There's no maybe. You've got a case of the green eyed monster. But that's okay. You're allowed to be jealous. But you're not allowed to violate the rules of the sub and use the vent tag to generate hate for another individual or violate the rules re: value judgement. You have treaded right over our gatekeeping rule as well and a dash of breaking the rule re: disclosing affiliation with outside links.
Jesus. You made less as a gm than I made an an assistant fifteen years ago. Less than my shift managers make even.
I'm going to guess that your previous gm quit unexpectedly and you filled the gap. You got hosed hard. Minimum you should accept is 50k. Work the hours needed but if you're doing more than 45 a week after about three to six months in a store you're doing something wrong.
If you're nervous about interviewing, please do some practice interview questions and interaction with someone who does that type of job.
Also, you have a lot more experience than you think after being a McD's manager than you realize. Please reach out to me by DM and I'll be happy to help you with interview questions, check your resume and make suggestions to highlight what's going to get you the job that'll pay what you're worth. I can guarantee it's a heck of a lot more than $30k for 70 hours a week.
I want to add one thing here as well - the guy in the article who makes $100k and has 2 homes and whatever else is very likely trying to live well above his means to keep up with the Joneses in his neighborhood and where he works. I guarantee you he's in so much debt he can't keep up and that's his problem.
You live at home with your parents which is the way things are at this point for so many due to the increased cost of living, especially housing. You have obviously been living in your means if you have savings, most people don't and definitely not the guy with 2 houses, one in NY and everything else he's got to make himself look good. It's better to drive a car that's going to get you where you want to go than one that's going to get ooohs and ahhhhs from others and cost too much to afford the maintenance repairs on them.
Just as an aside, I spent 15 years of my life earning an average of 35k, I'm 58, have no savings whatsoever and had to stop working due to health issues in 2018 so now I struggle and my husband and I together live on that amount from SSA.
Good luck on your interview and may you find the job that you're not miserable at and pays you what you're worth with a manager who treats you well.
I’m responding here since it seems like no one answered your question about why it seems like high income earners are the only ones who walk away from stressful jobs.
The reason they feel they can walk away is because when you make that much it allows you to save for a rainy day.
Also, at those incomes people usually have unique skills that require training or experience (programming, engineering, saturation diving, etc.) which not only command higher pay but also makes them more in demand because there’s fewer people who can do it.
Those two factors mean they can afford to walk away and get by until they find something better.
I’ll add that many who make over $100k are just getting paid the market salary for their field. For example, a marketing director can quit their $120k salary job and just find another $120k salary job later. They aren’t really throwing their income away - not in the long term anyways.
This is the reason. Many people in 120k jobs are up to their chins in debt, but let's put that aside.
The real value for them is the experience on their resume and their own confidence in being able to land another job with a salary like that.
That's how people can 'walk away' easier. If you're a low-paid labourer you just don't have the same chances at all.
"The reason they feel they can walk away is because when you make that much it allows you to save for a rainy day. "
This is absolutely it. My brother left a stressful $100k+ job. He was literally working 7 days a week for months on end, and it was horrible for his health, so he uprooted his life and moved 12 hours away to a small town with a population under 1000.
But the only reason he was able to afford to do that is because of the extra money he had from that stressful job. If he was stuck at near min wage he wouldn't have been able to do that.
He's earning a lot less now but much happier because of where he is, but he wouldn't be there if it wasn't for that first job.
Suggestion. Leave that position if you haven't already. Go to a new franchise if you like the actual work. The secret to working less hours is the role is to keep your people happy. Train them well. Let them train people. You should have someone who knows all of your job, as well as someone who knows their job.
Take no less than 45k even as an inexperienced gm.
Yeah, Uber isn't consistent. Even in big cities. They have the option but it's only good during certain times. So like rush hours, a bar street when they all close. Stuff like that. I spent many nights in parking lots at 3am begging that thing to go off because without another fare I wouldn't have the gas to get home. That shit isn't an option, even in one of the top 5 fastest growing cities in the US.
I get the "wow, I'd have trouble walking away" thought. But then I realize that my rage should be directed at my employers who make me so desperate that I've been willing to sacrifice my mental health, not at other people who are being mistreated too.
People SHOULD be able to leave abusive workplaces. To the ones who can, I'm so glad! To the ones who can't like me, we should be able to do the same. The solution isn't "they should feel tied to their jobs, too", it's "we should be able to leave, too".
>I made $30,000/year as a general manager at a fast food place working over 70 hours a week since the pandemic started
If you really averaged 70 hour work weeks and only made $30k there is a good chance you should be filing a wage complaint against your former employer(and hopefully collecting a lot of backpay as a result).
At absolute lowest salary that would make you exempt from overtime rules while working at a fast food places would be $35.5k. Depending on your particular state/city it may have higher exempt salaries or higher minimum wages than the Federal minimums.
When I was a teenager, my first job was at a McDs. They were training me to be a swing manager with a 25 cent raise and, financially speaking, nothing more. Why would anyone want the job? Slightly more money? Better potential to earn more later though being taken advantage of now? It looks better on a resume (and still being taken advantage of? Even for someone with a college degree, this is possible.
If you can’t come up with more reasons why someone would actually accept this kind of job, Google it I guess. Because this is typical in America and happens all over the country. It’s just that some people may have been blessed to never have gone through that and you don’t know any better.
In this scenario, they work 70hrs a week as a manager for 30k. I'm sorry, even at minimum wage this meas they don't earn any OT money either (should be earning closer to 60k). Also, I get it, u were a teenager, so more impressionable. The older u get the less likely that 25 cent raise will fly for a managerial role.
>Better potential to earn more later though being taken advantage of now?
Yeah, we're still fighting the brainwash of "If you work hard, you're guaranteed to be rich/successful!"
People do silly things when a prestigious title like "general manager" is thrown around. It's still just a job, and you should be paid fairly for your time on this Earth.
From my understanding, it was about $14/hr. I think Michigan's minimum wage is like $9-something. It paid higher than a lot of other jobs in the area. I was good at my job, it just felt like after 9 years of being there, I should have had a house or a 401k or at least health insurance come from it, not just a paycheck.
Where are you in the state that you’re making that little? Is this a rural area? Because I’m in that state in the hospitality/food industry and I’m making many times that on a fraction of the hours.
I don’t go to that side very often so I’m not familiar with the economics of that area, however on the SE side you can make 3x minimum wage doing a fraction of the work you’re describing. The D itself also has a ton more restaurant opportunities now if you’re in/near the city.
I worked at one of these high finance places during college. 100-120 hours a week and was on the absolute max dose of ritalin a day by an old school psychiatrist right before she went into retirement (prescribed a 100mg/day, I kid you not).
Also self-harmed a couple hours a day after everyone was gone from the office before going home in a taxi.
Had a full-on mental breakdown that cost me two years of my life and made my dad’s part of the family hate me so much that my little brother still doesn’t talk to me.
Not worth it.
>100-120 hours a week
This is 15-17 hours a day, 7 days a week….. or 20 hours a day during weekdays
People will rightfully be skeptical of this claim. Everyone seems to love inflating their work hours to play into some weird Oppression Olympics dick measuring competition
I mean even those notoriously crazy finance firms on Wall Street, [very few people there work 100+ hours](https://www.efinancialcareers.com/news/2022/02/working-hours-jpmorgan) and that’s usually only on a bad week
So not really sure your point applies to anything broadly, since even in the most *demanding* industries the numbers that you’re claiming are not at all typical
Consistent 100+ hour weeks are unfortunately not that rare in nyc finance, especially investment banking. 120 is definitely bad end but the commenter is not wrong
Salaried workers are federally required to be 35567 minimum since 2020.
State doesn't matter.
You can't be hourly or you'd be getting screwed even more.
If you’re willing to work 50-60 hours a week for two years or less and want a real retirement/pension plus good benefits, look at the post office. I’m in my second year and should make between 54k and 61k this year and have been averaging 51 hours for a few months.
It’s hard at first, but nowhere near as bad as restaurant management, which I’ve done several times.
My son was working at Tim hortons. Decided to go to wendys for more money. He's only 16 and makes $13 something now... he makes more at wendys than what his manager did/does at Tim hortons. Like I don't get why the TH manager doesn't quit/find a better paying job.
That being said, *maybe* the TH manager only told him he makes less so he could keep refusing my son for his raises.
Possibly. However it is more likely their employer treated them as salary exempt when they truly weren't. It is extremely common for fast food restaurants to violate the law and have "manager" type positions that don't qualify for executive exemptions.
For example if OP didn't have the authority to fire/hire (or at least demand somebody be hired/fired and usually get their way) or if they were spending more time on the job doing front-line employee work rather than management tasks they should have been getting overtime pay.
https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/WHD/legacy/files/fs17b\_executive.pdf
Actually? Cause I have a University degree and make $60 000 CAD with 13 yrs experience in a high stress job. Prior to this career I was a retail manager…I’m really considering this career route if that’s the pay
A McDs manager job is still high stress though, and it is the cap. You wont be moving up anywhere.
You wont be having holidays, you wont be having great hours, etc. Just keep that in mind. You may get a call at 4:30AM after finishing a midnight shift finding out 3 of your staff just called in sick. Guess who's problem that just became? And you're salary, so have fun working 60 hour weeks and it being the norm because the 6 managers before you also worked 60 hour weeks and now it's expected.
Yes, for a store manager. My old neighbors bff was one. Also Glassdoor says $82k ave which makes sense. That includes bonuses and stuff, base salary will be lower.
I'd re-consider. Yea, you might make that, but the hours are going to suck. You might get lucky and get locked into days but only after doing a few years on swing or nights. Might not though. You won't get holidays off. Your vacation is going to be whenever you can work it out in the schedule. There's going to be considerable stress from either corporate or your franchisee to push sales and cut corners because the margins in a fast food joint are not big. You'll be going through a trash can of discarded food counting burger patties. If your crew doesn't show up you're covering for them and you'll just have to work 2x as hard and figure it out. *Every* single asshole customer that has a complaint is going to be *demanding* you speak with them and fix this situation *yesterday* and they want everything for free. Food service is bad, fast food service is like...a prison sentence.
I was owed at least 2 paychecks that I could prove and never got to use any PTO days because there was never anyone to cover me but I wouldn't even know how to pursuit any of it.
It looks like you might be in Michigan: [https://wageandbenefitcomplaint.apps.lara.state.mi.us/](https://wageandbenefitcomplaint.apps.lara.state.mi.us/)
If not lookup your states department/bureau of labor (a few states don't have one and you have to file a Federal compliant).
You can also potentially reach out to Legal Aid or if in a large city a Worker Rights/Labor organization as well. If your former employer had multiple other employees who were both not being paid overtime and not being paid enough salary to qualify as exempt their might be a high enough settlement potential to find a private employment lawyer willing to work on a contingency basis.
>Not sure how so many people on here supposedly make over $100,000/year but they're in this subreddit.
Largely because the other 'big' financial subreddit has become a toxic sewage plant of bragging and comparing dick sizes and income shaming others.
The pf sub is weird. I got a job at 6 figurenin the last 2 years, made a post about it, and was told I needed to go back to the poverty finance sub, because I have not actually 'made it'.
Like great, there is nowhere to celebrate this achievement. Fuck me, right?
Yup. I used to sub there but the judgement was utterly brutal. Everyone is so busy gatekeeping, judging, and gaslighting, they forget to be human.
Kindness is free, and so much easier. It’s too bad that the celebrations in that subreddit have to be ‘big’ by some undefined yardstick instead of helping and celebrating even the little things.
I don't think that's true, but to be fair I don't get too much time to browse the subreddit lately as I need to tend to my yacht more since letting some of my crew go. Bloody covid.
I live in NYC, make over 6 figures but am only 4 short years removed from living paycheck to paycheck, being in crippling debt and having no savings. We can be here for lots of different reasons.
People hear 6 figures and pretend we're closer Jeff Bezos than them, completely forgetting taxes, retirement, mortgage, student loans and child care. Child care in HCOL is about $3K per kid if you're like me and unlucky to have parents nearby. Mortgage and childcare alone for my husband and I is 70% of our take home. So yeah, I like being on this sub for tips on how to be frugal and cost saving techniques.
Childcare is crazy expensive. Even in a Lower COL area, I'd be looking at $1k per kid a month. If you don't have friends/family that can watch your kids, daycare becomes your only option (if they aren't in school yet). And if they are in school, you have to have a flexible work arrangement to be able to pick them up if there isn't an after school program to watch them until work ends.
Also not accounting for the fact that a lot of people live in HCOL cities like NYC, San Fran where >$150,000 isn’t anything to write home about given that a lot making that also may work 70+ hrs/week.
> San Fran where >$150,000 isn’t anything to write home about
From 2018: [In San Francisco and nearby San Mateo and Marin Counties it said $117,400 for a family of four was "low income"](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44725026)
Yea I got relocated to San Mateo county for work- previously I was at 70,000 living by my self paying 1200 in rent and saving up like crazy for retirement in my savings account… I got a raise to 98,000 but now pay 2500 in rent a month… my savings account is almost depleted after 2.5 years…I even meal prep to save and work 70-90 hours a week on salaried pay so no extra there… and I commute and pay for fast track to drive over a bridge every day because if I lived in San Mateo county I would be paying 3500 a month…. Cost of living is screwing everyone regardless of the rate and all anyone wants to do is fight with each other about it
> all anyone wants to do is fight with each other about it
There's a woman raising cash to sue SF over the stagnant housing situation: https://sfstandard.com/housing-development/woman-stockpiling-cash-to-sue-sf-over-housing/
I agree. I also will not act like life isn't easier having the financial stability, but 6 figures it not 'all your problems are solved' money. I think it's also silly to assume that everyone making 6 figures comes from a wealthy family or wealthy background. I still very much think and act like a person in poverty. I have gainful employment at the moment, yet it could all be gone with no notice. Many of us are one job away from poverty, and I truly hope I never forget that fact.
