Jump to content

OT : Work for less pay, but happier? Please share your story


zzzxtreme

Recommended Posts

  • Members

hi guys, I'm pretty unhappy with my current work, good pay, able to have luxuries in life.

 

Been offered a job with big pay cut, a job I "could" like, still enough to pay bills and basic food. Thinking hard about it

 

Have any of you been in the same position? Would really love to hear your experience(s) and advice.

 

:cry:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I used to make 100% of my income from music, for over 25 years. But now, in regional markets, music is free now. ASCAP does not survey these small markets, so there are no royalties. Cable TV has been so incredibly diluted that it ( ASCAP) only pays pennies ( and even fractions of pennies) on the same type of performances it used to pay dollars. I have music on 3 TV shows, all of it was for free, and the back-end residuals for all 3 combined is less than 2K per year. Thanks a lot Napster. ASCAP ( the largest of the collection agencies) used to care about its members, they dont anymore. They only focus on the interests of major acts now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I worked for a major communications company with a worldwide presence as an engineer. I traveled Europe about 6 months out of the year and made a really, really good salary. Every 2 weeks they were laying off people which meant every 2 weeks you'd hear crying and see people running down the halls hysterically... EVERY OTHER FRIDAY. No two week notice. A little visit to the office from your boss, they deliver the bad news and stand there while you gather your things. It was the most depressing place I ever worked. I vowed my next job I would get a job I enjoyed, regardless of pay. I now make about 1/3 what I was making 15 years ago but am MUCH happier. I also now have the time to play in a band again (which I had to give up before) and there's a lot less stress at my job.

 

What's more important to you? Being happy or making money? Sometimes, you just can't have it both ways.

 

-Mc

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

You asked for it, and I have a tendency to ramble, so here you go!

 

The short story is that my entire career, starting with choice of college major, has been a trade off between money and job satisfaction.

 

(1) EE major to do math and physics but with higher earning potential versus degrees in math and/or physics.

(2) Dropping the idea of a music major early on since the earning potential was too low and I thought I could pursue it as a hobby.

(3) Dropping the idea of graduate study in patent law or medicine because of lack of interest despite incredible earning gap between Ph.D.'s in EE and patent attorneys and MD's (and the fact that PhD is a higher degree... but I digress).

(4) Dropping the opportunity to get into top-tier math grad schools after my MS in EE (I had some sponsorship from industrial contacts) mostly due to the extended time it would require to finish a Ph.D. (and honestly fear). In hind sight this contributed significantly to throwing my chances for an academic position out the window.

(5) After my postdoc in applied math (see - a Ph.D. in EE doing a postdoc in applied math?) I went for the money with an industrial job offer instead of toughing it out and trying to get a second postdoc, build more academic credibility, and go tenure track.

(6) Never attempting to go back to academia once in industry (20 years later now...).

 

Here is a big one:

 

(7) Trading off job satisfaction to do the research I enjoy in my industrial job rather than going for a program manager or technical manager job. I am at a point in my career now at this company where it is extremely difficult to get another promotion without doing this.

 

(8) Staying here in this job rather than taking the monetary hit of moving and losing significant pension dollars.

 

Finally, the biggest of them all:

 

(9) HAVING AND PROVIDING FOR A FAMILY. The responsibility is extremely heavy and overshadows everything. My number one job concern is providing for my children in terms of money, love and support, and stability. This prevents me from pursuing alternate career choices including less lucrative ones (e.g. not applying for small college teaching professorships) and less family-friendly (e.g. declining a recent opportunity to interview at Apple R&D Cuppertino). Incidentally wife is a stay-at-home mom by choice for the purpose of doing a good job raising children; she could live perfectly well on her own without my earnings (sans children). We, and especially she, made the conscious decision to have less money so that our children would have a stay-at-home mom. She takes her job as a stay-at-home mom extremely seriously and works her ass off to the point where the intensity of her work amazes me sometimes. We are a team.

 

It is the "provide for my family" thing that makes me sometimes regret not going to medical school. There are ways to be a family guy and a physician. I know a guy who was hired into our company straight out of medical school as one of our company medical doctors. It is pretty much an 8-5 job with some occasional travel for occupational medicine related things to the various plants. He was hired at an executive pay grade... one that I will never reach during my entire career. Also one of my uncles (now dead) was an occupational doctor for General Foods... I never thought to ask him about it when I was doing the career search.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

If I was less experienced i'd say take happy over more pay every time.

 

Sadly situations can change and happy can turn to {censored} at pretty short notice... so I'd say cut a balance in favour of pay if possible.

