More pay or less hrs? what would motivate you more?

Hagar said:
I worked until I was 65, retiring with a comfortable pension and savings. In my view 55 is too soon unless you have plans and resources to fill all that time. Work is also a social project meeting new people.if you live to 85, you have been retired nearly as long as you were a productive worker in your job.
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my grandad retired at 52 with a golden handshake pension from ICI. he passed away at...... 92-94ish a few years back
he had the most amazing life the likes most of us will be unlikely to get to do, spending more of his life retired than working. he didn't get bored either. during his retirement he built 2 houses (getting family muck in) stripped and rebuilt some cars went on a lot of holidays and after my grandma.passed got in with one of the professor's at Bangor uni marine biology and tagged along on the field trips.
if I was to be critical his generation arguably buggered it up for us lot.... but its not his fault. if I do half the stuff he did I will consider my life a success.
 
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bigmike20vt said:
my grandad retired at 52 with a golden handshake pension from ICI. he passed away at...... 92-94ish a few years back
he had the most amazing life the likes most of us will be unlikely to get to do, spending more of his life retired than working. he didn't get bored either. during his retirement he built 2 houses (getting family muck in) stripped and rebuilt some cars went on a lot of holidays and after my grandma.passed got in with one of the professor's at Bangor uni marine biology and tagged along on the field trips.
if I was to be critical his generation arguably buggered it up for us lot.... but its not his fault. if I do half the stuff he did I will consider my life a success.
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ICI as in the chemical company? I still have the Captain Colour t-shirt somewhere from them LOL.
 
chrcoluk said:
Providing the pay was already enough for my needs, deffo less hours.

I wish the UK moved to a 4 day week, 3 days off every week.
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It's annoying, we are so rigid when it comes to this.
Job I found is the only one I've ever seen in all my life in engineering where it's not mon-fri for shop floor staff, up in South Yorkshire anyway.
 
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Captain said:
I did both in 2022.

Dropped to a 30 hour week (8-4 Mon-Thursday) but negotiated for more money.
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This is my shift exactly since my hours were reduced, still have 2 tea breaks and lunch, the last break is 3pm so the day is virtually done by then
 
I got so sick of sitting in traffic after leaving work at 5pm, that I offered to take a £1K pay cut so I could leave at 16:30 instead.
Now I get home in 15-20 minutes rather than an hour, and am a lot less stressed.
Luckily I have a great boss who turned down the request of a pay cut, so win win :D
 
JonRGV250 said:
I got so sick of sitting in traffic after leaving work at 5pm, that I offered to take a £1K pay cut so I could leave at 16:30 instead.
Now I get home in 15-20 minutes rather than an hour, and am a lot less stressed.
Luckily I have a great boss who turned down the request of a pay cut, so win win :D
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Tbf you could get a job quite easily in your trade, I’d imagine you could dictate term to a small degree too.
 
When i worked for Mars near Leeds i had 5 day weekends so commuted to Cornwall for a while ,weird shift though 3 days then 2 nights then 5 off followed by 2 days 2 nights then 4 off and repeat
 
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bigmike20vt said:
my grandad retired at 52 with a golden handshake pension from ICI. he passed away at...... 92-94ish a few years back
he had the most amazing life the likes most of us will be unlikely to get to do, spending more of his life retired than working. he didn't get bored either. during his retirement he built 2 houses (getting family muck in) stripped and rebuilt some cars went on a lot of holidays and after my grandma.passed got in with one of the professor's at Bangor uni marine biology and tagged along on the field trips.
if I was to be critical his generation arguably buggered it up for us lot.... but its not his fault. if I do half the stuff he did I will consider my life a success.
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My Grandad retired around the same time and lived to 93. ICL/Fujitsu, Army and State pension but still worked till 78. People get depressed about their job but to some it is a way of life so they do not consider it work.

Like you say I would be happy if I did half of what he managed to achieve but he wasn't a boomer either but Greatest generation so deserved everything he got.
 
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Most of my working life was shift work, 4 12 hour night shifts a week Mon-Thurs, with endless overtime if you wanted it. Pretty decent work/life balance tbh.
Then the last semi retirement job, 3 days a week, Mon-Weds- Saturday. That was quite nice too. Time goes very quickly, and seems to go faster as you get older, so I would always go the work hard/save money route when young, then knock it all on the head asap and enjoy life. It doesn't last long.
 
I'd take a 4 day week if my salary didn't drop too much, I can probably do reasonably well with around £200-250 per month less than my current wage if I stay sensible with my finances.
Really I wouldn't mind doing the same hours in less days either, throwing an extra 1.5 - 2 hours into 4 working days would be totally fine by me.

My workplace has just begun the early stages of reviewing working hours and the possibility of implementing a 4 day week without a salary hit, so fingers crossed I won't have to make any sacrifices or change anything if that moves forward as planned.
 
Decided to get a cleaner as it takes a good morning a week to get everything done. With 4 days a week this wouldn't be necessary.

Currently house gets quite messy in the summer as I'm out a lot and just don't want to do it
 
413x said:
Decided to get a cleaner as it takes a good morning a week to get everything done. With 4 days a week this wouldn't be necessary.

Currently house gets quite messy in the summer as I'm out a lot and just don't want to do it
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Both my daughter's have done this,.my eldest in Faringdon Oxfordshire only pays £15 and it's quite a deep clean apparently
 
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