Has anyone taken a pay cut for happiness? Not sure this is the right place to post but I feel I could do with some advice. I work in a private-sector complaints handling role that has seen dramatic increases in workload during the pandemic and post-pandemic period. As a ballpark the workload trebled, and my team’s work now poses a significant institutional risk to the company. While additional staff have belatedly been hired I was working above my contracted hours for much of the pandemic (why?!) in an effort to mitigate the impact of covid-19. Psychologically July 2023 might as well be July 2020 insofar as I am largely handling complaints that would not exist but for the covid-19 pandemic. The job has fundamentally changed post-March 2020: increased monitoring, more pressure from above and stresses that are seeping into my personal life outside of work. I feel that I have an increasingly poor working relationships with my line manager and 2x line manager - themselves under pressure from senior management. There has been so much staff turnover that those who hired me and subsequently promoted me have all moved on. I’ve not benefited from the shifting sands. I no longer get the ‘stretch’ activities necessary for promotion, and nobody at management level would be able to tell you about any of my successes in the first four years with the company. ’Siloed’ WFH has hardly helped in this regard. I’m unhappy with my lack of visibility and living out of my spare room.I’ve seen people who were not favourites under the old management have their share price rise whereas mine has most definitely fallen. I’m no longer getting the top projects and feel I’ve become associated with missed deadlines due to an excessive workload. Overall, I feel I’ve played the politics quite badly. I’ve busted a gut for three years and I’ve gone from winning plaudits from my senior management team to having no advocates at all within the organisation. Perhaps I was naïve in failing to realise that my reputation was being wiped with every new staff member appointed above me?
It is very evident that I need to focus on getting a new job both for my career progression and for a better work-life balance. I’m on 38k at the moment and while I accept that some fall in salary would be worthwhile for a better work life balance I am loathe to go for a dramatic drop in salary particularly given the current cost of living crisis. The grade below me is 32k and moving to another team would likely result in a £6,000 pay-cut due to my lack of experience. It is quite a drop. My CV for the past five years is complaint handling/casework so I feel a bit pigeon-holed and any move to a new area would result in a significant drop in salary. Has anyone chosen to drop their salary for work-life balance? There is something empowering about reaching a point where you accept the status quo cannot continue but at the same it is scary as I am still navigating the available opportunities and working out what I could do.