There are frequently threads on here with people who are fed up of the rat race (high stress, often big companies, big money, social status etc etc.) and are looking for ways out either by reducing hours, changing jobs, reducing outgoings etc. I assume people get into these types of things out of professional interest, training and like the rewards but then all of a sudden find that it’s eating them up. That’s a guess, I’ve never been in that situation…

The advice seems to be from many : get out, it’s great!

However, has anyone ever decided to go the other way – and actively tried to pursue a high-stress high reward career later on in life – perhaps after having a family, 35 onwards etc? And there must be some who find an entire career of that type of thing very rewarding?

Partly out of idle curiosity, partly as I’ve got a feeling that at 34 I might be costing through life in 3rd gear work/career/education wise (and quite happily too give or take the usual stuff).

I went self employed aged 26 and stuck it out for 8 years. I loved it, but it was a lot of hard work and I was always skint. Found it increasingly stressful. So, just before 35, I got a job.

It’s not a high flying job, but is a bit above the average wage. It’s not always exciting, but I only do 37 hours a week, I get paid holiday, sick leave, a pension, someone else does all the worrying, I don’t have to buy my own computer or desk or rent office space, my commute is a 25 minute ride along the river and now I’ve got my own house. I’ve even got enough spare cash to pursue a hobby. Hardly ‘living the dream’ but there’s a lot to be said for the rat race.

Having not really spent much of my life in the Rat Race –  less than5 years of regular full time employment during my late 20s out of nearly 30 years of work so far – my vision of ‘retirement’ is to get a job.

I sort of did thanks to an enforced career change after about 15 years, it didn’t last long (I’m pleased to say)but financially it really made a difference(positive), from there self employment for a while (same commuting stress/getting jobs stress but a lot less people management/budget/meeting stress) and then I was able to take a dead end no responsibility 35 hour a week job with a 12 mile rural commute and then went off to graze

Spent ages 18-30 building a career to offset dropping out of poly, I guess.

30-50 drifting and fitting in round family and kids.

Approaching 51 – some better paid employment would be nice for income and pension purposes, but still two teenagers and now 4 ageing parents to work around 🤦

Edit: the drop out at 30 was due to redundancy and a relocation to be able to afford the work/life balance. That first career provided the basis to be mortgage free mid 40s. And I regret none of it.

Thanks for the replies so far. Sometimes the desire to earn more money and take on more responsibility comes along. But my natural laziness soon takes back control.

Moved to a location with better life balance but a decision that has made earning more/career progression harder. Doubt I’d be willing to compromise current work/life balance (37 hour week, 100% of TOIL claimed back, rarely stressful job and the ability to work form home)

Strangely I sometimes think of getting a proper job but tbh i don’t think I would stand a chance, any decent employer would spot me a mile away before the interview stage. I just could not sit at a desk and tap away, or listen to a boss, or do what i am told.

20 years of self employment I just could not do it, too much freedom.

The pattern I’ve noticed in the “grass is always greener” mindset is that people working in the filthy world of commerce want to become teachers to get more satisfaction and work fewer hours and teachers want to ditch teaching to earn proper money and work fewer hours. I know people who have moved both ways.

Which one is the rat race depends which side of the fence you’re on.

Err, sort of.

Half way through Nursing Associate training at 50.
Love it, but I’ve never, ever been so tired.

Working for ‘The Man’ is very underrated. Lots of responsibility and soooooo much to learn, but the NHS really does look after you.

Not scraping by on minimum wage is priceless.
I used to have a well paid job years ago before getting into care work but had forgotten how freeing it is not to have to justify spending every single penny, not being able to sleep because of money worries and not being able to take the Mrs out for a nice meal every now and then.

If this is conformity, it’s quite rewarding.

My mates who all disappeared in the 80’s to foreign climes in a collection of rusty old coaches and vans seem to have settled down too.
Mostly in Portugal and France, using the practical skills they had before they left, engineering, cabinet making, farming etc.

Make sure you know what you’re running away from and why. Bad shit has a way of following you around if you’re not careful.

Kind of – I deliberately took a role at a lower level at an organisation with a reputation for work/life balance (non-commercial) while we were starting a family.

Late-mid thirties, went for the payrise / more responsibility / more commercial option. One thing I did find was that in my “lower level” role, I didn’t really get the advantages I wanted. I worked the way I always worked, just didn’t get paid for it. I also got frustrated with not being able to change things for the better and managing upwards was a problem. My own mindset was a bigger factor than I realised and I found stepping into something where I was more challenged was an improvement in many ways (within limits, work/life is still important). Probably only counts if you are quite passionate about what you do, though.

Looking at doing the opposite to be honest! The stress and strain of Long working hours in corporate life is really not worth the financial rewards!

I love corporate life, well mine anyway. Definitely think the grass couldn’t get any greener.

Unfortunately my employer is slowly going out of business, so at some point the grass is going to all die, but until then it’s great!

I am lucky enough to work for a company with some very clever people in it. Can be frustrating at times but I would be very bored quite quickly if I gave it up and took up gardening instead.

They pay quite well which compensates for the frustrating times.

I keep opting to stay in it. Massive ulcer inducing stress only offset by bike rides. But I like a challenge and can’t ever envisage myself as retired. Early 50’s so another 15-20 years to go I reckon as long as I stay healthy

Dunno if I count but 46 here and just about getting onto the lower rungs of rat-racingness, after about 22 years of not having a clue what I realistically* wanted to do, then 6 years of having a clue but no experience. Starting a job next month at the highest salary I’ve ever had where, for people with experience, the London version pays 25k more. The grass at the minute looks really green this side of the fence, mostly because I feel like my skills are really being used and it’s a job I really enjoy – not sure if I fancy REALLY rat-racing it in the Smoke a few years down the line, but it’s lovely to think it’s an option. Ten years ago I was earning f***-all in a factory in Birmingham.