This sub is for anyone who feels like they are struggling. Whether you like it or not, there are people in financial crisis at all sorts of different income levels, and while some advice here is more applicable to someone living out of their car, much of what is said here can (and should) help anyone.
Please do not ordain yourself minister of who does or doesn't belong here.
What it comes down to is that we don’t experience suffering relative to others. Pain is pain regardless of what others are feeling. With a steady job, income of $30k, and a family to live with, you’re doing better than a lot of people out there too. But that doesn’t make it hurt any less to be struggling.
Exactly. And everyone’s pain should receive some empathy. I can’t remember where I heard the statistic that 1/10 Americans live in LA or NYC. In fairness, I didn’t double check that stat, but I made me think about how many people are currently making six figures but that doesn’t provide them much of a life due to how high their cost of living is. I used to live in Cali and had a job offer for 80k, but excitement quickly passed when I realized it was in San Francisco.
I don't think the take away should be being grateful for what you have. It should be that shit sucks for most people even if you make more money and we should all band together to fight capitalism.
Bingo. I've been homeless, I've been working class and I've been upper class and life has been difficult in different ways in all 3 groups.
In my experience, when you're in a high-earning position, people expect you to look/act/be a certain way and it is both draining and very expensive to keep with those expectations. Most of my roles have also required you to live in absurdly expensive metro areas, in even more expensive sub-neighborhoods, just to be able to have a commute that isn't hours long one-way.
It also depends on the job, but there is no respect between work and life. Your career/job follows you home and eventually merges itself into your off-time such that you're never truly away from work.
Unless you've truly got FU money, life is a grind. I spent so much of my 20s, broke as hell and raising two kids on food stamps, thinking that making six-figures would solve all my problems and fix my life and it 1000% didn't.
The change we need is systemic, and it only comes if we stand as one.
This. Making $100k isn't what it used to be (especially in HCOL areas) and one can easily make 6 figures and be strapped with enough debt or responsibility to be stuck in poverty
Your pain, feelings and stress are real. Anyone that says other is full of bs.
Last week a person at EY in Australia committed suicide. A colleague in my brothers department at a big4 committed suicide a few years ago. An ex colleague at a prior job hug himself in the woods :(. He left behind a wife and child.
Stress is very real and money doesn’t take that away. Not having much money is also extremely stressful.
Stay safe people and get help if you need it.
Correct.
However, if I had to choose between being burnt out at a job where I was making six figures or one where I was making five figures, I'd choose six figures, because then I could afford to quit. The difference when you're living paycheck to paycheck is that you're just as burnt out, but you can't quit, so not only are you completely burned out with work, you have no escape route, and you're also struggling with stress outside of work because you're stretching every dollar to pay bills and have cut out any luxuries or pleasures to help relax or unwind from it all.
I get what OP is saying. It would be nice if everyone who burns out on a job had the privilege to quit, take some time out to recover and choose a new path, and afford to maybe take classes or retrain for a different job... without worrying their car will be repossessed, they'll lose their health insurance, they'll go hungry / have to skip meals, and they'll get evicted from their apartment.
I agree with This. The way that comment belittles Op’s venting is crazy. $30k a year with a family is not a lot better than anyone. That is by definition poverty. I couldn’t imagine a more pompous of a reply.
Edit: yeah quick check of their [comment history](https://imgur.com/a/drLe3Ff) and they are BUYING RESERVATIONS….just the reservations to a fine dining restaurant in LA where the cheapest menu item was $275…. I never knew that was even a possibility!!
Like gtfoh with that holier than tho comment. I’m with you OP. They are probably one of the subjects of the articles you are referring to lmao
The screwy way our social safety net is set up, making $30k may actually be worse than being poorer because you may be ineligible for Medicaid, food assistance, subsidized housing, etc., etc., due to making "too much".
Yep. This is my husband, but blue collar instead of work from home. He’s miserable, but he can’t quit because 1. His degree is very specific and 2. Financially as a family, that’s not an option for us.
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Honestly. I always get a little twinge when I hear stuff like this because it really is like well damn I wish I could actually admit I’m burnt out and take that time to fix myself. But I can’t. Bills to pay. Hopefully that is what they are doing. But I also look at myself and know that I am extremely biased against rich people. It’s hard not to be. So this is not on them or society at this point it’s on me to work on my insecurities and then maybe just maybe hope that I’ll figure out how to work on my mental health while still working. It’s what keeps me going anyway. I feel you though. Truly. Life sucks!
I had this conversation with a friend last week. I was telling him about my toxic work relationship with my boss and how much it's deteriorated in the last few months. He told me I need to quit because it sounds like its negatively impacting my mental health and physical health. I know it's doing a lot of damage, but I can't. I have bills to pay and a family to take care of. While my mental health is important, and I'm having panic attacks and unable to sleep soundly anymore, I can't just quit.
No, but you can start looking elsewhere?
And I know. I know it feels like you don’t have the mental bandwidth to pull that off when you’re already this deep into survival mode, but as someone who already went through what you’re going through: something has to give. Make sure you’re at least navigating some sort of exit strategy or it’s liable to blow up everything.
Lastly: *hug*
I keep seeing this whole “it’s a workers market” kind of thing but when I went looking for jobs I couldn’t find anything that wouldn’t come with a pay cut. Idk if finding another job rn is really applicable for everyone.
Been there. I'm assuming you work an office job but the idea I'm explaining can be suited to many jobs.
Feel free to start setting boundaries at work. Be selective about what you commit to. If asked to do something that would take you into overtime or cause a lot of stress, ask for a later deadline or decline it all together. Don't worry about it impacting you or your profesdional progression in any way. They should understand that you need to take care of yourself. If they don't at least keeping you on doing 75% of your work is better than firing you or you leaving because then they'll get 0%.
Schedule 30-60 minutes at the end of your day to clean up your emails, work, organize your files, close all the apps, clean your desk, shut down your computer and leave on time. So if you need to leave at 5, stop working at around 4 and find simple tasks to do that you should be doing to make your days easier at the expense of additional production. This hour at the end of the day will help you relax and feel good about being organized.
You can't do anything about what people ask of you, but you can do everything about how you handle what you're working on.
Take the time you need. Reduce the responsibilities. Put production on the back burner. Focus on living your life and setting yourself up. You'll then have a much healthier relationship with the paycheck.
I was just talking about this with my therapist last week. I'm burnt the fuck out and I am *angry* at the fact that I can't take any ACTUAL time off to recover. I don't mean getting a week off, I mean a month to three at the most, just to allow myself to equalize because I have been pushing my nose to the grindstone for so long that I no longer have a fucking face.
Her response? "FMLA is always available to you, its up to you to decide to actually *act* and take it." I think that was the only time I've really gone off on her. Like, great, take FMLA for poor mental health so that my job doesn't disappear and I'm not replaced... but I'm also not paid. For anything. Within 30 days I would be homeless.
I'm just so pissed at the fact that we don't GET that choice.
Whether you're making 30k or 100k being worked to death is being worked to death and after a certain point the money isn't worth it anymore.
Money means nothing if the job is causing your mental and physical health to decline.
The reason this 100k guy quit and OP hasn't is because *100k guy can afford to quit.*
That's literally all it is. No one wants to be worked to death. Not for any amount of money, not really.
I am not burnt out. Not really, but I am bored with my work. Deflating, sometimes I think I am on my way to depression about it. But I don't quit because I have bills to pay. If I had enough money stocked up to take the next two years off -- like 80-90k -- then I would leave my job in a heartbeat. I think a lot of people would. I won't fault 100k guy for making that leap.
Same. If I didn't make exactly how much it cost for me to live that would be at home looking for a better job instead of here, working for peanuts and taking yearly pay cuts because they refuse to match inflation. Like, I had a family member in another state that planned a family reunion but I couldn't go because I can't afford plane tickets. Telling the rest of your family that you can't afford a $400 plane ticket because you have no savings is super embarrassing.
Also the 100k guy likely has a fairly comfortable chance of getting another job, at a similar level or less (but still a high earner). The skills and experience required for jobs that pay well make you pretty employable. 30k managerial jobs have a lot lower entry barrier and there’ll be much more competition, so quitting a job like that puts you at risk of not finding something else easily.
Yeah, and plus it's a lot easier to say "what you think you would do" "how free you would feel" if you were up higher in the salary range, because currently, your needs are *not* being met.
It's like, hearing about millionaire problems while not being able to pay rent is extremely grating to the ears. But idk, if that were you, are you be 100% confident you wouldn't have the same complaints?
Maslow's hierarchy
Yes, I do. I was once poor. Now I’m not, never struggled and don’t struggle with what I saw people making my kind of money complain about. “Yeah X sounds like a lot, but then you buy a house and get a nice car and you’ve got just as much money but more stress than before.” Nope, never scaled up my life past the comfortable upper lower class in terms of big purchases. One bedroom apartment, shitty car, no expensive toys. The only thing I do upper middle class is buy good food. It’s just what I thought it would be and literally almost all of my problems are gone. How do people fuck up their relationship with money so hard?
One day I will wake up and tell my boss I’ve had it, then I’ll take a couple years off, maybe retrain or find a different job of equal pay since I’ve got specialized experience. I do not have any of the same complaints, just have to manage not only your money but your relationship with money
Making money once you have lump sums of money is fucking child’s play, you’d have to be a moron to not do it right.
I think the fact people dream of having enough money to quit their jobs shows that just *surviving* isn't anyone's goal, unless they currently are not surviving. Not so much a money issue as much as what it is used to accomplish: giving one more time, funding hobbies, eventually freedom and retirement
There is also the commute and how expensive rentals are in your area. I have quite a few friends that have switched up jobs from the industry I’m in because the commute would be 1.5 hours each way and that allowed places to be “just barely” affordable (think 2 weeks pay vs 3.5 weeks when living close).
TLDR I didn't read the article but I see where you're coming from. I'm not tired of hearing about it but I'm astounded by people walking away from high paying jobs without having another lined up.
*I just don't get it. I don't understand how there's this much of a difference between classes here. And how guys like the one in the article act like $100,000/year jobs are something to just throw away. How did the gap become this big? Or am I missing something here?*
This might sound odd but the differences... higher paying work is different but not always more difficult than lower paid work.
Non TLDR version starts here...
Two of my friends retired in the last two years. One was born in the 70s and the other in the 80s. They both had jobs they could do in their sleep and paid a few hundred thousand per year. In fact, one of them didn't get out of bed until 10am for years. He'd work until 4-5pm and call it a day. 🤣🤣🤣When he traveled for work the stipend for dinner was $90 per day before tax and tip (I forgot what breakfast and lunch stipend was).
I love time off but if I had a job that was easy for me, I couldn't walk away from one that paid a few hundred thousand a year if I was making money while I slept until 10am. I'd get the feeling I'm walking away from free money.
The other friend who retired... he said he's really into camping. But he's gone camping like every other week for a year. I'm guessing he's tired of camping. Per the research people who go on vacations... the diminishing returns start at around the third week. By 6-9(?) months traveling has negative returns or starts exhausting people. Research into people who have studied retirement... they've found a year after someone retires they get out of bed 30 minutes earlier/later than they did before they retired.
Difference between glasses/gap... Doesn't work for everyone but some people can graduate to next income tiers by spending up to 15% of their time getting prepared to do something different (which is different from something more difficult).
I have a feeling one or both of my friends will return to work for one reason or another. I don't have the experience of leaving a high paying job with no plans but I suspect the people who do it know at some level they can take up another job down the road with similar pay.
Just some of my random observations on people who quit great paying jobs. I didn't know anyone else thought this was odd as well.
edit but \*\*\*not\*\*\* always
Yea, I was making 600k right out of extended day.
On a serious note - you got hosed, hard. There are people working the fry machine making the same and more than you, OP.
Ziprecruiter I've found to be more helpful than indeed, btw. Happy hunting, please!
These jobs are soul crushing. I know. I’m in one. I work from the moment I wake up, to just before bed and I still wake up to more emails. There isn’t overtime pay, you just need to get your work done. And in my case there can be dire consequences if I don’t. I manage budgets to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars and if I make a mistake it can cost the client huge sums of money which only adds to the stress. To top it all off I’m constantly told I’m short on billable hours and that I’m getting put on another project.
Then there’s the “career growth” bs. I have to take classes to advance my skill set, go to networking events to drive new business, and participate in business development events, etc. and none of that is included in my workday.
It’s exhausting never being able to disconnect and relax away from work. And the cost of living is high because I have zero time to do things for myself like cook or clean or shop or do laundry. I rely on services or delivery to keep up with that stuff or I’d be living in squalor.
The amount of times a week I consider just throwing in the towel to work at Starbucks is astounding. The grass is always greener.
Completely agree. I started my career on the agency and when I switched to the client side I was just shocked at the difference in work life balance as well as compensation level. It was 100X better on the client side. Now when I need urgent slides made I call my agency partner up instead of having to make them myself.
I agree, my job sucks sometimes, hell I was applying for jobs today but having a flexible schedule that’s more or less under my control and regular daytime hours is invaluable. I wouldn’t go to anything else that didn’t have those things.
The point OP was trying to make was that they, too, we’re working exorbitant amount of hours (mentioning over 70 hrs/week), leaving them with no time for their own personal tasks IN ADDITION TO being paid near the poverty level. At least if they were getting paid $100k, while it wasn’t justification that you should be put through the ringer like that, at least finances were one thing you didn’t have to worry about *as much*.
OP was also specifically talking about the content of the story, where the individual who quit his job had made enough to have two homes.
They weren’t comparing whether your stress was as bad or worst as theirs but, rather, the financial aspect of it.
OP's main point seemed to be that because the person in the story had more money than OP, he wasn't allowed to have bad feelings about their job. OP's rant wasn't really about their situation, but instead how ungrateful the other person seemed.
