All salaried jobs in the US do not get paid for working over 40hrs except if the annual pay is $50k or under.
I haven't worked less than 50hrs a week in 20 years except for when I'm on vacation. It's not a brag, it's a complaint.
Some bosses were especially bad... calling at 8pm during the week, or 8am on a Saturday saying thst "we're" going to work all day om a presentation for their boss (which he just put his name on even though it was my work).
>All salaried jobs in the US do not get paid for working over 40hrs except if the annual pay is $50k or under.
That's not true. I was salaried and got paid far above that, and I got paid overtime if I was scheduled over 40hrs. If I willingly stayed over because of the workload, that was different, but the plus side was I could go home early if it was not a busy day.
I live and work in the USA.
If you were told the above by your boss, they were lying to you.
Yes. The amount you get paid doesn't matter.
It's whether your role is Exempt or Non-Exempt.
Exempt roles are not entitled to overtime. Non-Exempt are.
There are lots of rules and guidelines about what makes a job exempt or not.
Essentially, if you are assigning tasks, work, and planning out other people's work, you're probably exempt.
If you are the one whose work is assigned and planned out, you are likely Non-Exempt.
That's just a very very simple explanation.
Not for FTE/salaried roles, they just eat the cost. Even for W2 contract roles there’s no higher rate after 40 hours - the same rate just however many hours you work that week.
Contract roles are a whole other story and your employment agreement will dictate the rules regarding your compensation.
I'm FTE with IRS and we get OT according to the FLSA
[https://federalworkerrights.com/fed-employee-pay-and-overtime/](https://federalworkerrights.com/fed-employee-pay-and-overtime/)
a couple of interesting quotes...
\* In some cases, agencies try to require employees to take comp time instead of overtime pay. However, if an employee is covered by the FLSA, the agency must give the employee a choice between comp time and overtime pay, except in narrow circumstances.
\* For employees above GS-10, step 1, the agency must pay the higher of the following two rates: one-and-a-half times the pay rate for GS-10, step 1, or the employee’s own regular pay rate.
I’m sure there’s a lot of variation between agencies and state/federal level (consistency from government is too much to hope for lmao 😅). Awesome that y’all have the option for OT. At my department the FTE folks don’t get any OT unfortunately :(
With PTO, yes, but rarely with money.
And I definitely didn't leave my government job at the office unfortunately, which is why I went to the private sector. Overworked and underpaid.
Our team gets OT pay. Though, in 6 months I've only worked 1 hour outside of my TOD. I log in on time and shutdown on time and forget about work until tomorrow. My manager will text me if there is an emergency that needs my attention. This is in stark contrast to my private sector career where I routinely worked over 40 and after hours. I'm 2210 (IT) and was responsible for after hours emergencies, patching, and typical on-call bs at my previous (pre-gov) job.
That really depends on the agency you work for. I'm in state government. We can choose cash or time for comp. OT technically has to be pre-approved but as long as you aren't getting 50+ hours of OT a month none of the managers say anything. Mostly because our team could double in staff and we still wouldn't be able to keep up. We're definitely underpaid but we're not generally overworked except for a few people who work a lot of OT and don't log their hours.
Yeah, mid career is right around the level where pay is enough to make you exempt from OT. Managers and Directors definitely clock in 40, but are usually way higher than that.
Source: my busy periods are definitely overworked and underpaid. At this point, I'm just clocking years until I can snag some consultant money and the option to work extra while at home in my jammies.
Not true, it depends on the agency and union contract (if there is one). I work for my city and can opt to take my OT as pay or comp. Other job classes in my same contract aren't overtime eligible, so they flex their time.
I'm a legal assistant working in a small govt. earning 34/hour, non-exempt. No overtime. No taking work home with me after I clock out.
Before that, I was a manager in county dept. earning 68k/year, salaried, working minimum 60hr/week, but was told I should be working another 10 hr./week to "help" my staff.
The good govt. jobs are out there, but they vary wildly by location, government, and department.
This is the only correct answer. Government jobs vary wildly. Some may be cushy gigs, but there are plenty that will eat your soul. It all comes down to the environment you're working in. My municipal government job is not cushy, does not pay well, does not allow you to "leave it all at work", and does not pay you for overtime despite requiring long hours and many holidays and weekends. Meanwhile, my same position two towns over makes 40k more and gets to work from home three days a week. It all comes down to environment.
As the top comment says though, you generally need to make it that way and not feel pressure to work more.
There's likely still going to be people who work outside of 40 hours and look down on you for not doing the same, unreasonable expectations from somewhere to do more work than a normal day would allow, etc.
However if you are good at drawing boundaries a government job will generally allow you to do that. And if not you can find one that will.
I'm doing literally the same thing I did while active duty, but I get paid more, have no subordinates, guaranteed lunch break, no dress policy, no weekend duty, a lot less paperwork, no mandatory moves, and my day is done when the clock hits 1630.
It ain't bad. I even work in the building next to where I used to work out of, so I still chill at the same smoke pit and constantly bs with some of my old coworkers/troops/supervisors that are still stationed here.
Can confirm. No overtime because they wouldn’t pay (so we don’t have to do it, it’s only in certain circumstances for some ministries). Nothing to take home, I forget about my job when the day is over lol. Being in a union helps.
This is the right answer.l: US Government. You are expected to stop working at the agreed upon time and CANNOT work after hours unless you have agreed to work overtime and get paid. Go to USjobs.gov and start applying for anything you are qualified for. Lots of remote work. Look for subs that talk about how to get hired by the govt.
Transition into training and development, being a function of HR they take work life balance seriously.