 

My last job went from the best job I ever had to hands down the worst with one staff change... it is that easy.

 

Hapiness is not in your contract... it can evaporate anytime.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I've never made much money. I bummed around part-time music, part-time camp counsellor and maintenance and sometimes going to school into my late thirties.

 

Married 17 years ago to a teacher. I'm the stay-at-home, so no great income for that but.... we live in Gananoque where the cost of housing is about a third of what it is in the city.

 

I'm there for the kids and wife (not always zealous or appreciated but that's an aside) and have time to really dig into music, which is "what I do."

 

If my wife ever dumps me, I'm in trouble, but as long as we stay together, everything is loverly.

 

I had a serious bout of pneumonia a few years ago and, having come out of that alive, I've determined to become the best musician I can become up to the point where I start getting worse.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

i quit my job to go to a job that pays more lol

 

it sucks about 3x as much as my previous job but pays 3x as much. there is also a lot of downtime

 

to maintain the same standard of living i only have to work 1/3 as much altho these things tend to grow to meet whatever personal budget growth lol

 

anyways my time off is the most valuable thing to me for music and study. these are things i'm not getting paid to do generally but if i don't have to work as much i have more time to focus on them.

 

i do get a little jealous when i see people who do full time graphic design, animation, mixing, ice cream tasting, [insert cool job] but realize there are pay and time trade offs for everything.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

This is a tough one....I've had experience of having a job where I was taking home $1200 a week (as an LPN here in CT) however the only way I was able to do that was work an average3 of 55.4 hours a week, all nights and weekends, with crazy hours of 18 hour shifts, working all nights and weekends...the thing is I wasmaking mad money but I absoltely HATED it, and the hours really {censored}ed me up, mentally and physically, I hadno life whatsoever....sure I was able to drop 10G's cash on a brand new Hayabusa in '06, but only averaged 900 MILES A YEAR for the 2 years I had it, which for you guys that ride know is absolutely nothing...

 

The thing is even tho9ugh I had a ton of jing in the bank I had no life whatsoever, not to mention that I absolutely hated my job and was beyond miserable...looking back I really gotta say that life is short, you only go around once, I'd say I would've been much much MUCH happier making less money but woerking normal hours at a job I actually liked, and that's what really matters....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

More money isn't really more money if you're working more hours IMO. I have two young kids and I'm a cancer survivor...life's short and there (should) be more to it than work (iMO).

 

For me work environment is pretty important. I know my dad and old-schoolers would probably whack me in the head for worrying about it so much, but they've moved us (IT dept) to an "open collaborative" environment. To me it means loud and distracting and I freaking hate it; unfortunately this is the a big trend. Point is, it sucks to dread a huge portion of your day/week/life, better to cut down on expenses and do your best to enjoy that time. There's lots to consider of course: which company is more stable, how are they with appointments/errands, benefits etc....I quit a job mostly because of the draconian time-management software we had to spend an hour each day filling out...yuck.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

I've never made much money. I bummed around part-time music, part-time camp counsellor and maintenance and sometimes going to school into my late thirties.


Married 17 years ago to a teacher. I'm the stay-at-home, so no great income for that but.... we live in Gananoque where the cost of housing is about a third of what it is in the city.


I'm there for the kids and wife (not always zealous or appreciated but that's an aside) and have time to really dig into music, which is "what I do."


If my wife ever dumps me, I'm in trouble, but as long as we stay together, everything is loverly.


I had a serious bout of pneumonia a few years ago and, having come out of that alive, I've determined to become the best musician I can become up to the point where I start getting worse.

 

 

 

Replace 17 years with 18 years, Teacher with Financial Aid Worker and I'm in about the exact same boat. Never had pneumonia, either.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Go for happiness. Luxury is a distraction. How many hours of happiness do you get from your luxuries compared to the many hundreds of hours of misery you endure at a crappy job?

 

For the past 15 years I've only taken jobs if they contributed towards my ideal of a happy life. I've taken huge pay cuts at times. It's mostly worked out well. Unfortunately, for the past few years I've been working more hours per year than I like, but I really enjoy my job and get a lot out of it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

First of all, great thread. Reading your stories have really reaffirmed what I have just started to experience in my own life.

 

About two years ago, I worked for a company as a media developer with a good salary but working somewhere between 60 to 80 hours a week. Although I enjoyed what I was doing and there were some perks like traveling and working from home, I was exhausted. I owned a home and all the luxuries I could want but I wasn't happy. Around this time, I met a lovely girl who would eventually become my wife... and that was the pivotal moment that made me decide to really make a change. A HUGE change.