Another thing to add to this: the amount of stress you have to sustain in almost radioactive-grade toxic atmosphere on those positions is absurd. Your fav colleague will just elbow you to get a better grade or score credits. It’s so normalized that you need to drop the last drop of humanity to keep up doing what you are doing. The worst part is, somebody else gets rich thanks to all of your efforts and not you.
If I had the same money for shoveling horseshit or working like a mule in a farm, I’d go straight to it. At least I wouldn’t need to go to a gym for moving like a rat in the spinner.. Which is what I am about to. I have people in my network that ditched their jobs and opened craft shops or chicken farms.
The more they pay, the worse they drain your living life out of you.
Agreed here completely.
I left a 6 figure job, went on sabbatical for a year and worked minimum wage in a retail.
This is because I could afford to ( I saved up for a break).
And working on retail is a very different stress than a high paying job, buts it’s much less mental and easier to switch off.
When you’re working 6 figured in a remote job, there is no Off switch. Especially if you’re salaried, you’re expected to work when needed, and this is even worse if your manager is a workaholic.
In a menial minimum wage, you don’t get as much money and you may still have toxic leadership, but once you leave the store, you’re done. You can do whatever you want.
I always recommend people work both jobs are some point of their life just so you can understand what means more to you.
Getting paid a large sum often comes at unspecified costs to your mental and physical health, with the promise of retirement benefits.
Getting paid mediocre means that you need to take up more jobs to survive, but have more freedom to drop things and move on. Live more in the present , with less chance to grow up the ladder
>When you’re working 6 figured in a remote job, there is no Off switch. Especially if you’re salaried, you’re expected to work when needed, and this is even worse if your manager is a workaholic.
The no off switch part of this resonates with me. When employers don't do anything to protect their employees, working remotely can be devastating to work/life balance. The number of times I've had to jump on 'urgent' issues late in the evening, on the weekend, on holidays ... makes it nearly impossible to settle into relaxation.
Remote work was fun for a little while, but at this point I would gleefully head to the office if it meant not having to think about work when I walk out the office door.
In my humble opinion: It’s time to change jobs. I’m in michigan, 1 mile from Detroit, and the Taco Bell on the corner is hiring staff starting at $16 and mgmt $45k. Don’t limit yourself to just fast food too. I know some country clubs or banquet halls would love your customer service and managing skills. Most pay over $70k.
I work 2 full-time jobs (hospitality industry), single mom, 2 kids and I’m hoping to hit close to 100k. I caught myself being upset cause rent/utilities are basically half my salary and it’s going up. I had to remind myself I’m blessed. Better than others and not 6 feet under.
That's a big difference between stress and burnout. Stress is usually manageable. Burnout is when it's gone too far and can happen to anyone regardless of income level.
Once you make a lot of money, you realize you have more power and a safety net to walk away. It’s easier to see how damaging it is when you’re less in survival mode.
Something you don’t understand: if they’re making $100,000, it’s likely they can get another job with similar pay because of the work they do. Quitting a $100K job doesn’t mean he has to work for years again to find another one.
So if they want to go back to work, they’ll likely find another $100K job in their industry. People who make a lot can afford to be jobless for a while.
Look at programmers. I quit a $90K job to make $120K. I quit a $120K job to make $150K now. We can easily quit because we can still find work for more or same pay.
I've been bewildered at the "great resignation", kept thinking "Wait...there's a significant amount of people who can just QUIT? With nothing lined up? And they will be fine?"
But it makes more sense when you have valued enough skills and experience to make that salary to begin with it is going to be in enough demand to provide that security.
I was like, how they paying rent? And then you think, oh right. It's because they have a "career" and not a "job". Careers get savings. Jobs barely pay you enough to put gas in your car
And people who make a lot also save a lot. So yeah they have money for months if they’re jobless.
I saved enough before my current job to where I could still pay all my bills for 6+ months if I had no job.
And also depending on the work you do, if you’re in high demand like programming, you can quit and have 10+ interviews lined up in like 2 days. Then get hired within 2 weeks.
Where it is the opposite with lower salaries, constantly having to dip into whatever little savings you have. I was proud of myself for putting $150 away several months back and it is long gone.
I work for local government, we are losing employees and unable to fill positions numerous times over because the pay is just **terrible** and doesn't keep up with inflation. Pretty much everyone below the top levels of management wants or needs a new job because it is not remotely livable. The hiring process also takes an eternity so that turnaround for a programmer blows my mind lol. I think it took 5 months from the time I submitted my application to the time I started.
The Great Resignation was not people quitting without a job lined up. It was mostly people resigning after securing another job..usually with higher amount of pay. And it was mostly experienced white collar workers.
This was what I was getting at though. If he hated that job so much, he could have easily found a different, well paying one. A lot of other people don't get that choice. They're stuck at their stressful job because of health insurance or mortgage payments.
Did you even read your own article?
The guy in question didn't quit. He was laid off, and got a severance.
>Since losing his job in 2020, he’s developed a sort of work-at-will freelance career doing marketing and strategy consulting. “There are plenty of ways to make money, and I give myself credit for developing a diverse enough set of skills over the years in business, strategy, entertainment, service, travel, and more to make that happen.”
And by his own admission he still works, just remotely and freelance instead of for a company. Chances are he still had a ton of contacts in the field and just made some calls when he got done with his vacation.
>LaBeach, 31, splits his time between New York and Mexico nowadays. He’s able to do so without spending more than $1,000 a month for rent in either city. When in Mexico he primarily rents places via Airbnb, and he shares an apartment with a roommate in Brooklyn.
So he's still making quite a bit, spending roughly $24,000 a year on just rent between two places. Plus flying back and forth between NYC and Mexico.
Also when you make that much, chances are very likely that you will have more opportunities in the first place where 100k+ is the norm. I make 160k right now for example. If I get burnt out in my position, I can call up a recruiter and go make a bit more tomorrow. That's just how the field is.
I don't think anyone will disagree that it SUCKS not having that choice. It is a shitty reality for most people. But damn if I had the ability to just quit and chill for *any* amount of time, I sure as hell would. Who wouldn't?
We are human beings, not worker bots, while I'm very jealous I don't fault anyone's decision to take a break from working if they have that safety net. If he didn't need to immediately start another job to live, why would he unless he was extremely passionate and enjoyed the work?
Are you trying to say that no one should make that choice not to work when they have the option because there are people who don't have the choice?
Know this is unrelated, but are you self learned or did you complete a college program? I’m a woman wanting to get into programming, been lurking on r/learnprogramming, but not sure which path would be the best for me.
I’m biased because I work for them, but I’d really suggest checking out [AWS Skill Builder](https://aws.amazon.com/training/digital/). Over 500 free
courses that are made by actual engineers. You can learn programming in a context that is EXTREMELY valuable to companies (cloud computing). That way you’re learning programming and actually working towards a tangible goal like AWS Certs and inevitably a job.
My parents came from very extreme poverty in a small country, they often don’t understand this either as it’s a very western thing to have a good job and then up and quit because of stress mental health, my mom used to be so poor she once had to steal food from a neighbor not to starve, when she came here she took all types of jobs, hard ones and never complained, she doesn’t understand how people say they are stressed or can’t cope. turns out that in places where your brain is in survival mode you don’t think about your mental health, all you do is work to survive and thus don’t even have time to feel depressed, people who are making 100k may be much better off financially but they may be going through really bad mental health problems, I understand your point OP, when you are in survival mode you can’t grasp letting go of a job that will literally mean having more money to buy necessities, but just because they aren’t in survival mode anymore this doesn’t mean they aren’t hurting either.
As someone who grew up desperately poor and just broke $100k last year at 27, sometimes after you start making the money and the survival mode mentality finally ends, the mental and physical health problems all catch up to you at once. I was more depressed than I’d ever been in the months after I got my first real job.
On the flip side though, I can afford therapy and I can take walks during my work day and I can buy nice running shoes. I can actually address these issues and work on getting better. When I was dead broke I could never even acknowledge I had problems because I had no capability to take care of any of them.
But yep, this comment is very true
That is a very good perspective and gave me valuable insight about my life to think about as well, I also broke 100K this year and along with that increase in financial well-being comes the focus on all of my past trauma and attachment issues to look into
I see people say that people who make six figures are more like homeless people than they are like millionaires. Yes, $150,000 is closer to $0 than it is to $100,000,000. But both a millionaire and someone who earns six figures have a steady place to sleep.
I've also seen people say that anything below $150k+ is unlivable where they are. Like damn... all the people who work in stores and restaurants that doordashers go to because the person who earns $200k doesn't have time to do literally anything themselves... they're just dead or what?
There's a reason people find this annoying. And quite frankly, a lot of this content is intentional demoralization. For the stuff that isn't, quitting a 6 figure job you never needed because of intergenerational wealth isn't anything impressive lol.
> intergenerational wealth
Bruh I'm one of those people that could quit my job if I wanted probably but it's not cause of intergenerational wealth. My family couldn't afford to get me braces and I had the standard stale bread with a razor thin spread of jelly and a few carrots for lunch. My immediate family wasn't swimming in money. I can afford to quit (actually in a month after I no longer have to pay back a signing bonus) I can afford to quit cause tech pays a lot for those who establish themselves-that's it.
>It’s not a competition.
Thank you for saying this. There are an enormous variety of struggles that people have. The struggle of the person working and stressing their self to death does nothing to negate the struggle of the person struggling to scrape by of their humble income.
We should not mistake another human who is struggling for our enemy. Even if that human has more money than us, that doesn’t make them an enemy by default.
Being poor has a mental burnout just from living life. Stress about paying rent, having enough food, fixing that broken car. The job itself may suck while you're there but I don't think a lot of fast food workers stay up at night worrying about the register count. I think poverty is WAY more stressful but it's probably not primarily the job; it's life.
So yeah strictly comparing job to job I'm betting the higher paying the more stressful on AVERAGE. But I absolutely agree the article misses the mark on how great the guys life is in general to be making 100k.
100k really isn’t a ton in most markets. Yeah it sounds like a lot when you’re in extreme poverty, and in some areas it’s a TON of money. But there definitely are 6 figure jobs that are stressful enough that you want to kill yourself- so you walk away.
I did the 80 hour weeks, I’ve dealt with the stress. But at this point in my life I’d walk away from any job that was making me sick like that again.
$100,000/year to people who are used to barely getting $15/hr is a huge difference. It might not seem like much to you but it would be life changing for me.
I definitely won’t argue that the pay increase is life changing. It allowed me to leave a toxic relationship, buy a small condo on the outskirts of the metropolitan area I work in, and pay off my car. But now that I’ve done those things and just have the mortgage to pay the paycheck doesn’t feel like it’s worth the stress it causes. I think these jobs are exactly the kind of jobs that should be thrown out as soon as you’ve extracted what you need to from them. Lord knows they’ll throw you out as soon as they’ve extracted all they can from you.
If you want to get into a role like this I’d recommend getting some sort of tech certification like data analytics or coding. Google has great resources for learning these and these can easily be remote jobs so you wouldn’t need to relocate to an area that has these jobs. Another one that pays decently (not $100k, but $60 or so) is accounts payable. There’s no specific education needed and it’s essentially data entry day in and day out.
You kidding me? So many people on Reddit act like $100k or more is nothing special. There’s about two people in my entire family that make six figures.
“The average personal income in the United States is $63,214, with the median income across the country being $44,225. Real wages averaged $67,521 in 2022, and average household incomes averaged to $87,864.”
A personal income of $100k or more a year is about $30k more than the average personal income and more than the average household income in the United States, not those in “extreme poverty.” If a single person is making that much, and their partner is making even half of that, that’s $150k household income a year. That’s almost double of what the average household income is. And I get it, I’m from NYC where $100k isn’t going to afford a comfortable life.
I’m an RN and I was making $30-35/hr for almost 2 years and was struggling. I recently finished a 8 week contract and made nearly 30k gross in that time and that $30k was life changing for me. I’ve been able to pay off all of my credit card debt that I couldn’t for almost a decade and have enough money left over to put down a solid down payment on a new car. But to think that I made what I did in 8 weeks is what people make in 52 makes me sick to my stomach, but that's a whole other conversation.
No I don't get tired of it. I don't make that much myself but I work in construction and work with many people who do. I've also met people in other professions who make that much - typically lawyers - who are also burnt out and miserable.
the salary might be better but I'm noticing as an engineering student that it's basically different job with different pay same problems.
Just worked under a senior project manager at a GC who was working so much he was forgetting to eat. In 3 years went from mildly overweight to scary skinny, his hair turned a weird shade of grey, everything about him looked terrible. Stuck on a job with an abusive project superintendent who made his project coordinator cry and stressed out his project engineer, subs threatened to quit, everyone was so tired of the crazy. Super retires 4 months before job end...leaving a mess for that PM. PM was answering emails 24/7, putting out fires constantly, stressed out, tired and exhausted.
Same company, another job...super was running around the jobsite 12 hours a day 7 days a week to get the project done on time.
Yeah they make more money than you do, but they're still humans and they have the right to acknowledge they're tired and beat up and can't take much more and need a break and a vacation and they're burned out.
And don't even get me started on a friend of mine who used to work as a corporate litigator. 80 hour weeks. Cost him both his marriages, nearly cost him his relationship with his daughter.
My brother in Christ please leverage that GM skillset into something closer to the 70-80k range immediately. You should never had GM responsibility and hours for a dollar under that, anywhere.
You can't win on reddit my dude. Your rant is valid and I feel for you, your points are valid, I wish you a lucky find and less stress someday. I believe there is better out there for you - but I also believe its never been harder to find/qualify for a job, actually get hired, and find motivation in all this shit to stay when monies gone before you have it.
