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?

Another one who could have written the OP. I’m a solicitor but in a regional firm - so the pay is ok but it’s not amazing (£70k full time). The problem is that anything else I’m not qualified for and all the other jobs I look at pay a LOT less. But the stress is unreal, the pressure, the increased targets, the bonus is no longer achievable, I feel like I’ve lost all passion for it, I hate it. I don’t do a transferable area of law (family) so I’ve tried looking for in house roles but I never get interviews because I don’t have commercial law experience. It’s so demoralising. It’s so hard to know what to do.

Totally feel your pain. Similar age.i do think in reality we are unlikely to be retiring, I can see state pension replaced with benefits when too ill to work. When I started my career, most people retired at 55, did a bit of consulting.

Lots more people are going to have to do a soft retirement, working part time in a much less stressful job.

Technology is making my job unrecognisable, I hate it.

I did this a few months ago but I’m 59 and in a position to draw small amounts from my pensions, plus my mortgage is tiny (keeping it going for my credit record). I’d had years of stressful management jobs, being a single parent and losing friends and family to illnesses and I just decided I’d had it. But I was in a financial position to do so, which makes a huge difference. After a few months not working I’ve picked up a bit of contract work which is well paid but not much of it, and I’m looking for part time roles just to top up my pension income, which was always the plan. The jobs I’m looking at are basic admin/support or retail, and the hourly rate is much less than I was earning but I only want a job where I can do the job, not have to manage people and go home when the job is done.

@KatSlayMoon has made some really good points, and if I were you I’d think very carefully about making such a huge change right now (although I completely understand how you feel as I’ve been there too!). It’s true that lower paid jobs can be just as stressful and a key element would be how much autonomy you’d have as not having any is very stressful!

The other thing I’d suggest is looking at how you manage your finances to see whether you can change how you do this to have more in the bank in a few years and therefore have that option to step away from a stressful job. Have a look at Rebel Finance School on YouTube who teach financial independence. It’s completely free and could change your life.

Good luck OP.

@JNicholson you've hit the nail on the head without how I feel and yes I wish I'd had @KatSlayMoon wisdom at the time and done just that!

How about something like this? Sounds a lot less stressful!

About amicable

They are recruiting too
24 Amicable jobs in United Kingdom
(Negotiation Divorce Specialist)

I did some work more aligned with my interests but found that it's work I hate, so I might as well do something well paid and hate it as do something low paid and hate it.

Being a contractor works for me, no corporate bullshit, no expectations of unpaid overtime, knowing that in a year I'll be doing something different.

DH did it. Traded global consultancy for teaching assistant at 25% of the salary.
It took me a very long time to stop feeling resentful about having to carry the financial can.

It's better to have support from your partner and talk about the implications of it on lifestyle etc.
We no longer travel and I work ft but don't have a pension that will support me when I retire. Maybe I've not actually got over it.

I did.

I am earning a third of what I used to. I'm not gonna lie, there are times when I regret loosing the money. Sometimes the pride feels bruised as people no longer say "wow" when I answer what I do for a living.

That being said, I am the happiest I think I've ever been. Due to many areas of my life though. Getting therapy. Addressing a medical issue and getting help for my condition. Family life improving. I think I could handle my old job fine now. Money is much tighter and that can be hard.

So if you can, I would try to address why you are unhappy whilst still being in the job. Work is the easiest thing to blame when you're unhappy. I blamed work almost entirely. Looking back though, it was a lot of things.

If you are sure that it's 100% work related though, leave. I am so grateful to be happier. My family are grateful I am happier. If I had to choose between the money, and this feeling of peace and joy, I would choose this every time. No question.

I just burned out in teaching when menopause hit and now earn much less, but my mortgage was paid and DC an adult.

There is a lot of very valuable insight on this thread.

@golemmings I fear my husband would feel exactly the same. We’re paid roughly the same as each other and I know I would be deeply unimpressed if he opted for a massive pay cut.

This is amazing to read. How many dogs do you have at any time?

Exactly! Lower paid roles can be more stressful, because you often have less independence.

Yes me - 3 years ago.

My work was very high pressured (sales) then combined with awful perimenopause, a very tricky teenager and ill parent it just all got too much so decided to step off the corporate ladder. I felt I was on the edge of a cliff about to fall off and my husband could see me struggling and encouraged me to do it. I would wake up on Sunday in a cold sweat about going back to work on Monday, I hated my job and had lost all motivation and ambition it was just horrible. I also was so burnt out I didn't have the energy to properly job hunt so literally walked in one Monday morning and handed in my notice. The weight that lifted off my shoulders was palpable and I was so happy when they put me on gardening leave.

The next day I signed up with some temping agencies for something local, I could just turn up do the job and go home without any stress. I had a really fun couple of months working in my local department store over christmas but come the new year I started feeling I should get something more permanent but knew I wouldn't ever go back to my old role/industry plus home life was still stressful. I found my current job by chance and absolutely love it - fully remote, low stress, no direct reports, total autonomy, lovely charity I really believe in and great colleagues. Pay is considerably and I was the higher earner plus we were never a massively high earning family so that has needed some adjustment to shopping, holidays, savings etc but it's been 100% worth it. I'm actually now just starting to think next role and aiming for something with a bit more seniority and responsibility as I feel ready to step up albeit not where I was. I'm in my 50's and keen to bump my rather meagre pension and hopefully retire before I'm 70!

