Is Losing a High-Paying Job a Sign of Failure?

[wolram]

He looses his job and can not find another with equal pay, he gets one paying £28,000 a year and can not manage, is he a pathetic looser?

 

[Beeza]

If the reason for him being unable to find another acceptable job if not his fault, but rather something like the economy, then I'd say he is a victim of the current economic issues.

 

[Astronuc]

He looses his job and can not find another with equal pay, he gets one paying £28,000 a year and can not manage, is he a pathetic looser?

Is that before or after taxes? At current exchange rates, that's about $200K, which is about 4.2 times the US median income (2006). Ostensibly, such an income would allow one to put a considerable amount of money aside in savings and investments.

I've known several people who lost jobs in banking and finance and were then unable to find comparable jobs because of market contraction, and no other organization wanted to pay that kind of salary, which is one of those economic issues Beeza mentioned. Evo has mentioned changes in her industry in which high paid professional making something like $250 K find themselves out of a job, and likely unable to find a comparable position and salary. That unfortunately is a harsh reality these days in which technology creates new but short term opportunities.

 

[wolram]

Is that before or after taxes? At current exchange rates, that's about $200K, which is about 4.2 times the US median income (2006). Ostensibly, such an income would allow one to put a considerable amount of money aside in savings and investments.

I've known several people who lost jobs in banking and finance and were then unable to find comparable jobs because of market contraction, and no other organization wanted to pay that kind of salary, which is one of those economic issues Beeza mentioned. Evo has mentioned changes in her industry in which high paid professional making something like $250 K find themselves out of a job, and likely unable to find a comparable position and salary. That unfortunately is a harsh reality these days in which technology creates new but short term opportunities.

Any one in a position to earn $250k a year should think them self's bloody lucky, and live as if they earn $100,000 a year, which is plenty for a very good life, i think it is pathetic
when these people whinge, they had a talent in a very narrow market, (high risk) they should have planed for a down fall

 

[brewnog]

What was his job?

£100k isn't an obscene wage, and I'm sure most people would struggle to cope if their salary was quartered overnight. It would take time to adapt, and if you had a mortgage and family you'd almost certainly need to sell your house at the very least to survive.

 

[jim mcnamara]

Ya never know what his family's expectations and requirements are.

Suppose he bought a house with a 1500 pounds/month mortgage, plus taxes. His wife-mate gives him an ultimatum: leave this house and I leave you...

When people are operating strictly by their own lights, decisions like this are easy. Add a wife, kids, and a hostile mother-in-law and you can be euchred into an irremediable postion in no time. I get the impression Wooly, that you may be on a solo flight at the moment. But project yourself into that new virtual mind space.

 

[wolram]

Ya never know what his family's expectations and requirements are.

Suppose he bought a house with a 1500 pounds/month mortgage, plus taxes. His wife-mate gives him an ultimatum: leave this house and I leave you...

When people are operating strictly by their own lights, decisions like this are easy. Add a wife, kids, and a hostile mother-in-law and you can be euchred into an irremediable postion in no time. I get the impression Wooly, that you may be on a solo flight at the moment. But project yourself into that new virtual mind space.

I all ways live well within my means, i owe nothing to any one, that is the way i was raised, come hell or high watter i will not be in debt to any one, i have no sympathy for fallen high flyer's, most times they are talent less ass grabbers, that deserve nothing

 

[J77]

Not a loser but I guess his lifestyle would have to change.

Still, you live to your means.

 

[Evo]

Sales is dangerous, we're capped at $500,000 a year (no, I'm not in danger of reaching that cap), one guy had a huge deal fall into his lap and made almost the cap, then the client canceled, he's been paying all of the money back for almost a year now.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Depends how long he is depressed. It would be a huge shock for me if that happened. I'd be lost for a bit, that is a large change to a lifestyle. But if he gets back on his feet and adapts within say 3-4 months I think he's quite normal.

 

[DaveC426913]

I all ways live well within my means, i owe nothing to any one, that is the way i was raised, come hell or high watter i will not be in debt to any one, i have no sympathy for fallen high flyer's, most times they are talent less ass grabbers, that deserve nothing

Sure. We all do. Until we lose 65% of our pay.

How would you do if your pay were cut by 65%?

How long would it take to get on an even keel again?

 

[stewartcs]

He looses his job and can not find another with equal pay, he gets one paying £28,000 a year and can not manage, is he a pathetic looser?

Not really, must people spend proportionally to their income. The more you make, the more you spend.

So he probably has overhead that is relatively high compared to your average guy.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

We go through periods where I make up to 20K a month and it is always very depressing when it ends. You just start to get a taste of the concept of not worrying about money, and then zzzzzip, back to reality.

And then comes the taxman...

 

[Astronuc]

Sales is dangerous, we're capped at $500,000 a year (no, I'm not in danger of reaching that cap), one guy had a huge deal fall into his lap and made almost the cap, then the client canceled, he's been paying all of the money back for almost a year now.

Your company paid the salesman an advance based on the sale, which had some probability of cancellation? In that case, he should have put it in escrow or other account and not touched the money until the sale was finalized.

The company for which I used to work had something like that going on, but two officers paid themselves bonuses based on sales that weren't complete. Not only that, the sales had contingencies that weren't met, so the officers took money they shouldn't IMO. That was before I joined that company - which later took a nosedive due to mismanagment.

 

[gravenewworld]

He looses his job and can not find another with equal pay, he gets one paying £28,000 a year and can not manage, is he a pathetic looser?

Most likely this person bought a nice car and a nice house because they USED to be affordable. I could see how they might not be able to manage making 56 K if they bought a $900 K house and drive a $90K car and had to make payments on them.


Samething goes for someone making $50 K a year then has to take a job making only $30 K a year. That $200 K house is now unaffordable.

 

[Moonbear]

I agree with Greg on this one. If he bounces back within a few months and adjusts to the change, then he's normal. I mean, it would really suck to suddenly have your earnings cut by 1/4, but I think it's more important that he suck it up and take the low-paying job than to be a prima donna and not take anything at all. If you're used to living on $100,000 (or pounds) it'll take a little time to do things like sell the too expensive house or car, etc., but you can adapt again. The pathetic loser is the one who won't take a lower paying job becuase it's "beneath" him, and instead remains unemployed.

I've had friends who have had to face this in reality too...well, not quite so drastic, but who had to take a pay cut to get another job. The industry they were in took a lot of hits, and they got laid off because the companies were closing entire offices to cut costs, which meant there weren't a lot of jobs available and a lot of people looking for them. My friend took a cut in salary to do a job that was actually higher up than her previous job, but basically the industry had de-valued that job and there wasn't anything better out there. Better that she take the job than her former co-workers who expected to make as much somewhere else in an industry where the jobs were just disappearing and wound up jobless.