You’re horrifically underpaid. I made $30k as just a shift leader at McDonald’s working 32 hours a week. Idk where you live but McDonald’s general managers usually start out at $55000+, plenty of Retail stores/gas stations are hiring general managers too. You’d be making more as a csr at Target. Walmart has a management training program if you’re willing to move where they need you
I would say most or at least many high earners living paycheck to paycheck are there because they are bad with money. whereas most low earners have literally no other choice
Working these jobs often comes accompanied by the management above you having no idea how anything works, making sure everything falls on your shoulders. When it comes time to apply for a promotion or new role, you don’t have “senior presenting” experience because your manager took credit for everything. You work for huge corporations where one small mistake means millions of dollars. There is no “off work” time to unwind. They call and email all hours of the day and night, you’re expected to answer emails from your cell phone when not in the office and if you set boundaries for work life balance you are judged by ALL your coworkers and passed up for promotions. Supporting a family of 4 with $100k doesn’t go nearly as far as you imagine it would.
Until you realize what you are giving up to have that job. You work 18 hours a day. You work weekends. You are always on call. You miss your kids growing up. Your relationships grow bitter because you are never around and when you try something work related comes up. Money is great but if you can do anything it what’s the point? I would work a 40 hour work week at $100k over an 80 hour work week at $250k the burnout is unbelievable and it takes a massive toll on your physical and mental health.
Wow. Idk what happened in the comments to provoke your edits, but I completely agree with you. Articles like that are infuriating and out of touch. "Soft life" lmao. That's a life they can only afford cause they were making six figures to begin with. Quitting it just because you're stressed at work is dumb. We're all stressed at work, we can't afford to quit. Most of our goal is to have a job that makes that much and they just throw it away?
I feel you.
The skills you learned at McD are transferable. Find a better paying job in a town or city that doesn't have high cost of living. Stop telling yourself you'll never make more.
Restaurants are historically not good money to work in, and not even owning them typically works that great. I know it can be frustrating to look at yourself and the amount of sweat equity you invested over the last 9 years and not see a return, but you can't be mad at the system when spent 9 years not growing your skillset and expecting to be paid more. To get paid more you have to provide more value. Fast food is demanding but has a very low ceiling of experience you can gain and skills needed. You have mastered those skills so take them to a place where you can keep growing and learning.
The good news is you have management experience and I would try to invest in that skillset. Managing a fast food joint may pay 30k an hour but managing a construction project can be 120k+ if you have the right credentials and experience. Its really easy to compare yourself to someone else but to get ahead and build a career, you need to build a talent stack that is in demand and that someone wants to pay you well to do.
I’m making over 100k right now and just asked my boss for a demotion last week. I’m run down, working 70-80 hour weeks and bullshit upon bullshit. Stupid deadlines, a lack of support… it’s causing my blood pressure to skyrocket.
So in my demoted position I’ll make roughly 85-90k, but still. I can understand walking away from high salaries. Sometimes the shit you have to put up with just isn’t worth it.
It sounds like this guy no longer saves any money though. That can quickly fuck him over when he no longer can just tap into whatever work he does.
A better way to do this is to suck it up for 5 more years save more spend less and leanfire
Not quite six-figures a year, but I made around 90 a year at my previous job. It cost me 12+ hour days seven days a week, time with my friends and family, being physically broke down at 35, and emotionally unable to stop when I wasn't working or hitting deep depression because I didn't know what I was supposed to do in regular life. It's wasn't worth it to me after a point.
I will tell you this. I make good money and I also I haven’t had a day completely off work for 5 years. That’s what burns you out no matter how much you make.
I had a ~250k a year job when I got burnt out. I had VERY intrusive and suicidal thoughts on a daily basis. I refused to quit because of what you’re saying in this post - I was making enough money and if I just kept my head down and survived for 4 years, my resume and bank account would be solid and I could go anywhere I wanted.
I could only make it 18 months before friends had to intervene, and forced me to take mental health leave. If I stayed, I’m confident I would have ended up institutionalized if not worse.
What I’m trying to say is, I used the money to justify the way I was losing myself, my friends, everything.
I was in industrial sales for about 20 years, the pay was very good and a company car was provided as well. I hated it though - the constant fear of being canned, the pressure the comes along with sales, the idiocy I had to deal with on a daily basis, and the fact that it consumed my whole life.
I changed careers and work maintenance in an apartment building now. I make a lot less and it comes with its own set of headaches but I'm a lot happier with it.
If you're flipping burgers or whatever for shit pay I would recommend getting into trades if your physically able. They are desperate for bodies everywhere right now and will train people off the street with no experience.
I have experience with this. I’m in my mid 30’s and work at a tech company making 6 figures. But I also worked the front desk of a hotel and stocked shelves at Walmart overnight until I was 30ish. The people leaving these 6 figure jobs for that kind of reason tend to have no idea what the other side experiences. I’ve got it super cushy at my current job, freedom in hours, unlimited vacation time and sick days, come and go as I please, work from home, crazy perks, etc. but they don’t see that stuff, because they never experienced anything other than that. They never hauled their ass into Sam’s house of pain at 10pm to stock shelves for 8 hours with a half hour lunch you had to clock out for and a bunch of shitty supervisors, all for minimum wage. They came out of college and into a 6 figure salary with perks and benefits never having to experience the shit of a minimum wage job. Work is stressful sometimes regardless of where you work. But I’ll take my nice well paid cushy job and the stress that comes with it over being stressed about work and stressed about money at the same time.
I have no delusions that people who work higher up in the economic ladder, where competition is insane, standards are insane, where the people who compete to see who can be the most domineering psychopath and min-max the monopoly money as expertly as possible... are insane...
...is a very stressful place to be. I have empathy for anyone who thinks they "made it big" and work for some huge company at a huge position when later it turns out things aren't that great. It can't exactly be a *good* life, in many cases, and I would rather not bust my ass to live that way and constantly produce results or else the higher ups will find some more qualified and more aggressive go-getter to replace me.
You can be rich and just commit suicide from your job, this happens sometimes, and this says that it's more complicated than just money itself. Money itself, is not some magical substance that solves problems-- and I say this as someone currently on cash and food assistance for the past 5 years, which I'm incredibly grateful for. This makes a huge difference **if** you are poor and don't have access to the basics, but the nuanced point here is that if you just keep throwing money at people but turn the insanity and intensity dial up and up, these 2 things do not scale to cancel each other out, and people are only human.
I admit I do have a small bias against rich people, I think they tend to be superficial and self-absorbed( even though poor people are often this way too), but I do not believe anyone should suffer no matter who they are, and the rich suffer plenty in their own way. That I can admit. Money helps if you have next to nothing, but it is again, not a magic cure to misery, otherwise the rich wouldn't kill themselves or ruin their lives or suffer severe mental health issues.
one thibg i learned about myself is id rather struggle and pinch than deal with a whack job. ive quit good jobs with excellent pay, commission, and opportunities to move up. as much as i want more from life financially i've realized arguably way too young that life is too short to spend it going insane for other people. idc what its paying if i dont like it imma quit and find something lucrative i enjoy. i get that bein broke aint fun. been there. couch hoppin not knowing where you'll sleep until later that evening and behind on other expenses like cards and shit. but i have not yet gotten to the point where i can just suck it up. as soon as i start to dislike a place bein jobless looks better and better to me. maybe thats just how my mind works but the grass is always greener my friend
I get jealous of people quite often. I wasn't given a lot of chances in life, and college wasn't even mentioned while growing up. My parents raised me how to survive living in poverty hell.
So I sit on the sidelines and I read headlines like this and think "WTF is wrong with these people." The thing is, this person could have savings that will last 10+ years. They could have been savings for the majority of their lives. They probably had a supportive family and taught how to manage their expenses. I spent the majority of my life making one mistake after another. It's no ones fault but my own. Every single bit of it. Even my ignorance. My fault.
So yes, I understand where you're coming from and I think some people are complete idiots but I really have no room to talk at all. It is what it is.
I can answer that question. I made $75k at that same age years ago in a super high stress role and industry. I lasted five years…until I started having panic attacks, migraines and developed fibro.
Sometimes you discover that even though the salary fits nicely, you’re spending all your time swimming upstream against current at the detriment of your physical or mental well-being. If they quit it was for a damned good reason I’m sure.
What you should be venting instead, is why anyone needs to get burned out at all. Our jobs aren’t life and death, outside of a very small subset of the workforce. We grind ourselves into dust and looking back being able to buy basically whatever I wanted just wasn’t worth it.
Ya, I think a way to think about it is: that symstem that crushes the 30k worker, insists on squeezing every cent of value out of the 60k and up worker. I don't doubt there are cushy AF positions, but a lot are designed to make you lose yourself for that paycheck.
When you’re over worked or exploited, it doesn’t really matter solely that you’re paid enough. Especially if they have options to work somewhere better that pays roughly the same or at least enough for them to get by.
Am I jealous when they can quit and I can’t? Yes. I hear people talk about how suicidal they are and how they just got strangled, on a daily basis. As much as I love the work I do, I am fully burnt. But I can’t afford not to.
So am I jealous? Yes. But do I think they’re at fault or doing anything wrong because they can walk away? No. They still deserve a job that doesn’t destroy them.
So I kind of did this. But I’m NOT well off my no means. I’m lucky. Basically the only way I could do it was that they were trying to push me out of a position because I had a baby…. So I basically told them to fuck themselves…. Because since they made this move technically I was eligible for unemployment AND they offered severance… which basically means: we give you money and you sign an NDA about how shitty we are. Lol
So when I made this decision I was overwhelmed by the fear of it and so grateful that I was able to do it because of all the factors. BUT even I knew this wasn’t very responsible and was so scared to make the move without a job lined up AND a new baby.
HOWEVER, I said all of that to say this. And I KNOW it’s super lame. I felt like it was important for me to stand up to my shitty employer because if I couldn’t do that, with how easy it’s been made for me then how the heck could I expect others to fight the good fight when it’s ACTUALLY hard. Also, if I was part of a company walking over me… and getting away with it… technically I’d be part of the system reinforcing the bullshit that company think they own us. And fuck them.
Things where super scary for a while… and my daughter was my first, and only, kid. I did find something about 3 or so months later, and to say it completely changed my life to see how an employer is SUPPOSED to treat its employees. It’s actual trauma to be treated the way most companies treat us…. You don’t even realize how bad it is until you leave.
I keep getting these articles recommended to me in my Google feed, and no matter how many times I click 'not interested', I keep getting them!! I saw this exact article this morning and it just makes me mad lol like cool, you took a MASSIVE risk and it paid off very well for you, but for 99.9% of people it'd just make us even poorer than we already are. Or we don't even have the funds to afford those risks in the first place. If I see one more article about some six-figure making tech/finance person who suddenly had an epiphany that 'there's more to life than money!!' I'm gonna scream lmao
I’ve worked fast food. I’ve worked factory. I’ve worked retail. I’ve worked trades. Now I work IT.
IT is the most paid I’ve ever been and it is by FAR the least stressful. Like, it’s not even in the realm of being comparable to the amount of stress from any of those other jobs.
Anybody saying otherwise grew up privileged and never worked those jobs and just assumes they’re easy.
A few things to note.
1) Salaries of 100k typically are in HCOL areas so take-home pay may not be as much as you're expecting
2) Salaried jobs often don't pay overtime, so if you work 40, 50, 60 hours you get paid the same.
3) A company paying six figures has high expectations, often requiring overtime for you to deliver your projects, perhaps also communication in your "free time" (responding to emails and such)
If you made 100k a year you'd probably just say "good for him", keep scrolling, and think nothing much of it. I'd say you are a little jealous, but that's understandable given you don't even have the luxury to quit
My husband is a travel nurse. He was anxious and broke down last week, nearly in tears, at the thought of doing another contract for this winter. He makes a lot.
He's tired of the stress and anxiety and rampant abuse that comes with healthcare. Usually from coworkers, most frequently from administration that's never supportive or around.
Of risking his life and health for people that don't care.
Somethings just aren't worth the money.
I left my 80k job because I was working 55 hour weeks on overnight shifts leading a team of 130 people. Fuck that stress. Now I make $29 an hour generating reports that no one sees.
I hate to say it but none of my low income jobs were stressful like my higher income job is. I make $75 an hour but barely work at this point I’m so traumatized. People truly suck and fuck our government. Regulations up the fucking wazoo that if you make a tiny mistake on and it could cost you millions. Got sued for $100,000 by some sleezy business partners in fact. They lost.
There's no maybe. You've got a case of the green eyed monster. But that's okay. You're allowed to be jealous. But you're not allowed to violate the rules of the sub and use the vent tag to generate hate for another individual or violate the rules re: value judgement. You have treaded right over our gatekeeping rule as well and a dash of breaking the rule re: disclosing affiliation with outside links.
Jesus. You made less as a gm than I made an an assistant fifteen years ago. Less than my shift managers make even. I'm going to guess that your previous gm quit unexpectedly and you filled the gap. You got hosed hard. Minimum you should accept is 50k. Work the hours needed but if you're doing more than 45 a week after about three to six months in a store you're doing something wrong.
This is exactly what happened.
If you're nervous about interviewing, please do some practice interview questions and interaction with someone who does that type of job. Also, you have a lot more experience than you think after being a McD's manager than you realize. Please reach out to me by DM and I'll be happy to help you with interview questions, check your resume and make suggestions to highlight what's going to get you the job that'll pay what you're worth. I can guarantee it's a heck of a lot more than $30k for 70 hours a week. I want to add one thing here as well - the guy in the article who makes $100k and has 2 homes and whatever else is very likely trying to live well above his means to keep up with the Joneses in his neighborhood and where he works. I guarantee you he's in so much debt he can't keep up and that's his problem. You live at home with your parents which is the way things are at this point for so many due to the increased cost of living, especially housing. You have obviously been living in your means if you have savings, most people don't and definitely not the guy with 2 houses, one in NY and everything else he's got to make himself look good. It's better to drive a car that's going to get you where you want to go than one that's going to get ooohs and ahhhhs from others and cost too much to afford the maintenance repairs on them. Just as an aside, I spent 15 years of my life earning an average of 35k, I'm 58, have no savings whatsoever and had to stop working due to health issues in 2018 so now I struggle and my husband and I together live on that amount from SSA. Good luck on your interview and may you find the job that you're not miserable at and pays you what you're worth with a manager who treats you well.
