Pay cut

[GallowayBlue]

Considering taking quite a hefty pay cut (~40%) from a job I don’t enjoy to embark on a new career path.

Obviously I’d be starting at the bottom again but longer term I might be able to work my way back up to a similar level.

Is that ridiculous?

Have you ever taken a pay cut? Would you take a pay cut? Any horror stories that should serve as a warning to me?

[Jacksgranda]

40% seems quite substantial. 40% of what? Could you meet your present committments on the remaining 60%.? What age are you? How long would it take you to get back to your present salary level? 

Edited January 21, 2022 by Jacksgranda
Typo

[beefybake]

Long ago, I took a pay cut of similar percentage.

I was driving buses in Glasgow.  With some overtime, I was earning about £3000 a year.  

After university, I didn't have a clue what I wanted to do.

I still had rent to pay, so got a job as a bus conductor. After about 6 weeks, they asked me if I wanted to train as a driver.

Yes, I did.  So the first 6 months were training, learning the routes, then enjoying the driving. The next 6 months were driving on autopilot, getting more

bored , and stressed out with heavy urban traffic, and the knowledge that there was nothing more to learn in the job.

The last 6 months were me just keeping going, while I looked for a way out, or something else.

In the end, I saw a newspaper ad to train as a programmer with the MOD, got in, and moved away.

 

Went from that £3000 to a starting salary of £1600.   A 9 to 5 office, no more long, or split shifts, and now learning new stuff....., finally began to feel I had a life.

One of the best work decisions I ever made.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

18 minutes ago, Jacksgranda said:

40% seems quite substantial. 40% of what? Could you meet your present committments on the remaining 60%.? What age are you? How long would it take you to get back to your present salary level? 

Awrite Hyacinth Bucket.

[welshbairn]

1 hour ago, GallowayBlue said:

Considering taking quite a hefty pay cut (~40%) from a job I don’t enjoy to embark on a new career path.

Obviously I’d be starting at the bottom again but longer term I might be able to work my way back up to a similar level.

Is that ridiculous?

Have you ever taken a pay cut? Would you take a pay cut? Any horror stories that should serve as a warning to me?

 

[alta-pete]

I once moved job for a massive pay rise. Biggest mistake ever. If you’re miserable at your work it’ll leak into the rest of your life. 

Money doesn’t solve much. It just gives you a nicer place to sit and have the same problems.

If you can cope financially and it’s what you want to do, do it. If it turns out shite you can always go back to the money. 

[19QOS19]

40% seems quite substantial. 40% of what?

Of 100%, I'd wager.

[Rugster]

1 hour ago, GallowayBlue said:

Considering taking quite a hefty pay cut (~40%) from a job I don’t enjoy to embark on a new career path.

Obviously I’d be starting at the bottom again but longer term I might be able to work my way back up to a similar level.

Is that ridiculous?

Have you ever taken a pay cut? Would you take a pay cut? Any horror stories that should serve as a warning to me?

No it’s not ridiculous. I took something like a 25% pay cut and dropped a shit load of benefits including a company car to change jobs away from one that was seriously impacting on my personal life, and as a result my mental health. Yes it wasn’t great to go from a decent and funded car to a Corsa and cut down on lot of luxuries but it probably saved my marriage and my sanity. And as a bonus 8 years on I’m now earning exactly double what I was when I started and there’s little stress compared to my old job. That’s not to bum me up, just show it can work out mid to long term. 
 

if anyone is unhappy, seriously unhappy in their job, I would advise them to change it when possible as soon as they can. You work to live, don’t live to work. Your happiness and mental health is much more important than status and money. 
 

Good luck.  
 

 

[Hedgecutter]

Fun fact: Bhutan uses Gross National Happiness index as their indicator for GDP to measure its progress/development as a country.

Money isn't everything.

[topcat(The most tip top)]

Money can’t buy you happiness

But you can get a better class of misery

[Michael W]

1 hour ago, GallowayBlue said:

Considering taking quite a hefty pay cut (~40%) from a job I don’t enjoy to embark on a new career path.

Obviously I’d be starting at the bottom again but longer term I might be able to work my way back up to a similar level.

Is that ridiculous?

Have you ever taken a pay cut? Would you take a pay cut? Any horror stories that should serve as a warning to me?

