To ask what high earners do all day?

[WearyCat]

I genuinely don’t know what CEOs, that type of role, people earning over 150K pa actually do. How do they spend their time?

Not whether they are worth the salary. But what do those jobs involve on a day to day basis? All I have is an idea based on films and guesswork. Is it golf? Lunches? Meetings? What sort of decisions are they making? What pressures are they facing?

I’m interested, curious, and I don’t see how I would ever find out in real life because I don’t move in circles where people have that sort of job.

I should add that my dh is a people person, good at building relationships, managing people and has an incredibly positive mindset. Failure isn’t a possibility.

There isn’t going to be a single answer to what someone earning £150k+ does all day more than there is for someone earning £40k.

In over twenty years of working I have only known one very senior person whose work revolved around lunches and other entertainment. He was a senior global account manager working for a multinational and dealing with one major account. From what I could tell, his job seemed to be jetting around the world and passing on complaints from his client for other people to resolve.

That’s one person out of many. Most senior leaders are also attending nice lunches and dinners regularly, but on top of everything else.

CEO. Get to my desk at 5:30am tend to finish at 8pm most nights. You don’t really ever stop or have down time. Mostly strategy meetings or budget and finance with department heads or shareholders. Sometimes HR escalations. I have a lot of contract and legal negotiations atm but that isn’t typical. Barely leave my office, let alone have time to play golf. The pay reflects the pressure from all sides and expectations from shareholders. It’s relentless. I enjoy the variety but the high level of stress is not for everyone and there are many days I wish I did something that allowed me to be more present for my family. It’s not really glamorous and by the time I paid tax it does not feel worth the sacrifices. There are no private jets, fancy dinners or even nice holidays. I have not had a work free holiday in 20 years. I don’t know any high earners in the UK who are living the dream you see on films.

I don't think you can generalise. The salary may be the only thing they all have in common.
CEO types- troubleshooting, meeting clients, financial planning, explaining to others why those plans did not come through and taking personal responsibility for them, meeting investors, meeting consultants, lawyers, trying to sell new deals, meeting regulators if needed.

I'm an in house lawyer and a large part of my day is filled with v disparate deadlines - litigation, agreements, law updates, drafting, advising, reviewing. It comes in faster than I can lob it back. Quarter end means budgets, tracking of spend, etc. Also confirmation letters (when I worked in a listed company), analysing new laws, responding to auditors. I don't even have time to step out for a coffee on weekdays. I used to work to some degree almost every weekend- have got better at that. Cannot recall the number of holidays and appointments cancelled because unpredictable work developments got in the way.

I don’t know any CEO who plays golf or even has time for lunch. Maybe google ‘what does a CEO do’ and you may start to understand. It’s a lot of pressure and it certainly isn’t a 9-5 job.

My DH is a financial journalist, very well paid. He spends his days writing and researching, interviewing people or in editorial meetings. About a quarter of his income comes from public speaking engagements, so quite a bit of travelling. He works from home and just manages himself, so not a lot of complications there, but in an industry that isn't normally highly paid he has to put out a high volume of work while constantly hussling for the next job. He networks at conferences, eats lunch at his desk and his hobby is the gym! As a freelancer, he never turns down work so frequently works weekends and we have had to cancel plenty of events and appointments because something unexpected came up. Thankfully, he loves his job and working from home reduces a lot of stress.

I don't think you can generalise. The salary may be the only thing they all have in common.

As far as I can tell from this thread the actual thing they have in common is being an extroverted people person.

The social element of all these roles is the most difficult aspect of all of them.

Are you joking?

work for a very big tech giant - all day in meetings- some relevant others not sure why I was invited! Then dealing with higher ups… and then dealing with a demand and ambitious team. Client calls/briefings then dinners/travel.all of this is done during the day in the office. I go home and start with once I have seen to the kids and the dog!
I don’t remember what is like to do a days work at the office and go home and not work… evenings/ weekends/annual leave all the sane to me!

Back to back meetings, lots of pressure, putting out fires, juggling lots of different plates. All without barely having a chance to have a proper break.

I work 9-6 mostly at home. One day in the office. The wfh days I go to the gym at lunch. I have a lot of calls and meetings mostly solving problems and telling people how to do things. Occasionally I will do some spreadsheet modelling or make some PowerPoint slides. Compared to many other jobs I’ve had I don’t think it’s worth the salary as it’s not very stressful, dangerous or difficult. CEOs in big corporates will be on far more than 150k. I wouldn’t want those jobs for the level of stress.

Not in 150k atm as had to take a cut to look after my kids with SEN.
But when I was, I was middle management in blue chip corporate.
I did the following mostly,

• team meetings
• one to one and performance meetings
• meeting with vendors
• meetings with clients
• meeting eith other leaders
• strategy meetings
• planning meetings
• strategy presentations
• strategy documents
• budget and forecasts
• HR meetings
• make many slides and spreadsheetz
• Support my team with questions
• make slides about the above and present things to people
• paperwork, forms, fill in stuff into systems
• check invoicing and payments
• planning for various timeframes (1 year/ 3 years/ next month)
• review and create documents and presentations about previous periods of time (what we did last year/month etc)

Now I havr half the salary and pretty much do the same as above but half of it then send it up to the person who would have been me in the more senior role to collate and do the above.