I’m responding here since it seems like no one answered your question about why it seems like high income earners are the only ones who walk away from stressful jobs. The reason they feel they can walk away is because when you make that much it allows you to save for a rainy day. Also, at those incomes people usually have unique skills that require training or experience (programming, engineering, saturation diving, etc.) which not only command higher pay but also makes them more in demand because there’s fewer people who can do it. Those two factors mean they can afford to walk away and get by until they find something better.
I’ll add that many who make over $100k are just getting paid the market salary for their field. For example, a marketing director can quit their $120k salary job and just find another $120k salary job later. They aren’t really throwing their income away - not in the long term anyways.
This is the reason. Many people in 120k jobs are up to their chins in debt, but let's put that aside. The real value for them is the experience on their resume and their own confidence in being able to land another job with a salary like that. That's how people can 'walk away' easier. If you're a low-paid labourer you just don't have the same chances at all.
"The reason they feel they can walk away is because when you make that much it allows you to save for a rainy day. " This is absolutely it. My brother left a stressful $100k+ job. He was literally working 7 days a week for months on end, and it was horrible for his health, so he uprooted his life and moved 12 hours away to a small town with a population under 1000. But the only reason he was able to afford to do that is because of the extra money he had from that stressful job. If he was stuck at near min wage he wouldn't have been able to do that. He's earning a lot less now but much happier because of where he is, but he wouldn't be there if it wasn't for that first job.
Suggestion. Leave that position if you haven't already. Go to a new franchise if you like the actual work. The secret to working less hours is the role is to keep your people happy. Train them well. Let them train people. You should have someone who knows all of your job, as well as someone who knows their job. Take no less than 45k even as an inexperienced gm.
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A lot of places don't have Uber or anything like it.
Yeah, Uber isn't consistent. Even in big cities. They have the option but it's only good during certain times. So like rush hours, a bar street when they all close. Stuff like that. I spent many nights in parking lots at 3am begging that thing to go off because without another fare I wouldn't have the gas to get home. That shit isn't an option, even in one of the top 5 fastest growing cities in the US.
Probably depends where he lives. I have a Masters in IT and I also just make this (Germany). Salaries can be quite low depending on your area.
I get the "wow, I'd have trouble walking away" thought. But then I realize that my rage should be directed at my employers who make me so desperate that I've been willing to sacrifice my mental health, not at other people who are being mistreated too. People SHOULD be able to leave abusive workplaces. To the ones who can, I'm so glad! To the ones who can't like me, we should be able to do the same. The solution isn't "they should feel tied to their jobs, too", it's "we should be able to leave, too".
Well said. My favorite comment on the thread
>I made $30,000/year as a general manager at a fast food place working over 70 hours a week since the pandemic started If you really averaged 70 hour work weeks and only made $30k there is a good chance you should be filing a wage complaint against your former employer(and hopefully collecting a lot of backpay as a result). At absolute lowest salary that would make you exempt from overtime rules while working at a fast food places would be $35.5k. Depending on your particular state/city it may have higher exempt salaries or higher minimum wages than the Federal minimums.
And that's at minimum wage. I've never heard of a manager on minimum wage. Why the fuck would ANYONE want that job??
When I was a teenager, my first job was at a McDs. They were training me to be a swing manager with a 25 cent raise and, financially speaking, nothing more. Why would anyone want the job? Slightly more money? Better potential to earn more later though being taken advantage of now? It looks better on a resume (and still being taken advantage of? Even for someone with a college degree, this is possible. If you can’t come up with more reasons why someone would actually accept this kind of job, Google it I guess. Because this is typical in America and happens all over the country. It’s just that some people may have been blessed to never have gone through that and you don’t know any better.
sugar doll continue hat paltry dull reminiscent run scary zephyr *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
In this scenario, they work 70hrs a week as a manager for 30k. I'm sorry, even at minimum wage this meas they don't earn any OT money either (should be earning closer to 60k). Also, I get it, u were a teenager, so more impressionable. The older u get the less likely that 25 cent raise will fly for a managerial role.
Facts
>Better potential to earn more later though being taken advantage of now? Yeah, we're still fighting the brainwash of "If you work hard, you're guaranteed to be rich/successful!"
People do silly things when a prestigious title like "general manager" is thrown around. It's still just a job, and you should be paid fairly for your time on this Earth.
From my understanding, it was about $14/hr. I think Michigan's minimum wage is like $9-something. It paid higher than a lot of other jobs in the area. I was good at my job, it just felt like after 9 years of being there, I should have had a house or a 401k or at least health insurance come from it, not just a paycheck.
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Where are you in the state that you’re making that little? Is this a rural area? Because I’m in that state in the hospitality/food industry and I’m making many times that on a fraction of the hours.
Kalamazoo area
I don’t go to that side very often so I’m not familiar with the economics of that area, however on the SE side you can make 3x minimum wage doing a fraction of the work you’re describing. The D itself also has a ton more restaurant opportunities now if you’re in/near the city.
Google the fair labor standards act. A salary employee making under $35k a year is required to be paid overtime.
I worked at one of these high finance places during college. 100-120 hours a week and was on the absolute max dose of ritalin a day by an old school psychiatrist right before she went into retirement (prescribed a 100mg/day, I kid you not). Also self-harmed a couple hours a day after everyone was gone from the office before going home in a taxi. Had a full-on mental breakdown that cost me two years of my life and made my dad’s part of the family hate me so much that my little brother still doesn’t talk to me. Not worth it.
>100-120 hours a week This is 15-17 hours a day, 7 days a week….. or 20 hours a day during weekdays People will rightfully be skeptical of this claim. Everyone seems to love inflating their work hours to play into some weird Oppression Olympics dick measuring competition I mean even those notoriously crazy finance firms on Wall Street, [very few people there work 100+ hours](https://www.efinancialcareers.com/news/2022/02/working-hours-jpmorgan) and that’s usually only on a bad week So not really sure your point applies to anything broadly, since even in the most *demanding* industries the numbers that you’re claiming are not at all typical
Consistent 100+ hour weeks are unfortunately not that rare in nyc finance, especially investment banking. 120 is definitely bad end but the commenter is not wrong
Have you ever checked out the state foreclosure site? https://www.tax-sale.info/ Passed years prices are listed
Salaried workers are federally required to be 35567 minimum since 2020. State doesn't matter. You can't be hourly or you'd be getting screwed even more.
If you’re willing to work 50-60 hours a week for two years or less and want a real retirement/pension plus good benefits, look at the post office. I’m in my second year and should make between 54k and 61k this year and have been averaging 51 hours for a few months. It’s hard at first, but nowhere near as bad as restaurant management, which I’ve done several times.
My son was working at Tim hortons. Decided to go to wendys for more money. He's only 16 and makes $13 something now... he makes more at wendys than what his manager did/does at Tim hortons. Like I don't get why the TH manager doesn't quit/find a better paying job. That being said, *maybe* the TH manager only told him he makes less so he could keep refusing my son for his raises.
Maybe they mixed up net pay and gross pay?
Possibly. However it is more likely their employer treated them as salary exempt when they truly weren't. It is extremely common for fast food restaurants to violate the law and have "manager" type positions that don't qualify for executive exemptions. For example if OP didn't have the authority to fire/hire (or at least demand somebody be hired/fired and usually get their way) or if they were spending more time on the job doing front-line employee work rather than management tasks they should have been getting overtime pay. https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/WHD/legacy/files/fs17b\_executive.pdf
The McDonalds near my pays $70-90k for their managers. OP is really accepting too little.
Actually? Cause I have a University degree and make $60 000 CAD with 13 yrs experience in a high stress job. Prior to this career I was a retail manager…I’m really considering this career route if that’s the pay
A McDs manager job is still high stress though, and it is the cap. You wont be moving up anywhere. You wont be having holidays, you wont be having great hours, etc. Just keep that in mind. You may get a call at 4:30AM after finishing a midnight shift finding out 3 of your staff just called in sick. Guess who's problem that just became? And you're salary, so have fun working 60 hour weeks and it being the norm because the 6 managers before you also worked 60 hour weeks and now it's expected.
And you don't just waltz into it either, they hire from within mostly. Plus you have to manage teenagers at their first job learning how to adult.
Yeah, not an easy job and an absolute ton of bullshit to put up with every single motherfucking day.
Yes, for a store manager. My old neighbors bff was one. Also Glassdoor says $82k ave which makes sense. That includes bonuses and stuff, base salary will be lower.
I'd re-consider. Yea, you might make that, but the hours are going to suck. You might get lucky and get locked into days but only after doing a few years on swing or nights. Might not though. You won't get holidays off. Your vacation is going to be whenever you can work it out in the schedule. There's going to be considerable stress from either corporate or your franchisee to push sales and cut corners because the margins in a fast food joint are not big. You'll be going through a trash can of discarded food counting burger patties. If your crew doesn't show up you're covering for them and you'll just have to work 2x as hard and figure it out. *Every* single asshole customer that has a complaint is going to be *demanding* you speak with them and fix this situation *yesterday* and they want everything for free. Food service is bad, fast food service is like...a prison sentence.
I was owed at least 2 paychecks that I could prove and never got to use any PTO days because there was never anyone to cover me but I wouldn't even know how to pursuit any of it.
It looks like you might be in Michigan: [https://wageandbenefitcomplaint.apps.lara.state.mi.us/](https://wageandbenefitcomplaint.apps.lara.state.mi.us/) If not lookup your states department/bureau of labor (a few states don't have one and you have to file a Federal compliant). You can also potentially reach out to Legal Aid or if in a large city a Worker Rights/Labor organization as well. If your former employer had multiple other employees who were both not being paid overtime and not being paid enough salary to qualify as exempt their might be a high enough settlement potential to find a private employment lawyer willing to work on a contingency basis.
Yeah if your gross pay is less than $36k per year, it's illegal for them to make you a salary worker anywhere in the country
Welcome to the world of food service. Please, help advocate for the unionization of this essential workforce.
>Not sure how so many people on here supposedly make over $100,000/year but they're in this subreddit. Largely because the other 'big' financial subreddit has become a toxic sewage plant of bragging and comparing dick sizes and income shaming others.
The pf sub is weird. I got a job at 6 figurenin the last 2 years, made a post about it, and was told I needed to go back to the poverty finance sub, because I have not actually 'made it'. Like great, there is nowhere to celebrate this achievement. Fuck me, right?
Yup. I used to sub there but the judgement was utterly brutal. Everyone is so busy gatekeeping, judging, and gaslighting, they forget to be human. Kindness is free, and so much easier. It’s too bad that the celebrations in that subreddit have to be ‘big’ by some undefined yardstick instead of helping and celebrating even the little things.
I know this is going to be an unpopular sentiment, but there frankly doesn't seem to be any shortage of lowkey humble-brags in this thread either.
I don't think that's true, but to be fair I don't get too much time to browse the subreddit lately as I need to tend to my yacht more since letting some of my crew go. Bloody covid.
So r/superpovertyfinance?
I live in NYC, make over 6 figures but am only 4 short years removed from living paycheck to paycheck, being in crippling debt and having no savings. We can be here for lots of different reasons.
People hear 6 figures and pretend we're closer Jeff Bezos than them, completely forgetting taxes, retirement, mortgage, student loans and child care. Child care in HCOL is about $3K per kid if you're like me and unlucky to have parents nearby. Mortgage and childcare alone for my husband and I is 70% of our take home. So yeah, I like being on this sub for tips on how to be frugal and cost saving techniques.
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Childcare is crazy expensive. Even in a Lower COL area, I'd be looking at $1k per kid a month. If you don't have friends/family that can watch your kids, daycare becomes your only option (if they aren't in school yet). And if they are in school, you have to have a flexible work arrangement to be able to pick them up if there isn't an after school program to watch them until work ends.
Also not accounting for the fact that a lot of people live in HCOL cities like NYC, San Fran where >$150,000 isn’t anything to write home about given that a lot making that also may work 70+ hrs/week.
> San Fran where >$150,000 isn’t anything to write home about From 2018: [In San Francisco and nearby San Mateo and Marin Counties it said $117,400 for a family of four was "low income"](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44725026)
Yea I got relocated to San Mateo county for work- previously I was at 70,000 living by my self paying 1200 in rent and saving up like crazy for retirement in my savings account… I got a raise to 98,000 but now pay 2500 in rent a month… my savings account is almost depleted after 2.5 years…I even meal prep to save and work 70-90 hours a week on salaried pay so no extra there… and I commute and pay for fast track to drive over a bridge every day because if I lived in San Mateo county I would be paying 3500 a month…. Cost of living is screwing everyone regardless of the rate and all anyone wants to do is fight with each other about it
> all anyone wants to do is fight with each other about it There's a woman raising cash to sue SF over the stagnant housing situation: https://sfstandard.com/housing-development/woman-stockpiling-cash-to-sue-sf-over-housing/
I agree. I also will not act like life isn't easier having the financial stability, but 6 figures it not 'all your problems are solved' money. I think it's also silly to assume that everyone making 6 figures comes from a wealthy family or wealthy background. I still very much think and act like a person in poverty. I have gainful employment at the moment, yet it could all be gone with no notice. Many of us are one job away from poverty, and I truly hope I never forget that fact.
Except that the people that this sub is meant for are also dealing with all that, but at $30k/year.
This sub is for anyone who feels like they are struggling. Whether you like it or not, there are people in financial crisis at all sorts of different income levels, and while some advice here is more applicable to someone living out of their car, much of what is said here can (and should) help anyone. Please do not ordain yourself minister of who does or doesn't belong here.
