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 don't think its one model though. What works for one person will not work or be healthy for another.

I[d define healthy as being able to take time off when sick and being able to relax outside working hours and on holiday. People fought and died for reasonable limits to the working week. It is also better for businesses not to have highly pressured people as single points of failure.

At exec level you get paid the big bucks for assuming risk, not for working long hours. You're accountable for a huge budget or of health and safety for lots of people or for legal compliance etc.

Managing people, projects.

That's possibly why you wouldn't do well in the jobs we are talking about. I am not being insulting, I couldn't do it either.

I wouldn't apply for a job that required me to ruin my health.

no neither would I and my late husband didn't either.

You seem to be proving many posters’ point. You (and most people) would not be willing nor could do these jobs, which is why they have to be so well remunerated.

They’re not worth it to you, but they ARE worth it to some people. We’re all different, including how much we are money motivated. Some people think “I’ll just myself through 5-10 years at the top then I can make enough money to retire early” while others prioritise health and work life balance in the present and don’t mind working more years. Where I work it’s common for people to retire around 50. You could say that cutting your working years by 15 or so years and amassing enough wealth to afford the best healthcare is taking care of yourself. Just as choosing to work 35 hours a week instead of 60 hours but over a longer period of time is. There’s no one right way to do life.

If you earn big bucks in the public sector and you're relatively chilled and relaxed, maybe the taxpayer is losing out.

I make a fair bit more than your benchmark. I work long hours but don't fool myself that I work harder than many people on more average wages. I get so much largely because of the impact of my work: basically I help my clients to make a lot more money in their businesses. I'm paid on that basis. If I was less competent/strategic/lucky I'd earn less. The work itself is largely about decision making, and guiding others to make those decisions that matter to their business strategy (strategy is essentially just decision making).

In view of the number of decision-related questions asked every day on MN, it seems fairly obvious that people in general can be hesitant about making decisions and choices for fear of getting it wrong.

That's a fairly meaningless question TBH. The activities that someone performs depend on what sector they're in and how far up the ladder they need to be in that sector to be earning that money. There are a some senior doctors earning that much in the NHS, there are mid-level analysts earning that in the City, and there are business owners in all sorts of businesses across the UK earning that, and they're all doing different things.

Unfortunately, they rarely mention that in the advert it only becomes apparent years later like a boiled frog. You’re too far in by then.

Whilst I do mix in these circles - a few partners in law and accounting firms, senior medical consultants, management consultants. No one talks about their jobs, it would almost be more polite to talk about money!!!! It's not a topic for company.

Sure, public sector, government funding. You are either not being paid Big Bucks (except in your eyes) or you are exploiting the taxpayer.

Sounds like a cushy number.

So have a strategic plan for the next project. Talk to the people who will execute it. Oversee it. Have meetings with outside partners (could be clients, could be people who have to approve said project).
I would say a division between meetings, "deep work", reading/planning/thinking/writing, a small chunk of boring admin (the higher you go, the more you have people for this).

You would also not have one project on the go but 7 or 8 at the same time so all the work for that project multiplied by X number. There are endless decisions to make and a lot of pressure because if things fail your head might be on the line.

There is also plenty of travel- this month alone to Europe and North America. In January to Europe. February to Australia. March to Europe and Asia. April to North America. It's a global role so comes with global travel. That also then means having at one's fingertips all this country specific information.

Yes, public sector, government funding, outside the UK. You may have missed the last bit.

I earn the sum quoted in the OP. I am not exploiting the taxpayer, I work hard during my legally allotted hours. I do not let work bleed into my private time. Chances are that by leading a relatively healthy, stress-free life and protecting my wellbeing and mental health I am saving the taxpayer money in the long run, as stress-related diseases are a massive burden on the economy.