Lately, I’ve been reflecting a lot on whether to keep climbing the corporate ladder or settle into a steady job with a decent income. I’m 48, earning around 180k gross per year, and my wife works part-time. We have two kids and own a modest but comfortable house in Switzerland, where it’s easy to fall into the trap of constant comparison with others.
The company I work for is stable, and as long as I don’t make any major mistakes, I should be secure for the foreseeable future. However, over the past couple of years, I’ve realized that chasing career growth comes with significant sacrifices—stress, lack of time, and, ultimately, little happiness in return. For me, the extra money isn’t worth it anymore.
Recently, I’ve started exploring the idea of simplifying my life—something like the “Mustachian” philosophy resonates with me. Financially, I feel content and don’t have big ambitions for my career anymore. I’ve even considered reducing my working hours to 80–90%.
That said, I’m feeling a bit directionless right now. I’ve looked into other jobs, but nothing exciting has come up so far.
Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation?
I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences—whether warm or cold!
Any inspiration or advice would be greatly appreciated.
I had the same dilemma a few years ago. Had the option of taking a job with 50%+ more pay but would require a move and a lot of work versus the easy job I had.
I decided not to take it and regretted it as afterwards my existing job changed unexpectedly for the worse and I started to get bored with the job.
IMO boredom is worse than overwork and stress as time goes by more slowly and with the stress and new job, you are at least leaning and developing.
Just wishing to work less doesn’t make the work go away. One of the risks with cutting back is you end up working just as much for less pay. First try cutting back to 100%.
Right at the end of your life as you lay on your deathbed, I´ll bet your last thoughts are not that you should have worked more.
Having said that Phil´s comment should be taken into account.
This new job that I have been doing the last 5 years is the easiest and most stress free job I have ever done, pay is lousy though. But it is 7:30 right now on a Monday morning and I am bored as fick, there is nothing to challenge me, nothing I havn´t done a million times and after all I have done, all I have learned, all my skills are redundant.
So yes, by all means go for the bucolic life, the rewards are great but it can get boring and will leave you edgy, and itchy and feeling closed in and captive.
I am in a somewhat similar situation: Stable(ish) company, pretty secure job with good income and manageable workload. But a bit boring and I feel that I cannot live up to my potential at my current role. I also realize that pushing for a move up would likely not do much to my income, but add considerable risk of stress and internal pitfalls. I see no reason in my mid 40s to screw up my work-life balance. Not worth it, so I stay put in spite of feeling I should change something. I have half an eye on the market, but good opportunities are few and far between and often sound like doing just the same elsewhere.
This. The main reason I never considered going to 80%. In many office environments, they will just make you do the same work. And also in many orgs it can be seen as a sign of disengagement.
Same here. Wife moved to 80% but ended up doing the same (now even more) work but just for less pay so now she’s switching back to 100%.
I saw the same with other colleagues. They were supposed to work 80% and take Wednesday off, but at best, they just compressed their work into the other 4 days and quite often ended up working on the Wednesday too. Oh, and when redundancies came, they were all the first to go even though their performance was better than average (the only reason they were allowed to work 80% to begin with) - they were just seen as ‘less committed’.
This is probably not the best time to make huge changes. How does your wife feel? Is she bored, or is she up for supporting a challenge? Because it will take both of you to face the change and take on extra stress.
One question: how big is your mortgage?
If your kids are still very young, maybe it’s not the right time to make changes that could affect the whole family. If I were you, I would discuss these issues with my OH.
You’re late 40s, you’re making 200+ gross as a family, and you already own a home, and you feel accomplished professionally since what you have is enough. You’re living the dream man, what more do you want
If you’re going to get some opportunity to go to 250, 300k annual for yourself, then it’s something to consider and weigh vs the definite extra requirements in terms of commitment towards work. To get a lot more for a 5-10% extra I would not do even consider it.
Any spare mental capacity you have from getting bored at work, pour in a hobby or something. Definitely don’t go to 80%, you’re going go be working the same, but you’re getting less cash and people treat you as if you’re not working as much, so it’s an absolute lose-lose in my eyes.
Interesting for me because I was there 20 years ago and now I’m coming to the end of my working life. Here’s my advice. Unless you have a share in the business don’t put yourself at risk by actively trying to get ‘up the ladder’. Look at those managers above you, how are they perceived by you and your colleagues? Yes they may have a bigger salary (although maybe not as much as you think… their comp will be more around bonuses) but their ‘success’ will depend very much on how they communicate with their peers rather than what they actually deliver. (On the other hand, if you settle, you’ll inevitably have people ‘above you’ who you’ll consider less capable). Without sound too ‘Hallmark’… focus on what really makes you happy, without that being too dependent on your income.
Thx.
I think hitting the next level 250k+ will come even with bigger imbalances. Something I find scary. The years pass and only thing might remember is the system you have functioned for.
Sounds negative. Of course, there are those jobs where you feel alive and kicking. I would love to find som3thing close to that
Thanks for the advice. when making the decision I agreed with my boss to drop off some load. So the 80% isn’t working out that bad. I actually enjoy having more days off and feeling much more recovered. When I’m back in the office, I need to focus and try to get things much more efficiently done. I think you can adapt to that.
The question still remains. Where is the happiness spot? Right now, I feel too young to kind of settle in. I think I’m still in the search for the adventurous path with excitement, lots of learning and hopefully making a bit of more money. While money is important, I still want to balance the other things as well.