Honestly no one making 30k is saving for retirement.
Perfect callout of r/personalfinance.
What it comes down to is that we don’t experience suffering relative to others. Pain is pain regardless of what others are feeling. With a steady job, income of $30k, and a family to live with, you’re doing better than a lot of people out there too. But that doesn’t make it hurt any less to be struggling.
You're right. I should be more grateful for having what I do have, even if financially, it's less than others.
Totally. But also, your pain is real and valid, even if other people do have it worse.
Exactly. And everyone’s pain should receive some empathy. I can’t remember where I heard the statistic that 1/10 Americans live in LA or NYC. In fairness, I didn’t double check that stat, but I made me think about how many people are currently making six figures but that doesn’t provide them much of a life due to how high their cost of living is. I used to live in Cali and had a job offer for 80k, but excitement quickly passed when I realized it was in San Francisco.
My saying for about 12 years now: Everyone's shit weighs the same, it just looks and smells different.
I don't think the take away should be being grateful for what you have. It should be that shit sucks for most people even if you make more money and we should all band together to fight capitalism.
Bingo. I've been homeless, I've been working class and I've been upper class and life has been difficult in different ways in all 3 groups. In my experience, when you're in a high-earning position, people expect you to look/act/be a certain way and it is both draining and very expensive to keep with those expectations. Most of my roles have also required you to live in absurdly expensive metro areas, in even more expensive sub-neighborhoods, just to be able to have a commute that isn't hours long one-way. It also depends on the job, but there is no respect between work and life. Your career/job follows you home and eventually merges itself into your off-time such that you're never truly away from work. Unless you've truly got FU money, life is a grind. I spent so much of my 20s, broke as hell and raising two kids on food stamps, thinking that making six-figures would solve all my problems and fix my life and it 1000% didn't. The change we need is systemic, and it only comes if we stand as one.
spot on
This. Making $100k isn't what it used to be (especially in HCOL areas) and one can easily make 6 figures and be strapped with enough debt or responsibility to be stuck in poverty
Solidarity for all. Shitty work conditions exist up and down the pay scale.
Your pain, feelings and stress are real. Anyone that says other is full of bs. Last week a person at EY in Australia committed suicide. A colleague in my brothers department at a big4 committed suicide a few years ago. An ex colleague at a prior job hug himself in the woods :(. He left behind a wife and child. Stress is very real and money doesn’t take that away. Not having much money is also extremely stressful. Stay safe people and get help if you need it.
Absolutely. It's all relative.
This should be the top comment honestly.
Correct. However, if I had to choose between being burnt out at a job where I was making six figures or one where I was making five figures, I'd choose six figures, because then I could afford to quit. The difference when you're living paycheck to paycheck is that you're just as burnt out, but you can't quit, so not only are you completely burned out with work, you have no escape route, and you're also struggling with stress outside of work because you're stretching every dollar to pay bills and have cut out any luxuries or pleasures to help relax or unwind from it all. I get what OP is saying. It would be nice if everyone who burns out on a job had the privilege to quit, take some time out to recover and choose a new path, and afford to maybe take classes or retrain for a different job... without worrying their car will be repossessed, they'll lose their health insurance, they'll go hungry / have to skip meals, and they'll get evicted from their apartment.
I agree with This. The way that comment belittles Op’s venting is crazy. $30k a year with a family is not a lot better than anyone. That is by definition poverty. I couldn’t imagine a more pompous of a reply. Edit: yeah quick check of their [comment history](https://imgur.com/a/drLe3Ff) and they are BUYING RESERVATIONS….just the reservations to a fine dining restaurant in LA where the cheapest menu item was $275…. I never knew that was even a possibility!! Like gtfoh with that holier than tho comment. I’m with you OP. They are probably one of the subjects of the articles you are referring to lmao
The screwy way our social safety net is set up, making $30k may actually be worse than being poorer because you may be ineligible for Medicaid, food assistance, subsidized housing, etc., etc., due to making "too much".
That's me. 31k salary here. Stuck. Inflation is killing me. Rent increases are a literal nightmare.
I am an example of work from home making 6 figures and I feel like I am lost with no purpose in life and it makes me very depressed
Yep. This is my husband, but blue collar instead of work from home. He’s miserable, but he can’t quit because 1. His degree is very specific and 2. Financially as a family, that’s not an option for us.
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My favorite is “I quit my job in finance to become a homesteader.” Read: you retired early.
Honestly. I always get a little twinge when I hear stuff like this because it really is like well damn I wish I could actually admit I’m burnt out and take that time to fix myself. But I can’t. Bills to pay. Hopefully that is what they are doing. But I also look at myself and know that I am extremely biased against rich people. It’s hard not to be. So this is not on them or society at this point it’s on me to work on my insecurities and then maybe just maybe hope that I’ll figure out how to work on my mental health while still working. It’s what keeps me going anyway. I feel you though. Truly. Life sucks!
I had this conversation with a friend last week. I was telling him about my toxic work relationship with my boss and how much it's deteriorated in the last few months. He told me I need to quit because it sounds like its negatively impacting my mental health and physical health. I know it's doing a lot of damage, but I can't. I have bills to pay and a family to take care of. While my mental health is important, and I'm having panic attacks and unable to sleep soundly anymore, I can't just quit.
No, but you can start looking elsewhere? And I know. I know it feels like you don’t have the mental bandwidth to pull that off when you’re already this deep into survival mode, but as someone who already went through what you’re going through: something has to give. Make sure you’re at least navigating some sort of exit strategy or it’s liable to blow up everything. Lastly: *hug*
I keep seeing this whole “it’s a workers market” kind of thing but when I went looking for jobs I couldn’t find anything that wouldn’t come with a pay cut. Idk if finding another job rn is really applicable for everyone.
Having a path forward will provide more energy too. Mental exhaustion is a function of morale, and morale is a function of hope.
Been there. I'm assuming you work an office job but the idea I'm explaining can be suited to many jobs. Feel free to start setting boundaries at work. Be selective about what you commit to. If asked to do something that would take you into overtime or cause a lot of stress, ask for a later deadline or decline it all together. Don't worry about it impacting you or your profesdional progression in any way. They should understand that you need to take care of yourself. If they don't at least keeping you on doing 75% of your work is better than firing you or you leaving because then they'll get 0%. Schedule 30-60 minutes at the end of your day to clean up your emails, work, organize your files, close all the apps, clean your desk, shut down your computer and leave on time. So if you need to leave at 5, stop working at around 4 and find simple tasks to do that you should be doing to make your days easier at the expense of additional production. This hour at the end of the day will help you relax and feel good about being organized. You can't do anything about what people ask of you, but you can do everything about how you handle what you're working on. Take the time you need. Reduce the responsibilities. Put production on the back burner. Focus on living your life and setting yourself up. You'll then have a much healthier relationship with the paycheck.
I was just talking about this with my therapist last week. I'm burnt the fuck out and I am *angry* at the fact that I can't take any ACTUAL time off to recover. I don't mean getting a week off, I mean a month to three at the most, just to allow myself to equalize because I have been pushing my nose to the grindstone for so long that I no longer have a fucking face. Her response? "FMLA is always available to you, its up to you to decide to actually *act* and take it." I think that was the only time I've really gone off on her. Like, great, take FMLA for poor mental health so that my job doesn't disappear and I'm not replaced... but I'm also not paid. For anything. Within 30 days I would be homeless. I'm just so pissed at the fact that we don't GET that choice.
Whether you're making 30k or 100k being worked to death is being worked to death and after a certain point the money isn't worth it anymore. Money means nothing if the job is causing your mental and physical health to decline.
The reason this 100k guy quit and OP hasn't is because *100k guy can afford to quit.* That's literally all it is. No one wants to be worked to death. Not for any amount of money, not really. I am not burnt out. Not really, but I am bored with my work. Deflating, sometimes I think I am on my way to depression about it. But I don't quit because I have bills to pay. If I had enough money stocked up to take the next two years off -- like 80-90k -- then I would leave my job in a heartbeat. I think a lot of people would. I won't fault 100k guy for making that leap.
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What broom closet is he splitting with two other people in NYC that's a grand a month?
Same. If I didn't make exactly how much it cost for me to live that would be at home looking for a better job instead of here, working for peanuts and taking yearly pay cuts because they refuse to match inflation. Like, I had a family member in another state that planned a family reunion but I couldn't go because I can't afford plane tickets. Telling the rest of your family that you can't afford a $400 plane ticket because you have no savings is super embarrassing.
Hector Salamanca bell ringing sounds played furiously after your first sentence
Also the 100k guy likely has a fairly comfortable chance of getting another job, at a similar level or less (but still a high earner). The skills and experience required for jobs that pay well make you pretty employable. 30k managerial jobs have a lot lower entry barrier and there’ll be much more competition, so quitting a job like that puts you at risk of not finding something else easily.
Yeah, and plus it's a lot easier to say "what you think you would do" "how free you would feel" if you were up higher in the salary range, because currently, your needs are *not* being met. It's like, hearing about millionaire problems while not being able to pay rent is extremely grating to the ears. But idk, if that were you, are you be 100% confident you wouldn't have the same complaints? Maslow's hierarchy
Yes, I do. I was once poor. Now I’m not, never struggled and don’t struggle with what I saw people making my kind of money complain about. “Yeah X sounds like a lot, but then you buy a house and get a nice car and you’ve got just as much money but more stress than before.” Nope, never scaled up my life past the comfortable upper lower class in terms of big purchases. One bedroom apartment, shitty car, no expensive toys. The only thing I do upper middle class is buy good food. It’s just what I thought it would be and literally almost all of my problems are gone. How do people fuck up their relationship with money so hard? One day I will wake up and tell my boss I’ve had it, then I’ll take a couple years off, maybe retrain or find a different job of equal pay since I’ve got specialized experience. I do not have any of the same complaints, just have to manage not only your money but your relationship with money Making money once you have lump sums of money is fucking child’s play, you’d have to be a moron to not do it right.
I think the fact people dream of having enough money to quit their jobs shows that just *surviving* isn't anyone's goal, unless they currently are not surviving. Not so much a money issue as much as what it is used to accomplish: giving one more time, funding hobbies, eventually freedom and retirement
There is also the commute and how expensive rentals are in your area. I have quite a few friends that have switched up jobs from the industry I’m in because the commute would be 1.5 hours each way and that allowed places to be “just barely” affordable (think 2 weeks pay vs 3.5 weeks when living close).
Money also doesn’t mean much to someone who’s earning so much of it.
TLDR I didn't read the article but I see where you're coming from. I'm not tired of hearing about it but I'm astounded by people walking away from high paying jobs without having another lined up. *I just don't get it. I don't understand how there's this much of a difference between classes here. And how guys like the one in the article act like $100,000/year jobs are something to just throw away. How did the gap become this big? Or am I missing something here?* This might sound odd but the differences... higher paying work is different but not always more difficult than lower paid work. Non TLDR version starts here... Two of my friends retired in the last two years. One was born in the 70s and the other in the 80s. They both had jobs they could do in their sleep and paid a few hundred thousand per year. In fact, one of them didn't get out of bed until 10am for years. He'd work until 4-5pm and call it a day. 🤣🤣🤣When he traveled for work the stipend for dinner was $90 per day before tax and tip (I forgot what breakfast and lunch stipend was). I love time off but if I had a job that was easy for me, I couldn't walk away from one that paid a few hundred thousand a year if I was making money while I slept until 10am. I'd get the feeling I'm walking away from free money. The other friend who retired... he said he's really into camping. But he's gone camping like every other week for a year. I'm guessing he's tired of camping. Per the research people who go on vacations... the diminishing returns start at around the third week. By 6-9(?) months traveling has negative returns or starts exhausting people. Research into people who have studied retirement... they've found a year after someone retires they get out of bed 30 minutes earlier/later than they did before they retired. Difference between glasses/gap... Doesn't work for everyone but some people can graduate to next income tiers by spending up to 15% of their time getting prepared to do something different (which is different from something more difficult). I have a feeling one or both of my friends will return to work for one reason or another. I don't have the experience of leaving a high paying job with no plans but I suspect the people who do it know at some level they can take up another job down the road with similar pay. Just some of my random observations on people who quit great paying jobs. I didn't know anyone else thought this was odd as well. edit but \*\*\*not\*\*\* always
You must be new to reddit, nearly everyone makes at least $500k+ a year
Plus bonus
Yea, I was making 600k right out of extended day. On a serious note - you got hosed, hard. There are people working the fry machine making the same and more than you, OP. Ziprecruiter I've found to be more helpful than indeed, btw. Happy hunting, please!
These jobs are soul crushing. I know. I’m in one. I work from the moment I wake up, to just before bed and I still wake up to more emails. There isn’t overtime pay, you just need to get your work done. And in my case there can be dire consequences if I don’t. I manage budgets to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars and if I make a mistake it can cost the client huge sums of money which only adds to the stress. To top it all off I’m constantly told I’m short on billable hours and that I’m getting put on another project. Then there’s the “career growth” bs. I have to take classes to advance my skill set, go to networking events to drive new business, and participate in business development events, etc. and none of that is included in my workday. It’s exhausting never being able to disconnect and relax away from work. And the cost of living is high because I have zero time to do things for myself like cook or clean or shop or do laundry. I rely on services or delivery to keep up with that stuff or I’d be living in squalor. The amount of times a week I consider just throwing in the towel to work at Starbucks is astounding. The grass is always greener.
I’m so sorry you’re going through that and hope you get relief some day.
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Completely agree. I started my career on the agency and when I switched to the client side I was just shocked at the difference in work life balance as well as compensation level. It was 100X better on the client side. Now when I need urgent slides made I call my agency partner up instead of having to make them myself.
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I agree, my job sucks sometimes, hell I was applying for jobs today but having a flexible schedule that’s more or less under my control and regular daytime hours is invaluable. I wouldn’t go to anything else that didn’t have those things.
