound and constant effect on me. I also earn well so currently I'm trying to save and max out pension as I could slow down one day. I can't see me being able to do this for another 20 years.

YES!

I did this when I was 43 (12 years ago). I was a Regional Bank Manager, and had the opportunity to take VR, with a good pay out.

I started my own Dog Boarding business - just boarding in my home, no kennels. I do that and Doggy Day Care. I earn about £45k a year. Also, I have no commuting costs, so save there too. Obviously I have no boss, answer only to myself, only take dogs that I like. It's been LIFE CHANGING and I feel so lucky every day.

I don't think I would ever have had the guts to pack my job in and try this - obviously with the offer of VR, I was somewhat nudged as the payout helped, and also if I didn't take the VR, the place they would have posted me to would not have worked for me.

I have fed and walked today's dogs already, they are all now snoozing, and I'm about to go on the treadmill for a bit. Nothing to do now until around 3pm, when they will all get fed and walked again.

I would never return to the rat race.

I did. Was a solicitor, left to go self-employed and then pivoted again to run a small charity.

To be perfectly blunt and a bit cynical, the thing that enabled me to jump was buying my own flat and at first having a cheap mortgage, then a little later renting it out once DP and I bought together. It was reliable money coming in and eased the way a bit.

Yes, sort of.

I traded agency for client-side after 2 decades in a high stress/high performance environment. I had an epiphany after yet another crisis at midnight and realised I couldn’t live like that or with the Sunday doom anymore.

I’m now paid much more and doing far, far less but I’m bored out of my brain.
I can’t focus, I feel like I don’t add value and I’m expendable. I’m not picking things up as quickly as I used to - thanks peri!
I hate the commute - went from WFH mostly with an office 5 min drive away to a 1hr15 train commute and having a 50% office attendance target.

Positives include financial security, a fantastic work culture and colleagues, a true 9-5, no OOH/weekend working.

However, I’ve traded stress and being an expert for feeling worthless but my work-life balance is greatly improved.

I moved company. Doing the same job but a lot less stressful. Plus I got paid 50% more.

Looking back, my previous company was stressful. It didn't need to be that bad.

@Clychaugogthis was me too late 20s with a lot of corporate responsibility for a low salary, realised I needed an out when I started having sleep paralysis. A decade on in a lower stress position but higher salary but at some point would like to have more financial freedom so my plan is a bit like yours @Crushed23which you are wise to have sought out at a good age.

I agree. And I’d just caution op that if you are a perfectionist people pleaser type, so where you are on edge as you think it you stuff up you’ll get sacked or where you have imposter syndrome then you will just transfer it to your next role.

This is very astute.

What jobs are there on this sort of money that aren’t as stressful? Cos I’d love one 😆