Can you afford the drop in earnings and will the new job make you happier and enhance your quality of life? If yes, do it. 

Qualifier: I have never taken a pay cut. But I can say that leaving a job that you are not enjoying is something you are unlikely to regret. We do always like to think we work to live, but a large part of our week is spent at work. If that's dragging you down it can start dragging down the rest of your life as well. 

[Peedzy]

In 2004 I took a pay cut from £40,000 from an engineering job I hated ,to a £17,000 related job while finishing a different degree part-time evenings. 

Started on £32,000 3 years later and have loved my new career ever since. Was tough for those 3 years (kids in Primary) but worth it in the end.

[Bairnardo]

I dropped down to about half a couple of years back, in order to improve my work life balance immeasurably. Some other stuff that happened then sort of mitigated the money drop for me tbh so I have to qualify this a wee bit, but being happy is obviously hugely important. If one job allows that more than another....

[weirdcal]

f**k it, I doubled my salary to be a specialist on UK based shite overseas. 

At the moment I am apparently in a never ending war with one of the biggest financial advisors in the Uk with how absolutely useless and thick their staff are

[Fullerene]

2 hours ago, GallowayBlue said:

Obviously I’d be starting at the bottom again but longer term I might be able to work my way back up to a similar level.

Why do you knock yourself down like that?  You have work experience - even if it completely unrelated to what you will be going to.  You understand the concept of work.  You are not starting at the bottom.

I read the biography of Duncan Bannatyne.  At one stage, he sold ice cream.  Then he gave that up and did care homes instead.  Then he switched to gyms.  Totally unrelated businesses.  I know plenty of people who have changed professions - because they could.   Nothing to do with failure or starting again.  Just a more complex story than others.

I know one person who was a dentist but gave it up to be an artist instead - he struggled financially but loved every minute of it.

On the other hand, I have heard horror stories of people who have hated their jobs always.  

 

[Hedgecutter]

Another factor is how much you intend on putting money into a private pension.  If one was to take a pay cut and put little in, then you could potentially have a miserable time for the length of your retirement, which could be upwards of 20 years.  That or being forced to work to an even later age, probably in B&Q or somewhere equally as unexciting.

Edited January 21, 2022 by Hedgecutter

[ICTChris]

I gave up my life as a high flying corporate lawyer to pursue my dream of earning a living building dry stone walls bare handed in the Scottish highlands.

It is terrible, my hands are so sore, my family are starving, please send money.

[101]

4 hours ago, GallowayBlue said:

Considering taking quite a hefty pay cut (~40%) from a job I don’t enjoy to embark on a new career path.

Obviously I’d be starting at the bottom again but longer term I might be able to work my way back up to a similar level.

Is that ridiculous?

Have you ever taken a pay cut? Would you take a pay cut? Any horror stories that should serve as a warning to me?

Hiya George, are you considering this or has Russia Today chucked you?

[Leith Green]

13 hours ago, GallowayBlue said:

Considering taking quite a hefty pay cut (~40%) from a job I don’t enjoy to embark on a new career path.

Obviously I’d be starting at the bottom again but longer term I might be able to work my way back up to a similar level.

Is that ridiculous?

Have you ever taken a pay cut? Would you take a pay cut? Any horror stories that should serve as a warning to me?

I did >30 years in financial services. Corporate as f**k but in the latter stages very well paid.

I now run my own business, basically part time I do hours that I want - and earn about 25% of what I did before, but my happiness and feeling of freedom must be up about 200%.

I will happily refuse to work with people who I think are arseholes - its liberating after years of being a corporate whore !!

There were a lot of guys in my old place who thought they were important..............until one day they got the tap on the shoulder and were marched out with a big cheque - lots of them never really recovered as they had convinced themselves they were "indispensable".

I guess what I am saying is - if you have the chance of happiness, it might just be worth taking it.............the company doesnt give a shite about you, and you will almost certainly build back your salary in a new role (especially at the moment where good employees are rarities).

[SlipperyP]

13 hours ago, Jacksgranda said:

40% seems quite substantial. 40% of what? Could you meet your present committments on the remaining 60%.? What age are you? How long would it take you to get back to your present salary level? 

What this old c**t said....He/Me have been through jobs on jobs,  Do your % in the head if not PM @Jacksgranda he can do for you. 

He's a good guy!