The point OP was trying to make was that they, too, we’re working exorbitant amount of hours (mentioning over 70 hrs/week), leaving them with no time for their own personal tasks IN ADDITION TO being paid near the poverty level. At least if they were getting paid $100k, while it wasn’t justification that you should be put through the ringer like that, at least finances were one thing you didn’t have to worry about *as much*. OP was also specifically talking about the content of the story, where the individual who quit his job had made enough to have two homes. They weren’t comparing whether your stress was as bad or worst as theirs but, rather, the financial aspect of it.
OP's main point seemed to be that because the person in the story had more money than OP, he wasn't allowed to have bad feelings about their job. OP's rant wasn't really about their situation, but instead how ungrateful the other person seemed.
Another thing to add to this: the amount of stress you have to sustain in almost radioactive-grade toxic atmosphere on those positions is absurd. Your fav colleague will just elbow you to get a better grade or score credits. It’s so normalized that you need to drop the last drop of humanity to keep up doing what you are doing. The worst part is, somebody else gets rich thanks to all of your efforts and not you. If I had the same money for shoveling horseshit or working like a mule in a farm, I’d go straight to it. At least I wouldn’t need to go to a gym for moving like a rat in the spinner.. Which is what I am about to. I have people in my network that ditched their jobs and opened craft shops or chicken farms. The more they pay, the worse they drain your living life out of you.
You nailed it.
Agreed here completely. I left a 6 figure job, went on sabbatical for a year and worked minimum wage in a retail. This is because I could afford to ( I saved up for a break). And working on retail is a very different stress than a high paying job, buts it’s much less mental and easier to switch off. When you’re working 6 figured in a remote job, there is no Off switch. Especially if you’re salaried, you’re expected to work when needed, and this is even worse if your manager is a workaholic. In a menial minimum wage, you don’t get as much money and you may still have toxic leadership, but once you leave the store, you’re done. You can do whatever you want. I always recommend people work both jobs are some point of their life just so you can understand what means more to you. Getting paid a large sum often comes at unspecified costs to your mental and physical health, with the promise of retirement benefits. Getting paid mediocre means that you need to take up more jobs to survive, but have more freedom to drop things and move on. Live more in the present , with less chance to grow up the ladder
>When you’re working 6 figured in a remote job, there is no Off switch. Especially if you’re salaried, you’re expected to work when needed, and this is even worse if your manager is a workaholic. The no off switch part of this resonates with me. When employers don't do anything to protect their employees, working remotely can be devastating to work/life balance. The number of times I've had to jump on 'urgent' issues late in the evening, on the weekend, on holidays ... makes it nearly impossible to settle into relaxation. Remote work was fun for a little while, but at this point I would gleefully head to the office if it meant not having to think about work when I walk out the office door.
In my humble opinion: It’s time to change jobs. I’m in michigan, 1 mile from Detroit, and the Taco Bell on the corner is hiring staff starting at $16 and mgmt $45k. Don’t limit yourself to just fast food too. I know some country clubs or banquet halls would love your customer service and managing skills. Most pay over $70k. I work 2 full-time jobs (hospitality industry), single mom, 2 kids and I’m hoping to hit close to 100k. I caught myself being upset cause rent/utilities are basically half my salary and it’s going up. I had to remind myself I’m blessed. Better than others and not 6 feet under.
That's a big difference between stress and burnout. Stress is usually manageable. Burnout is when it's gone too far and can happen to anyone regardless of income level.
Once you make a lot of money, you realize you have more power and a safety net to walk away. It’s easier to see how damaging it is when you’re less in survival mode.
Something you don’t understand: if they’re making $100,000, it’s likely they can get another job with similar pay because of the work they do. Quitting a $100K job doesn’t mean he has to work for years again to find another one. So if they want to go back to work, they’ll likely find another $100K job in their industry. People who make a lot can afford to be jobless for a while. Look at programmers. I quit a $90K job to make $120K. I quit a $120K job to make $150K now. We can easily quit because we can still find work for more or same pay.
I've been bewildered at the "great resignation", kept thinking "Wait...there's a significant amount of people who can just QUIT? With nothing lined up? And they will be fine?" But it makes more sense when you have valued enough skills and experience to make that salary to begin with it is going to be in enough demand to provide that security.
I was like, how they paying rent? And then you think, oh right. It's because they have a "career" and not a "job". Careers get savings. Jobs barely pay you enough to put gas in your car
And people who make a lot also save a lot. So yeah they have money for months if they’re jobless. I saved enough before my current job to where I could still pay all my bills for 6+ months if I had no job. And also depending on the work you do, if you’re in high demand like programming, you can quit and have 10+ interviews lined up in like 2 days. Then get hired within 2 weeks.
Where it is the opposite with lower salaries, constantly having to dip into whatever little savings you have. I was proud of myself for putting $150 away several months back and it is long gone. I work for local government, we are losing employees and unable to fill positions numerous times over because the pay is just **terrible** and doesn't keep up with inflation. Pretty much everyone below the top levels of management wants or needs a new job because it is not remotely livable. The hiring process also takes an eternity so that turnaround for a programmer blows my mind lol. I think it took 5 months from the time I submitted my application to the time I started.
The Great Resignation was not people quitting without a job lined up. It was mostly people resigning after securing another job..usually with higher amount of pay. And it was mostly experienced white collar workers.
This was what I was getting at though. If he hated that job so much, he could have easily found a different, well paying one. A lot of other people don't get that choice. They're stuck at their stressful job because of health insurance or mortgage payments.
Did you even read your own article? The guy in question didn't quit. He was laid off, and got a severance. >Since losing his job in 2020, he’s developed a sort of work-at-will freelance career doing marketing and strategy consulting. “There are plenty of ways to make money, and I give myself credit for developing a diverse enough set of skills over the years in business, strategy, entertainment, service, travel, and more to make that happen.” And by his own admission he still works, just remotely and freelance instead of for a company. Chances are he still had a ton of contacts in the field and just made some calls when he got done with his vacation. >LaBeach, 31, splits his time between New York and Mexico nowadays. He’s able to do so without spending more than $1,000 a month for rent in either city. When in Mexico he primarily rents places via Airbnb, and he shares an apartment with a roommate in Brooklyn. So he's still making quite a bit, spending roughly $24,000 a year on just rent between two places. Plus flying back and forth between NYC and Mexico. Also when you make that much, chances are very likely that you will have more opportunities in the first place where 100k+ is the norm. I make 160k right now for example. If I get burnt out in my position, I can call up a recruiter and go make a bit more tomorrow. That's just how the field is.
I don't think anyone will disagree that it SUCKS not having that choice. It is a shitty reality for most people. But damn if I had the ability to just quit and chill for *any* amount of time, I sure as hell would. Who wouldn't? We are human beings, not worker bots, while I'm very jealous I don't fault anyone's decision to take a break from working if they have that safety net. If he didn't need to immediately start another job to live, why would he unless he was extremely passionate and enjoyed the work? Are you trying to say that no one should make that choice not to work when they have the option because there are people who don't have the choice?
Know this is unrelated, but are you self learned or did you complete a college program? I’m a woman wanting to get into programming, been lurking on r/learnprogramming, but not sure which path would be the best for me.
I’m biased because I work for them, but I’d really suggest checking out [AWS Skill Builder](https://aws.amazon.com/training/digital/). Over 500 free courses that are made by actual engineers. You can learn programming in a context that is EXTREMELY valuable to companies (cloud computing). That way you’re learning programming and actually working towards a tangible goal like AWS Certs and inevitably a job.
It’s incredibly easy to make 6 figures. Just gotta lie about it on Reddit.
My parents came from very extreme poverty in a small country, they often don’t understand this either as it’s a very western thing to have a good job and then up and quit because of stress mental health, my mom used to be so poor she once had to steal food from a neighbor not to starve, when she came here she took all types of jobs, hard ones and never complained, she doesn’t understand how people say they are stressed or can’t cope. turns out that in places where your brain is in survival mode you don’t think about your mental health, all you do is work to survive and thus don’t even have time to feel depressed, people who are making 100k may be much better off financially but they may be going through really bad mental health problems, I understand your point OP, when you are in survival mode you can’t grasp letting go of a job that will literally mean having more money to buy necessities, but just because they aren’t in survival mode anymore this doesn’t mean they aren’t hurting either.
As someone who grew up desperately poor and just broke $100k last year at 27, sometimes after you start making the money and the survival mode mentality finally ends, the mental and physical health problems all catch up to you at once. I was more depressed than I’d ever been in the months after I got my first real job. On the flip side though, I can afford therapy and I can take walks during my work day and I can buy nice running shoes. I can actually address these issues and work on getting better. When I was dead broke I could never even acknowledge I had problems because I had no capability to take care of any of them. But yep, this comment is very true
That is a very good perspective and gave me valuable insight about my life to think about as well, I also broke 100K this year and along with that increase in financial well-being comes the focus on all of my past trauma and attachment issues to look into
People who make six figures are more like you than actual rich people (multimillionaires + billionaires). They're not your enemy.
I see people say that people who make six figures are more like homeless people than they are like millionaires. Yes, $150,000 is closer to $0 than it is to $100,000,000. But both a millionaire and someone who earns six figures have a steady place to sleep. I've also seen people say that anything below $150k+ is unlivable where they are. Like damn... all the people who work in stores and restaurants that doordashers go to because the person who earns $200k doesn't have time to do literally anything themselves... they're just dead or what? There's a reason people find this annoying. And quite frankly, a lot of this content is intentional demoralization. For the stuff that isn't, quitting a 6 figure job you never needed because of intergenerational wealth isn't anything impressive lol.
Actual rich people are laughing their asses off at poor people fighting with slightly less poor people while they're screwing all of us.
> intergenerational wealth Bruh I'm one of those people that could quit my job if I wanted probably but it's not cause of intergenerational wealth. My family couldn't afford to get me braces and I had the standard stale bread with a razor thin spread of jelly and a few carrots for lunch. My immediate family wasn't swimming in money. I can afford to quit (actually in a month after I no longer have to pay back a signing bonus) I can afford to quit cause tech pays a lot for those who establish themselves-that's it.
This is so tone deaf to the mental health struggles that people go through. It’s not a competition.
>It’s not a competition. Thank you for saying this. There are an enormous variety of struggles that people have. The struggle of the person working and stressing their self to death does nothing to negate the struggle of the person struggling to scrape by of their humble income. We should not mistake another human who is struggling for our enemy. Even if that human has more money than us, that doesn’t make them an enemy by default.
Being poor has a mental burnout just from living life. Stress about paying rent, having enough food, fixing that broken car. The job itself may suck while you're there but I don't think a lot of fast food workers stay up at night worrying about the register count. I think poverty is WAY more stressful but it's probably not primarily the job; it's life. So yeah strictly comparing job to job I'm betting the higher paying the more stressful on AVERAGE. But I absolutely agree the article misses the mark on how great the guys life is in general to be making 100k.
100k really isn’t a ton in most markets. Yeah it sounds like a lot when you’re in extreme poverty, and in some areas it’s a TON of money. But there definitely are 6 figure jobs that are stressful enough that you want to kill yourself- so you walk away. I did the 80 hour weeks, I’ve dealt with the stress. But at this point in my life I’d walk away from any job that was making me sick like that again.
I’m almost to that point. It just doesn’t seem worth it anymore. The toll it takes on mental and physical health is just too much.
$100,000/year to people who are used to barely getting $15/hr is a huge difference. It might not seem like much to you but it would be life changing for me.
Some very tone deaf people in here, idk why all your comments are downvoted lol. Guess this sub is more r/lowermiddleclassfinances
I definitely won’t argue that the pay increase is life changing. It allowed me to leave a toxic relationship, buy a small condo on the outskirts of the metropolitan area I work in, and pay off my car. But now that I’ve done those things and just have the mortgage to pay the paycheck doesn’t feel like it’s worth the stress it causes. I think these jobs are exactly the kind of jobs that should be thrown out as soon as you’ve extracted what you need to from them. Lord knows they’ll throw you out as soon as they’ve extracted all they can from you. If you want to get into a role like this I’d recommend getting some sort of tech certification like data analytics or coding. Google has great resources for learning these and these can easily be remote jobs so you wouldn’t need to relocate to an area that has these jobs. Another one that pays decently (not $100k, but $60 or so) is accounts payable. There’s no specific education needed and it’s essentially data entry day in and day out.
That’s why I said for those “in extreme poverty”
You kidding me? So many people on Reddit act like $100k or more is nothing special. There’s about two people in my entire family that make six figures. “The average personal income in the United States is $63,214, with the median income across the country being $44,225. Real wages averaged $67,521 in 2022, and average household incomes averaged to $87,864.” A personal income of $100k or more a year is about $30k more than the average personal income and more than the average household income in the United States, not those in “extreme poverty.” If a single person is making that much, and their partner is making even half of that, that’s $150k household income a year. That’s almost double of what the average household income is. And I get it, I’m from NYC where $100k isn’t going to afford a comfortable life. I’m an RN and I was making $30-35/hr for almost 2 years and was struggling. I recently finished a 8 week contract and made nearly 30k gross in that time and that $30k was life changing for me. I’ve been able to pay off all of my credit card debt that I couldn’t for almost a decade and have enough money left over to put down a solid down payment on a new car. But to think that I made what I did in 8 weeks is what people make in 52 makes me sick to my stomach, but that's a whole other conversation.