 

I moved from Colorado to Barcelona with the comfort of knowing that my wife and I would be there for each other, but with no financial certainty. I moved to Spain with enough savings to last me through the first year and that was it. I can not work here legally so all of my income has to be through U.S. clients. And it's taken me about two years to get to a point where I am financially stable but working for myself has proved to be one of the hardest and most rewarding things I have ever done. I dont make nearly the amount of money I used to make, but I also don't have anywhere near the amount of expenses I used to. My wife and I live very modestly but we are extremely happy.

 

So to reiterate what most everyone else has said, if you need help making a decision, make sure in the end it leads to happiness. Jobs and money come and go but they're no substitute for comfort in knowing you are truly happy. Sometimes that means taking a pay cut, or traveling across the world, or switching careers... or just making more time for the really important things. What ever it is, don't be afraid to make that decision.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Been offered a job with big pay cut, a job I "could" like, still enough to pay bills and basic food. Thinking hard about it


:cry:

 

Don't hesitate. Every person has different priorities - for some, it's money and material first, for others it's different. Did the same about 15 years ago : couldn't be happy anymore (supposing I ever was in the first place) in a big company after ten years. After I stopped working there, I took one year off to breathe.

 

Then a self-employed opportunity happened and since then I continue. I do less money, but I have much more time. I don't feel dead tired of stress anymore either. So again, it's a matter of priorities. Personally, I am much happier now despite lower income.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

For me, the best path was to run my own business, which I've done for about 20 years now. I had worked in corporate and bureaucratic environments before, and positively hated it. Everybody seemed envious of each other, overly concerned with other people's business, and constantly worried about losing their jobs. Just a living hell.

 

Working for oneself isn't for everybody. It's especially challenging to operate in a large commercial location, which I do.

 

You live and survive by your wits. The trade-off is that YOU are your own manager. There is nobody standing over you making sure you're doing this or that. You have to be self-motivating. But at least you don't live in fear of being fired because of corporate restructuring or "downsizing" to increase profits or dividends for somebody else.

 

It's also a challenge, if usually a fun one. Every day at work is an experiment in ingenuity, trying to find new ways to do it better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

thanks all for your advice and encouragement.

 

I'm single, my only commitment is few hundred bucks monthly for my family, cheap car and cheap motorbike, and the usual phone bills and such. It's just enough, but ain't too bad, just no more posting in New Gear Threads like I have been these past few months.

 

zoink's idea of doing own business is good one, but not while I have commitments. Maybe in the future

 

I'm gonna get my employment offer letter tomorrow morning, will have few days to think about it. but I'm 99% sure, because I feel suffocated in my current job. Having to bring along a laptop everywhere I go, even during vacations. 24/7 standby

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I'm coming at this from a slightly different position, but feel I completely understand the position you're asking from.

 

Back in 2004, my wife and I started a manufacturer's representative company in the musical instrument industry. I mostly enjoyed the jobs I'd been fortunate enough to have over the years (cruise ship musician, U.S. Army band, working in a music store, GCPro, etc), but frankly, I was at a point that I didn't want to work for anyone again.

 

Granted, it was ridiculously hard - it's still not exactly easy - but we've made it to the point that we are financially stable, and I love :love: the fact that I get to work with companies that build products that I geek out over, and still get to play with on a fairly consistent basis. We're certainly blessed to do what we do in an economy that has not been friendly to any industry. Best of both worlds, I suppose!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Almost exactly Ten years ago I had another life. I was a "Materials Director" earning great money, working my ass off daily from 7am to... who knows? tons of stress... three visits to the ER with a cardiac arrest and two brutal episodes of gastritis which felt like another cardiac episode... and I was only 30.

 

Back then, I had abandoned the life of a semi-pro musician and studio owner to be the "Industrial Engineer" I studied for... was a magazine reader and a dreamer... I wrote freelance for Keyboard Mag and started my Spanish forum in my "free time" which was... well, instead of sleeping.

 

 

... until I had the chance to getting this job at M-AUDIO. And I would be making A THIRD of what I was earning monthly. I did not care. I needed that change in my life. This new life was also a cause of divorce, which was an added bonus.

 

After 10 years, I am still doing basically the same job, with a new company but the same wonderful brand and now with other 8 great lines of products. And of course, as of today, my salary can be compared to what I was making 10 years ago with that {censored}ty job and life style. I can't complaint.

 

I'd say, GO FOR HAPPINESS. Try to make a decent income out of it and/or compensate with something you also like and can give you some extra money, like playing small gigs, teaching, recording other people, etc.

 

It's your life. It's worth the effort.

:wave:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...