Hope this helps and if you can afford it, 100% go for it - life is too short to be miserable.

Well maybe but I am one so have direct experience! Can be overcome though, I’d really work on current job and less bothered ness.

Not exactly corporate, but I was in NHS Management and HATED it. The nice house and convertible just weren't worth it. I was bullied by the manager who I answered to, support and further training were non existent and all in all it was just a horrible Trust to work for.

Packed it in and went back to being Patient facing in a basic grade roll, in a much more working class grotty city where I grew up. I assumed it would be akin to crawling home having failed at life, but friends and family were absolutely thrilled to have me back home. Done that for just over 10 years but recently I've just been wanting even MORE simplicity and less responsibility. It just felt like life was far too live to other people's expectations and not my own.

Out of the blue I got a small chunk of perfectly timed inheritance and paid my mortgage way way down. I have analysed my budget to the nth degree, cut and shaved off outgoings wherever I could, scrimped and saved and worked out what's the very least monthly salary I can get away with earning. Handed in my notice and withdrew my professional registration. Four weeks ago I got a job working minimum wage, doing evenings and weekends in a call centre. I absolutely LOVE it. The lack of responsibility is BLISS. I have a desk (rather than dashing round a Hospital or clinic) and there's a kitchen I can make lunch in (rather than eating Tesco meal desks whilst driving between health centres). I am 15 minutes drive from home along local roads, rather than an hour motorway commute from a city. On Monday I'm starting college training to be an electrician. I feel very very irresponsible and mischievous, like any minute now a grown up will come along and tell me off for choosing happiness, and make me be sensible and responsible again.

It might not work out. In a few years I might get short of money and have to go bring professional again but in the meantime I can't believe I get to live this carefree caution-to-the-wind life. 😃

I think switching to something completely different, ideally as your own boss, can be great. Just moving to a lower-grade office job to me seems the worst of all worlds- if you are the sort of person who tends to take work seriously, you'll worry about it anyway- you don't get a 9-5 mindset just because you have a 9-5 job- and you'll have the stress of being managed by someone who has less experience than you with all the frustration that brings.

I did a version of this.

Hit 6PQE as a City lawyer - hated it - and switched to a professional support job. Big pay cut, but it’s a low stress 9-5. I make around £120k FTE.

Absolutely worth it for me!

Leaving the industry wouldn’t have worked for us financially - too big a pay cut, even to go to a regulator. Plus I assume jobs like librarian are still competitive and stressful, but worse paid!

Yes, I did. I quit a 25-year Civil Service career because I could not face doing the same sort of work for another 20 years or so. I am now self-employed on half my former salary, but so much happier. It helped that we had already paid off our mortgage and had no huge regular outgoings.

I think it was when I realised this was my actual life I was wasting, hating my work, and what mattered more - quality of life, or money & good work benefits? I was in the fortunate position (grown-up kids, too) not to need as much money as in the past.

It's hard, though. No sick pay, no paid annual leave, no buffer if I get ill. I'm still glad I did it though, and I love my work.

I did, as a single parent, with a mortgage, in my early 30s (I’d been working in finance for 17 years by then).

I have never regretted it, but I think it’s important to want to move towards something, not just away from the current job/field, otherwise, as others have said, you can easily end up with as much stress and less money.

In my case the something was working in a niche public health field that I was already volunteering in, so, although I had to retrain, I was fairly comfortable that I would get interesting work and be paid at least enough to live on afterwards.

Not exactly, but I did go part-time as soon as possible (in my early 30s) and quit completely when I had a child to be a sahm. I do plan to go back to work, but definitely not to that role.

It would be nice to feel passionate about my job, but in the absence of that I do the minimum required for the lifestyle I want, which is a fairly cheap lifestyle. I love all the stuff I do outside work.

I LOVE what you’re doing!!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Yep - me! Bye bye corporate finance for 20 years, crippling mortgage - hello remote cottage in the mountains. Part time low level job, lots of penny pinching and smart budgeting. Couldn't be happier.

I posted upthread but wanted to add something.

My ordinarily stressful job has been quiet for the past few days (part of the problem is how up and down and unpredictable it is), so I have been trying to do things in the evenings, making the most of being able to make plans on weeknights. Anyway, I’ve realised a work life balance is so expensive! I went to a sports game last Thursday, to a spa on Monday night and tonight I am out at a mid-week rave. If I had a 9-5 I honestly think I would go bankrupt! I’m the sort of person who can’t just sit at home for hours every day. So perhaps my high pressure job is a blessing in disguise and keeping me from financial ruin.

Just a thought. 😅

What do you do now?

This is so insightful. Having worked in admin roles or even senior assistant roles, you end up working with more people than you think who are not that interested in doing a great job. I found it very hard. The money was good, but you will find the highly paid admin roles are highly paid because the stress is the fuckers you work with and for. The work itself is easy ime.

I went back to accounting, but wfm mostly. I earn a lot more than my dh, and the dc lives are all the better .

You never know ehat is going to happen. My dh retired at 55 some time ago, and his pension still hasn't come through. I am not happy at all, and although he has a new job, his IT still hasn't arrived. Perhaps I need my own thread.