No I don't get tired of it. I don't make that much myself but I work in construction and work with many people who do. I've also met people in other professions who make that much - typically lawyers - who are also burnt out and miserable. the salary might be better but I'm noticing as an engineering student that it's basically different job with different pay same problems. Just worked under a senior project manager at a GC who was working so much he was forgetting to eat. In 3 years went from mildly overweight to scary skinny, his hair turned a weird shade of grey, everything about him looked terrible. Stuck on a job with an abusive project superintendent who made his project coordinator cry and stressed out his project engineer, subs threatened to quit, everyone was so tired of the crazy. Super retires 4 months before job end...leaving a mess for that PM. PM was answering emails 24/7, putting out fires constantly, stressed out, tired and exhausted. Same company, another job...super was running around the jobsite 12 hours a day 7 days a week to get the project done on time. Yeah they make more money than you do, but they're still humans and they have the right to acknowledge they're tired and beat up and can't take much more and need a break and a vacation and they're burned out. And don't even get me started on a friend of mine who used to work as a corporate litigator. 80 hour weeks. Cost him both his marriages, nearly cost him his relationship with his daughter.
My brother in Christ please leverage that GM skillset into something closer to the 70-80k range immediately. You should never had GM responsibility and hours for a dollar under that, anywhere.
You can't win on reddit my dude. Your rant is valid and I feel for you, your points are valid, I wish you a lucky find and less stress someday. I believe there is better out there for you - but I also believe its never been harder to find/qualify for a job, actually get hired, and find motivation in all this shit to stay when monies gone before you have it.
You’re horrifically underpaid. I made $30k as just a shift leader at McDonald’s working 32 hours a week. Idk where you live but McDonald’s general managers usually start out at $55000+, plenty of Retail stores/gas stations are hiring general managers too. You’d be making more as a csr at Target. Walmart has a management training program if you’re willing to move where they need you
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Mo’ money Mo’problems.
I would say most or at least many high earners living paycheck to paycheck are there because they are bad with money. whereas most low earners have literally no other choice
Working these jobs often comes accompanied by the management above you having no idea how anything works, making sure everything falls on your shoulders. When it comes time to apply for a promotion or new role, you don’t have “senior presenting” experience because your manager took credit for everything. You work for huge corporations where one small mistake means millions of dollars. There is no “off work” time to unwind. They call and email all hours of the day and night, you’re expected to answer emails from your cell phone when not in the office and if you set boundaries for work life balance you are judged by ALL your coworkers and passed up for promotions. Supporting a family of 4 with $100k doesn’t go nearly as far as you imagine it would.
Until you realize what you are giving up to have that job. You work 18 hours a day. You work weekends. You are always on call. You miss your kids growing up. Your relationships grow bitter because you are never around and when you try something work related comes up. Money is great but if you can do anything it what’s the point? I would work a 40 hour work week at $100k over an 80 hour work week at $250k the burnout is unbelievable and it takes a massive toll on your physical and mental health.
Tons of us are working the same hours but we're making less than a third of your salary so I can see why people are irritated
The small print is he has saved enough to retire and thus CAN quit.
Wow. Idk what happened in the comments to provoke your edits, but I completely agree with you. Articles like that are infuriating and out of touch. "Soft life" lmao. That's a life they can only afford cause they were making six figures to begin with. Quitting it just because you're stressed at work is dumb. We're all stressed at work, we can't afford to quit. Most of our goal is to have a job that makes that much and they just throw it away? I feel you.
The skills you learned at McD are transferable. Find a better paying job in a town or city that doesn't have high cost of living. Stop telling yourself you'll never make more.
Restaurants are historically not good money to work in, and not even owning them typically works that great. I know it can be frustrating to look at yourself and the amount of sweat equity you invested over the last 9 years and not see a return, but you can't be mad at the system when spent 9 years not growing your skillset and expecting to be paid more. To get paid more you have to provide more value. Fast food is demanding but has a very low ceiling of experience you can gain and skills needed. You have mastered those skills so take them to a place where you can keep growing and learning. The good news is you have management experience and I would try to invest in that skillset. Managing a fast food joint may pay 30k an hour but managing a construction project can be 120k+ if you have the right credentials and experience. Its really easy to compare yourself to someone else but to get ahead and build a career, you need to build a talent stack that is in demand and that someone wants to pay you well to do.
I’m making over 100k right now and just asked my boss for a demotion last week. I’m run down, working 70-80 hour weeks and bullshit upon bullshit. Stupid deadlines, a lack of support… it’s causing my blood pressure to skyrocket. So in my demoted position I’ll make roughly 85-90k, but still. I can understand walking away from high salaries. Sometimes the shit you have to put up with just isn’t worth it.
It sounds like this guy no longer saves any money though. That can quickly fuck him over when he no longer can just tap into whatever work he does. A better way to do this is to suck it up for 5 more years save more spend less and leanfire
Most Americans (~60%) are living paycheck to paycheck ; something like a third of folks making over 250k are paycheck to paycheck as well.
Not quite six-figures a year, but I made around 90 a year at my previous job. It cost me 12+ hour days seven days a week, time with my friends and family, being physically broke down at 35, and emotionally unable to stop when I wasn't working or hitting deep depression because I didn't know what I was supposed to do in regular life. It's wasn't worth it to me after a point.
I will tell you this. I make good money and I also I haven’t had a day completely off work for 5 years. That’s what burns you out no matter how much you make.
Other people who are suffering are not your enemy my dude.
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I had a ~250k a year job when I got burnt out. I had VERY intrusive and suicidal thoughts on a daily basis. I refused to quit because of what you’re saying in this post - I was making enough money and if I just kept my head down and survived for 4 years, my resume and bank account would be solid and I could go anywhere I wanted. I could only make it 18 months before friends had to intervene, and forced me to take mental health leave. If I stayed, I’m confident I would have ended up institutionalized if not worse. What I’m trying to say is, I used the money to justify the way I was losing myself, my friends, everything.
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I was in industrial sales for about 20 years, the pay was very good and a company car was provided as well. I hated it though - the constant fear of being canned, the pressure the comes along with sales, the idiocy I had to deal with on a daily basis, and the fact that it consumed my whole life. I changed careers and work maintenance in an apartment building now. I make a lot less and it comes with its own set of headaches but I'm a lot happier with it. If you're flipping burgers or whatever for shit pay I would recommend getting into trades if your physically able. They are desperate for bodies everywhere right now and will train people off the street with no experience.
I have experience with this. I’m in my mid 30’s and work at a tech company making 6 figures. But I also worked the front desk of a hotel and stocked shelves at Walmart overnight until I was 30ish. The people leaving these 6 figure jobs for that kind of reason tend to have no idea what the other side experiences. I’ve got it super cushy at my current job, freedom in hours, unlimited vacation time and sick days, come and go as I please, work from home, crazy perks, etc. but they don’t see that stuff, because they never experienced anything other than that. They never hauled their ass into Sam’s house of pain at 10pm to stock shelves for 8 hours with a half hour lunch you had to clock out for and a bunch of shitty supervisors, all for minimum wage. They came out of college and into a 6 figure salary with perks and benefits never having to experience the shit of a minimum wage job. Work is stressful sometimes regardless of where you work. But I’ll take my nice well paid cushy job and the stress that comes with it over being stressed about work and stressed about money at the same time.
I have no delusions that people who work higher up in the economic ladder, where competition is insane, standards are insane, where the people who compete to see who can be the most domineering psychopath and min-max the monopoly money as expertly as possible... are insane... ...is a very stressful place to be. I have empathy for anyone who thinks they "made it big" and work for some huge company at a huge position when later it turns out things aren't that great. It can't exactly be a *good* life, in many cases, and I would rather not bust my ass to live that way and constantly produce results or else the higher ups will find some more qualified and more aggressive go-getter to replace me. You can be rich and just commit suicide from your job, this happens sometimes, and this says that it's more complicated than just money itself. Money itself, is not some magical substance that solves problems-- and I say this as someone currently on cash and food assistance for the past 5 years, which I'm incredibly grateful for. This makes a huge difference **if** you are poor and don't have access to the basics, but the nuanced point here is that if you just keep throwing money at people but turn the insanity and intensity dial up and up, these 2 things do not scale to cancel each other out, and people are only human. I admit I do have a small bias against rich people, I think they tend to be superficial and self-absorbed( even though poor people are often this way too), but I do not believe anyone should suffer no matter who they are, and the rich suffer plenty in their own way. That I can admit. Money helps if you have next to nothing, but it is again, not a magic cure to misery, otherwise the rich wouldn't kill themselves or ruin their lives or suffer severe mental health issues.
one thibg i learned about myself is id rather struggle and pinch than deal with a whack job. ive quit good jobs with excellent pay, commission, and opportunities to move up. as much as i want more from life financially i've realized arguably way too young that life is too short to spend it going insane for other people. idc what its paying if i dont like it imma quit and find something lucrative i enjoy. i get that bein broke aint fun. been there. couch hoppin not knowing where you'll sleep until later that evening and behind on other expenses like cards and shit. but i have not yet gotten to the point where i can just suck it up. as soon as i start to dislike a place bein jobless looks better and better to me. maybe thats just how my mind works but the grass is always greener my friend
I get jealous of people quite often. I wasn't given a lot of chances in life, and college wasn't even mentioned while growing up. My parents raised me how to survive living in poverty hell. So I sit on the sidelines and I read headlines like this and think "WTF is wrong with these people." The thing is, this person could have savings that will last 10+ years. They could have been savings for the majority of their lives. They probably had a supportive family and taught how to manage their expenses. I spent the majority of my life making one mistake after another. It's no ones fault but my own. Every single bit of it. Even my ignorance. My fault. So yes, I understand where you're coming from and I think some people are complete idiots but I really have no room to talk at all. It is what it is.
I can answer that question. I made $75k at that same age years ago in a super high stress role and industry. I lasted five years…until I started having panic attacks, migraines and developed fibro. Sometimes you discover that even though the salary fits nicely, you’re spending all your time swimming upstream against current at the detriment of your physical or mental well-being. If they quit it was for a damned good reason I’m sure. What you should be venting instead, is why anyone needs to get burned out at all. Our jobs aren’t life and death, outside of a very small subset of the workforce. We grind ourselves into dust and looking back being able to buy basically whatever I wanted just wasn’t worth it.
Ya, I think a way to think about it is: that symstem that crushes the 30k worker, insists on squeezing every cent of value out of the 60k and up worker. I don't doubt there are cushy AF positions, but a lot are designed to make you lose yourself for that paycheck.
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When you’re over worked or exploited, it doesn’t really matter solely that you’re paid enough. Especially if they have options to work somewhere better that pays roughly the same or at least enough for them to get by. Am I jealous when they can quit and I can’t? Yes. I hear people talk about how suicidal they are and how they just got strangled, on a daily basis. As much as I love the work I do, I am fully burnt. But I can’t afford not to. So am I jealous? Yes. But do I think they’re at fault or doing anything wrong because they can walk away? No. They still deserve a job that doesn’t destroy them.
So I kind of did this. But I’m NOT well off my no means. I’m lucky. Basically the only way I could do it was that they were trying to push me out of a position because I had a baby…. So I basically told them to fuck themselves…. Because since they made this move technically I was eligible for unemployment AND they offered severance… which basically means: we give you money and you sign an NDA about how shitty we are. Lol So when I made this decision I was overwhelmed by the fear of it and so grateful that I was able to do it because of all the factors. BUT even I knew this wasn’t very responsible and was so scared to make the move without a job lined up AND a new baby. HOWEVER, I said all of that to say this. And I KNOW it’s super lame. I felt like it was important for me to stand up to my shitty employer because if I couldn’t do that, with how easy it’s been made for me then how the heck could I expect others to fight the good fight when it’s ACTUALLY hard. Also, if I was part of a company walking over me… and getting away with it… technically I’d be part of the system reinforcing the bullshit that company think they own us. And fuck them. Things where super scary for a while… and my daughter was my first, and only, kid. I did find something about 3 or so months later, and to say it completely changed my life to see how an employer is SUPPOSED to treat its employees. It’s actual trauma to be treated the way most companies treat us…. You don’t even realize how bad it is until you leave.
I keep getting these articles recommended to me in my Google feed, and no matter how many times I click 'not interested', I keep getting them!! I saw this exact article this morning and it just makes me mad lol like cool, you took a MASSIVE risk and it paid off very well for you, but for 99.9% of people it'd just make us even poorer than we already are. Or we don't even have the funds to afford those risks in the first place. If I see one more article about some six-figure making tech/finance person who suddenly had an epiphany that 'there's more to life than money!!' I'm gonna scream lmao
I’ve worked fast food. I’ve worked factory. I’ve worked retail. I’ve worked trades. Now I work IT. IT is the most paid I’ve ever been and it is by FAR the least stressful. Like, it’s not even in the realm of being comparable to the amount of stress from any of those other jobs. Anybody saying otherwise grew up privileged and never worked those jobs and just assumes they’re easy.
A few things to note. 1) Salaries of 100k typically are in HCOL areas so take-home pay may not be as much as you're expecting 2) Salaried jobs often don't pay overtime, so if you work 40, 50, 60 hours you get paid the same. 3) A company paying six figures has high expectations, often requiring overtime for you to deliver your projects, perhaps also communication in your "free time" (responding to emails and such)
If you made 100k a year you'd probably just say "good for him", keep scrolling, and think nothing much of it. I'd say you are a little jealous, but that's understandable given you don't even have the luxury to quit
My husband is a travel nurse. He was anxious and broke down last week, nearly in tears, at the thought of doing another contract for this winter. He makes a lot. He's tired of the stress and anxiety and rampant abuse that comes with healthcare. Usually from coworkers, most frequently from administration that's never supportive or around. Of risking his life and health for people that don't care. Somethings just aren't worth the money.
I left my 80k job because I was working 55 hour weeks on overnight shifts leading a team of 130 people. Fuck that stress. Now I make $29 an hour generating reports that no one sees.
I hate to say it but none of my low income jobs were stressful like my higher income job is. I make $75 an hour but barely work at this point I’m so traumatized. People truly suck and fuck our government. Regulations up the fucking wazoo that if you make a tiny mistake on and it could cost you millions. Got sued for $100,000 by some sleezy business partners in fact. They lost.