I live in London and my boiler engineer easily earns 150k. He comes and fixes my boiler and obviously other people’s. He works hard, long hours and he’s brilliant.
I go to a really swanky gym and bumped into my electrician in the hot tub he drives a very nice Range Rover.
i guess my point is there are myriad jobs to earn a high salary and £150k doesn’t get you a CEO!!
If you are good at your job and people demand what you do and you work hard you can earn a lot.
The only people I know on high salaries that do anything other than work their nuts off are those that are on a work to rule because they want a pay off. I had a boss once who spent a year learning the ukulele in his office. Eventually he got a year’s pay and asked politely to leave.

My ex, though not a CEO, is very high up in his company and he just mainly has meetings and phone calls.

I grew up in a high earning household. Both my parents had their own companies - my father a mortgage brokerage firm. My mother was in marketing. I can now live off that money myself as I’m a stay at home mum which no plans of paid employment in the next decade or two. My husband earns well, but not enough to provide a comfortable life in a nice house with extras like travel and private schooling etc. I received an inheritance when my mother died (tragically when I was a young adult and before she had a chance to retire and enjoy that money herself).

I’ve invested it in the stock market and the dividends pay me a regular income and generally the value of the stocks increase over time so will provide for my children too. You need well over a million in stocks to take out a small percentage though, and discipline to not touch the initial investment or to withdraw when the market drops.

Whilst my parents did work hard, it was also a lot about who they know, their education (so a class element of course). Also there was an element of luck involved as well as the fact they both had the confidence to take risks. Plus the markets they were working in when they started out 50 years ago provided opportunities that may be harder to find today.

I run my own company. I employ 6 others. I pay myself a third of that and have a huge appreciation on a far smaller scale of what some of these people can be responsible for and the hours they work and potential legal implications of the work they are undertaking.

My job, even in my tiny little company, is bringing in business (every situation has the potential to turn into a new client), problem solving at all levels, in house and client/customer facing. Budgeting, setting targets, assessing expenditure and implementing cost savings, setting client charges (and rolling out any increases as needed), staff management, time management, problem solving at all levels with highly complex legal situations that require calm expertise and, if I get it wrong can leave my company inoperable, me imprisoned and never able to work in my sector again. Legal paperwork, compliance not only with the work we do but also in house processes and procedures (HR, health and safety, etc.). Staff training and roll out of new legislation and rebuilding processes for staff to meet/implement this. Supporting staff and clients and customers in highly charged situations. Accounting the company and clients money. Oh and washing up, washing out the bins, repairing toilet seats… Not much I don’t get involved in when necessary, despite having a brilliant and highly capable team.

As such, I dread to think what some of these people
in big business have riding on their shoulders, because they have all of the above 10 fold. I find it hard to switch off, they must work 24/7! When I look at it like this I think I must be mental… but I still bloody love what I do, I get to do it on my own terms and we are award winning in our delivery.

I would add that “holidays” are not as some people would recognise. I’ve been C Suite since my late 20s. So whilst I have had many nice holidays, I haven’t ever had a decent holiday where I haven’t worked. It’s a bit easier now I’m more senior, but I still watch the email and review the files, at least twice a day, every day. “Off” isn’t a thing and the threads on here where people insist that they leave “work at home”? Not a thing, for me. And actually not for any of the really senior people I know.
I also didn’t “know” anyone to kick start my career or have any kind of “class based” education. Basic shitty comp for me, with absent parents, a part time job cleaning toilets and another as a waitress. I actually enjoyed both those jobs. They taught me a lot.

I don't earn any way near that being a charity, but I am the boss. Typical week will see multiple meetings with senior team and some of the staff, meetings with stakeholders and funders. I assist with a couple of fundraising applications a month, finance checks/oversight, and future planning. A few minor HR issues a month. Renewing policies. Lots and lots of decisions, some of which are clearly huge for people such as who to employ and sadly at times who to make redundant - and I do all the latter in person. I also snatch a few hours to dream some dreams or speak to our board about future ideas and direction. Plus travelling to see my team and protects from Northern Scotland to Devon, Cardiff to Norwich, plus London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast for a few government meetings / national advisory groups through the year.
And I drink coffee. Lots of coffee.

Our CEO earns around $8 million.
Seems to spend a lot of time meeting with investors.

I sometimes idly check the calendars of the higher ups in my company (FTSE 250 listed). Their days seem to mainly consist of catchup with each other and strategy sessions.

The previous CEO got booted out on his ear when the profitability of the company took a downturn and his predecessor who everyone loved made an unexpected return from his retirement (which we always suspected was enforced by his successor who was the world's dullest man).

They said they'd have an event to celebrate his achievements "in due course". Needless to say we're still waiting. I don't think he cries himself to sleep as he was on £500k a year and probably got a massive severance payment.

Lots of ‘strategy’ and being the public face of the company. Not anything that warrants $8m in salary & shares & bonuses.
CEO got $2m extra last year for hitting cost savings targets making company look more profitable. We made 100s and 100s redundant.
Oh and cancelled pay rises. So now the rest of us are working for less ( cost of living) but doing more because we have less team members.
but at least the 70 year old white guy at the helm is hitting his KPIs and getting that performance related pay.

To be frank, that sounds like a bloody awful way to spend your life. What a waste.

Why? What's the point in that high level salary if you don't actually get any time to enjoy it?

Sit round and count my money

I earn more than that and honestly no day or week is the same. One week I may have to go to the other side of the world and pull 14h work days in travel, meetings and wining and dining. Other days I am at home, have no meetings, and have a nap after lunch and play candy crush a bit too much. What I bring to my company is experience, expertise in a particular area and being on call when I am needed.

5bn. I don't believe it. Is this some kind of massive global racket cum scanm?

No wonder you are worrief