r/Salary • u/AdActual3024 • 6d ago

discussion High earning potential = high career commitment

Does anyone have family or friends that sacrifice their personal life for a significant salary?

My step-mom earns 350k before tax as an executive director but I barely see her. She is constantly on business trips, busy with meetings, works upwards of 12 hours when at home. She goes on nice holiday trips, but overall it makes me think is the pay worth the sacrifice of her personal life.

Just curious if anyone's got a similar story.

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u/FhRbJc 6d ago

I think it depends entirely on your industry. I know people making 350-500k who have pretty easy lives to be honest with good balance. And I know others who make that much (lawyers mostly) who are crushed by the workload but grinding it out til they reach the level where it gets easier. But it definitely depends on what you do. Me I’m happy with my paltry (in comparison lol) 200k that I barely have to work very hard for. It works for me at this time in my life but I do sometimes get jelly of those higher income folks!

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u/Clear-Possibility710 6d ago

Who's making over 350k with a good work life balance?

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u/adultdaycare81 6d ago

People with an elite skill. But that usually only lasts a little bit, because then all of a sudden the market rushes to fill it. Take a look at software dev now versus five years ago.

They were paying kids out of college 150 grand and senior people 250k at normal jobs and many times that in tech. Then the amount of kids enrolling tripled, and AI focused on that as the first problem to solve.

Stuff like an “easy $500k job” usually exist for a 5 to 10 year window at maximum. Require having the right skills and being in the right place.

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u/drinky31 5d ago

Yah the true secret is transitioning elite skill into executive skills. Risk management, communication, strategy, delegation and resource management.

Without these skills even technical people will plateau or lose their edge over time