Money or fulfillment?

Sambucus_Nigra

You can't make a decision until you have more than one offer on the table, surely?

Dunroamin

mandi wrote: »

Why would any parent want to spend £1,500 a month on domestic help Dunroamin ?

If Jody makes the choice to go part time she wont have the time to sit around trust me .

You may love housework, shopping and ironing - many of us don't find it all that fulfilling!

Dunroamin

samtoby wrote: »

I have worked full time since my little boy was 6 months old. Only now (he is nearly 9) have I just got a part time job. It came to me almost and I am lucky in my new job to be earning what I was full time for part time now so I am able to spend more time with my son. Difference is now that he wants to play with the children outside and invite them in to play and not spend time with Mummy so much unless its cuddled by the tv so I have been using the time to do the house work so I get to use my weekend time with my partner who works long hours all week and we can do things as a family.

I wish now if I had gone part time. But in hindsight I had a lot of debt to pay back so I probably would not be debt free. Its a touch one but if your able to I would work part time. Plenty of time for full time when your children are older.

But the OP's children may well be your son's age now (or older) and, as you say, not wanting to spend much time indoors with mum. Sacrificing £1,500 pcm, plus possible career progression, is a bit of a waste just to catch up with the housework.

Poppy9

avantra wrote: »

Ha, public services , it is a different planet to private sector wage slavery/no pension/no PT

.

Public sector also equals "job evaluation" which you may not have heard of. It usually involves taking pay from middle earners to raise the pay of the low paid. This meant pay cuts of 2k-10k. Not quite sure how someone is meant to cope with a 10k pay cut, even 2k is bad enough. You can take out insurance to protect your mortgage against redundancy and ill health (though some companies won't pay out for redundancy for public sector if there have been any threat of redundancy in the media) but you can't insure again pay cuts as far as I am aware. We are talking people earning under 21k losing upto 7k from their salary.

marisco_2

JodyBPM wrote: »

It is located fairly close to me, but I'd have to drive 1 junction of the M25 to get there, which won't be fun!

Which junction? I am not stalking you by the way. It is just that some, well most actually, are absolutely notorious. Anything near Heathrow or around Woking toward Reigate I wouldn't want to face on a daily basis at all. Did that for years and it became a very tedious and stressful part of my day. I guess if you could work out an alternate route then it would be okay.

With young children and being in the fortunate financial position you are in I would put fullfillment ahead of a high wage.

JodyBPM

marisco wrote: »

Which junction? I am not stalking you by the way. It is just that some, well most actually, are absolutely notorious. Anything near Heathrow or around Woking toward Reigate I wouldn't want to face on a daily basis at all. Did that for years and it became a very tedious and stressful part of my day. I guess if you could work out an alternate route then it would be okay.

With young children and being in the fortunate financial position you are in I would put fullfillment ahead of a high wage.

Junction 8-9! Not sure that an alternative route would work, as the M25 would virtually take me door to door with literally about 5 mins drive each end.

CH27

Have you asked if there is any way job one could be part time?

peachyprice

Dunroamin wrote: »

But why assume that sitting round the house waiting for the children to come in from school would be more fulfilling than an interesting job? That's why I asked the OP what she would do in the time she would have free if she worked part time.

You can buy an enormous amount of domestic help for £1,500 a month.

Why assume that working part time hours gives you time to sit around the house witing for the children to come home from school?

I work 20-ish hours a week, so part time hours, when the children are at school, I go when they go, I am home by the time they are home.

I don't spend the extra hours I would work if I were working 37 hours a week sitting at home but it does mean I have always been there to enable them to do any out of school activities they wished, and am there at the end of the school day to help with homework, talk about their day etc., take them to friends, have friends round after school, none of this would happen if I worked full-time, it would a case of walk in the door, do dinner, do a bit of homework and bed.

JodyBPM

Thanks guys.

Just to clear up a few things - I currently work part time, so I know I won't be bored as I have plenty of hobbies. I certainly don't sit around twiddling my thumbs waiting for the children to come home:)

The part time, lower paid job is more interesting to me. They are both in the same broad field, but the higher paid one I think would be quite dry and technical, whereas the lower paid one is a bit softer and more people orientated, which I would enjoy more.

The cut of £6k from my existing salary is FTE. As I only work 0.5, it would only equate to £3k less tax and NI in my pocket. The pay cut certainly wouldn't cause us financial hardship, but its just a bit galling to devalue myself.

The £1500 difference is mainly due to the other job being full time, plus being £10k higher paid. I guess I could see if part time hours were possible in this job, but even then, the other job appeals more because of the role itself.

Now the children are getting older (just heading into juniors) I do think that I've had the luxury of being part time for many years, and it would be perfectly reasonable for me to work full time again. I feel it would be the right thing to do for my career and my finances to go full time on the higher salary. But I *want* to do the lower paid job and to work part-time.

I need to prepare for the interviews today, and I keep sliding back to prepping for job 2, although job 1 is more technical, and therefore I should be putting more prep work in!

Deep down, I think I know what I want, but just needed you guys to reassure me. It's a hard thing to do to make a decision that, on paper, seems like the least sensible option!

CH27

peachyprice wrote: »

Why assume that working part time hours gives you time to sit around the house witing for the children to come home from school?

I work 20-ish hours a week, so part time hours, when the children are at school, I go when they go, I am home by the time they are home.

I don't spend the extra hours I would work if I were working 37 hours a week sitting at home but it does mean I have always been there to enable them to do any out of school activities they wished, and am there at the end of the school day to help with homework, talk about their day etc., take them to friends, have friends round after school, none of this would happen if I worked full-time, it would a case of walk in the door, do dinner, do a bit of homework and bed.

I loved having the time to talk to son & his friends. After school over a drink & snack was the time I could he happy with him, calm him down, wipe his tears or plan with him.

I think as they get older they need you just as much but it just in different ways.