Downsizing your career?

Admiral Huddy

Admiral Huddy

Admiral Huddy

Man of Honour
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Maybe an odd or misleading title, but quite simple, would you give up a job for much less pay (say around half) if the job you were doing had no work? Consider also pension and possibly a redundancy package.

I’ve been in a job now where we’ve not had any project work for years and the only ones we have had is to centralise software back to head office in Germany. So the work gets less and less. Basically, it sounds like an ideal job, getting paid for just sitting around but it gets to you eventually. It’s quite soul destroying.

On the other side, given the job market and my age, I think I could be a lot worse off. I watched a program last week where this chap, who was once management, found himself supporting his family using the food bank because the benefit system failed him. I’m not sure I’d let that happen to be honest. I’d find something to do self employed from the offset.

Is the grass always greener and is money really worth more than your sanity?
 
No, I'd rather destroy my soul and support my family with a better lifestyle than reduce my pay by 50% and make cuts to how we live.
 
Really depends what type of person you are. We've had the odd quiet week at work and seeing how different people manage it is quite interesting. Personally I can amuse myself easily enough, but if the lack of work was extending from weeks into months Id be looking elsewhere just for job security if nothing else.

Id certainly chose to work for full whack than do nothing for half though, every single time.
 
I think I'd be more inclined to go with whichever I felt had better long-term prospects. That being said I have no dependents, am rather young and am more focused on gaining experience rather than assets in the short-to-medium term.

Of course, if you find that you're not having much work to do often, that could be indicative of diminishing future prospects in your current job - i.e. redundancy on the horizon. Is it better to jump or be pushed?
 
Boredom is good, trust me!!
I worked in a lab for 16 years the work was routine at best, the highlight of my day was cycling to work and back.
I got so 'bored' with it I retrained as an electrician and soon made it to a management role.
I went from a boring job to an extremely stressful one, I lost all my hobbies, started drinking more and had less time and patience for my family, before I finally quit 7 years later.
Trust me, boring is good, fulfill your life with hobbies and interests instead and enjoy being paid for a job you can do whilst half asleep.
 
Sounds like you have a great job, getting paid lots for doing nothing. I wouldn't want to change that. You'd probably just be substituting lack of work for too much work/stress. I know which I'd choose.
 
Theophany said:
Is it better to jump or be pushed?
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Precisely by dilemma

The problem I have I'm in a very niche market place which paid well but is now almost dead. There are legacy systems which I support and these are gradually being replaced with off the shelf products.

Being pushed would certainly be beneficial providing the company pay well for service but for me, a new job would be complete career change.

Jumping would mean I'm more likely to have some say in what I do.

grimm said:
Sounds like you have a great job, getting paid lots for doing nothing. I wouldn't want to change that. You'd probably just be substituting lack of work for too much work/stress. I know which I'd choose.
Click to expand...

It does sound ideal but after 3 to 4 years. it kinds of make you feel worthless and pointless to an extent..
 
Admiral Huddy said:
I’ve been in a job now where we’ve not had any project work for years and the only ones we have had is to centralise software back to head office in Germany. So the work gets less and less. Basically, it sounds like an ideal job, getting paid for just sitting around but it gets to you eventually. It’s quite soul destroying.
Click to expand...

Tell me about it. Trying to get out of this place because of this.

For me, it's infectious and the lazy feeling ends up spreading to the rest of my life.
 
I'm considering doing it at the moment, so I agree it's certainly daunting. I tried a few years ago: quit, started a post-graduate degree and started getting work experience in a new field, only to be sucked back into my former industry.

Don't want to make the same mistake twice, but thanks that something a bit more interesting and mentally stimulating will probably lead to initial job satisfaction - plus I always believe that you can carve out a decent (paying) career for yourself if you're enthusiastic, professional and interested in a certain field.
 
Zefan said:
Tell me about it. Trying to get out of this place because of this.

For me, it's infectious and the lazy feeling ends up spreading to the rest of my life.
Click to expand...

Stop feeling sorry for yourself, and go to college, join a club, take up a sport, buy a musical instrument.

Sheesh, life must be terrible.
 
Been there before.. not again, thanks. If I ever find my self with nothing to do at work, it is time spent looking for another job. :)
 
I agree that boring can be good. These days I do a lot of hours and would love more time to spend on my hobbies. Thing is I'm too used to the status quo now. Oh and I drink too much in the name of "unwinding".
 
Admiral Huddy said:
Precisely by dilemma

The problem I have I'm in a very niche market place which paid well but is now almost dead. There are legacy systems which I support and these are gradually being replaced with off the shelf products.

Being pushed would certainly be beneficial providing the company pay well for service but for me, a new job would be complete career change.

Jumping would mean I'm more likely to have some say in what I do.
Click to expand...

Is it possible to prepare yourself for a step-change in career whilst you wind down at work? Would you be able to use your time at work to educate yourself on a new field of employment - the ideal endgame being if you are eventually pushed (and I assume that will include a nice cheque for you) you can almost hit the ground running and have a financial cushion to tide you over if you stumble.

Obviously that plan has a lot of depending factors that may not come together, but I would have thought that if it is at all possible to prepare for your next career step whilst still getting paid to do what you do now it is the optimal solution.
 
I went from a job that was the most boring time of my life. In a datacenter handing out rack keys to engineers.

My day was filled up with handing out the odd key, watching TV and sleeping, 12 hour shifts as well so you can alrdy see the pcture here.

The money wasn't great either but I stayed there 2 years before going out of my mind.

I had to move out of my comfort zone as I was losing touch with IT and things move so fast these days I lost 2 years of new products and releases.

Moved into a project / design role that is still out of my depth but hey i'm no longer in my comfort zone and the money is better.

If they paid me more in the datacenter I would have stayed as sleeping under the desk seems a much better situation if the money was there :)
 
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