* Unrealistically, the BBC, various magazines, NATS, the worlds of train-driving, film and radio, the Royal Marines, a handful of charities, the Police and many, many sundry other employers were offered the chance of putting me to work but for some reason declined said opportunity.

I’ve been Manchester’s smallest bouncer, a pawnbroker, a motorcycle courier (for one day) and an Insurance Analyst.

Perfect training for a Mental Health Nurse. 🙂

Try everything, something will fit.

You’re a long time dead, might as well do something you enjoy.

Yes. I took a big promotion this year. I’m enjoying the challenge as I was getting pretty bored with a job I could do standing on my head. It’s a lot more stressful though and it has has an impact on my family life. Luckily my kids are a bit older now, as I think I would’ve struggled if they had still been babies. I’m 41.

Erm. Kind of..

One exhausting career to another. Worked for a global mega evil bank of evil for 12 yrs, gave it up to be at uni for 4 years studying medicine. I’ll then (hopefully) become a very very junior doc at 42, earning almost half what I earned at the evil bank of evil.

Hmm, when I write it down it does make me wonder whhhyyyyyyyy?! 🤔

Half way through Nursing Associate training at 50.

Ooh, a fellow NHS mid life crisis-er! 🙂

As a fully paid up small cog in a very big machine, it has it’s perks.

There’s not only enough of us that ride into work to justify key card accessed bike storage, dehumidified drying rooms, showers, changing rooms with wardrobes etc. But there’s enough to put together a CX/gravel clubrun one lunchtime a week, a 22mph roadie group several times a week (and slower ones), “cyclists breakfasts” which means free coffee and cake a few times a year. And I heard a rumour that you can now put down a milage target as a goal in pay reviews!

On the other hand, my department boss forgets about me, i dont think the department manager even knows who i am. And work is generally at a level of detail that often means i have little clue whats going on with the overall project, just my own little list of valves and pipes which makes it quite unrewarding.

my wife did: retrained in law aged 40ish after more than a decade of right-on vol sector stuff and a few years with small kids. The hardest part was getting a training contract but she and her little cohort of mid-career changers all managed it. Outcome: she quite liked being a solicitor for a year or two, she’s changed tack a couple of times in the role and I think does really interesting work, but she misses the right on stuff and some days would rather stack shelves (I recon).

(@rusty spanner – the NA stuff is inspiring, seriously…)

Around age 30 I left academia for corporate whoredom. Not sure if you consider 30 “later in life” but it felt that way to me- as a mathematician you’re basically written off by then if you don’t have any killer results (which I didn’t).

I moved mostly for the money but secondly egotistic desire for power and global influence. I was quite open about that at the interview too. Also I hoped to get better access to all the latest tech and work with/learn from different people. Finally I had got wiped out by a car a few months before and that made me feel I could die any day so generally should try something different to academia.

Anyway it’s my 5th year in the rat race and I’ve never really wanted to return to academia. Rather it’s made me realise that long term I don’t want any kind of “job” and would rather work on my own projects. However for a normal person whoredom feels like a lot of money and that’s what keeps me there. Loyalty to my manager (who I think took a gamble on me) is also a factor. However, so far I have slightly less power than I hoped for and the technology aspect is actually a disappointment. Also while I like my colleagues and enjoy working with them I haven’t learned much.

In a sprawling global empire you typically have competing interest groups that want mutually exclusive things- sometimes it feels like I just take a weighted average of their demands rather than using my sheer brilliance (LOL) to come up with a strategy that’s best for the empire overall.

There are a lot of training courses available. However most are boring/pedestrian. There are also regular compulsory indoctrination courses for make benefit the glorious corporation. I have gone on a few good external technical ones though.

Anyway as you mention the downsides are covered to death on other STW threads.

The highlight of my working day is usually the smashfest bike commute (suicidal pedestrians and homicidal drivers aside). Like TISNA we have decent cycling facilities, e.g. a staff club that I’ve got a bunch of free sportive entries from (PRL100, VeloBrum etc) and subsidised kit. We have a regular football kick about group. There’s various other clubs like chess club or tennis. The company has a sports centre and rowing club boat house in London that are very cheap too but not really my scene.

If you’re looking to shake things up in your life or just want more money go for it. Just get ready to be called a “resource”.

I’m doing a lot of thinking about what I want to do at the moment. I don’t think I’ve ever been satisfied with jobs that have related to my degree (biology). I’ve tried the self employed route but find customers too flaky and the uncertainty is too stressful. After doing childcare for a good few years I went back to work firstly part time but now I’m in a job where I can walk 10 mins down the road and get school hols off. I would love to retrain and have been thinking about midwifery. However I’m 45 so I do need to get my skates on and make a decision. Question how old is too old to retrain fir a career change?

Just remember, all the money in the world will not buy you even one additional day of good health.

So enjoy the days of good health while you have them. They won’t be there later.

Leaver the race to the rats…

Just remember, all the money in the world will not buy you even one additional day of good health.

Not quite. My rat race job comes with free private health care :-).

As above, left academic life at 33 to provide for a growing family. Been at the same megaCorp for 20 years. I miss the teaching, but not the stress of publishing. And I get to do science and make a difference. Occasionally.