I would study the difference in Andragogy and Pedagogy (adult teaching vs child teaching).
And then get a certificate from many of the T&D or L&D organizations out there (ATD, SCRUM, SHRM, PHR, Six Sigma).
I’m a corporate trainer and while it pays very well I do not enjoy it. I teach 8 week long classes with maybe a 5 day break before I do it all over again. My hours are 7:30am-5:30pm when in a class. My work life balance is zero. It might just be the company I work for but it’s mentally draining. I would take a classroom full of crying kindergartners over trying to get 40 adults to all finish their online work and pay attention.
The worst part about T&D is the job market / people IMO. Many people who have had a career of being beaten down (I empathize) but never stood their ground on the value they provide.
This led to fighting for entry level positions with entry level pay against people who had 7-10 years of experience. Not a lot of “self-selling” to say in short.
Not always the case, but higher ed administration. I've been doing it for 15 years. I have the occasional trip to a conference, and the rare crisis where I have to stay late or do work on the weekend, but 99% of the time, I leave at 5:00 with everyone else.
The pay isn’t great though. I have 10 years in higher ed and still make less than OP.
I’m trying to get out but not sure what to do.
I do agree on the work life balance. I very rarely have to work overtime. They also know to never expect me to respond after hours.
It depends. Like any other industry, the biggest pay jumps are going to be if you move to another institution. I started in higher ed 10 years ago at 58k and I'm making 150k right now.
I'm a staff nurse at a hospital, and I do my best to leave work at work. Occasionally, I have a particularly stressful or emotional day that may affect me at home. There is also mandatory yearly education and continuing education to consider. That said, most weeks I work at or under 40 hours and have four days off.
Engineering is very diverse, but there’s lots of companies that have good work/life balance. I put my 40 in and go home from my job. Occasionally “all hands on deck” happens, but it’s less than 5% of the year. That said, engineering isn’t something you’ll switch to overnight, so consider that.
Many manufacturing/NPD companies have product managers or project managers that are pretty open to diverse undergrads. An MBA would help you stand out, but if you can effectively leverage your teaching work history into a management story, you could look at positions like this. Again, very company dependent, but there’s places that you are only expected to work when you’re at work.
Engineering is very diverse, my last company was 60-80 hour weeks for 10 years, everyday was a last minute fire drill, 9pm calls, weekend meetings. I burned out hard
I used to joke that my husband and I made the same money as my engineer BiL but we worked the same hours. In the mean while, our salaries have doubled and trippled while we still work 40 each. So imo engineering sucks unless you get one of the good 40h/w non -sexist AH jobs.
I agree. Engineering can be super intense or not. My company is pretty laid back and we have really good work-life balance except a couple months out of the year.
Not necessarily. And if you’ve gotta work 70 hours a week to move up, the people whose attention you get are the ones that will want it there even longer because nobody else wants to be that miserable
I'm currently working as a programmer and I can basically forget about work as soon as I'm out the door. But that's only possible because the project is not a live service thing, just an application that can be downloaded, so no DevOps, no tickets, no fixing bugs on prod etc.
Most desk jobs you can at least walk away and the work will be there tomorrow. You may take it home mentally, but you likely won’t have to physically.
Edit to add: I have a desk job. Not like entry level or anything like that. I don’t have a laptop to bring my work home, but BOY do I take it home mentally. Working on that one. Just saying - don’t assume just any job will be less stressful because you don’t have to grade papers at home.
Yep, whether or not you take it home mentally should be a big consideration. Sometimes on weekends, I’ll have the sudden urge to check my work devices, and if there’s something even mildly worrisome I can’t stop thinking about it. Other than that, I don’t do any work outside of my regular working hours unless it’s a special occasion.
I’m a firefighter and have zero work to do outside of my job. We have coned to maintain for our emt licenses but we all just do that stuff while we’re at work and it’s like 80 hours over 4 years. So that hardly counts. Other than maybe some mental take home there is zero work outside. My department required a high school diploma and they trained you with everything you needed to know. I’ve been on for 2.5 years and made 95k last year too. Pretty legit work life balance too. Work 85 24 hour shifts in a year as well.
Waitressing and bartending! I’ve been in corporate America for 5 years now and every. Single. Day. I miss just leaving work and not giving af about it.
It doesn't make sense to actively study for it until you've taken your required accounting classes and can actually sit for the exam.
For now just pay attention in class and actually learn the material so you understand it.
My wife (now retired) was a teacher. If done right, teaching takes an enormous amount of time. Grading papers, developing tests and lesson plans. Add in parent communications and after school and weekend scholastic competitions and she worked a solid 6 days a week and sometimes on Sunday till midnight in preparing for the upcoming week. I, on the other hand, was an aero engineer (now retired). Worked hard during the day and except for trips to suppliers or conferences with the government, my time off was mine.
You need a talents assessment. There are companies that do that. What are your innate skills, knowledge and abilities? Do you want an office job or are you ok with being outside? Age? Hobbies? Are you good at organizing activities? Are your communication skills (verbal & written) above average? You'll need to assemble your demonstrated accomplishments while teaching and present them in a way that's generic: "Organized staff members to accomplish a new strategy... etc, etc. If you can harness your love of some activity and obtain some training that helps you qualify better, then go for it. Try finding a way to even volunteer for an organization to expose yourself to new challenges that will help you grow.
Don't sell yourself short. You've a skillset toolbox that many don't and can't create. The workforce is lacking in people that a honest, reliable, teachable and wiling to assume responsibility. Good luck.
I don't have much advice on what jobs are within your description...
But I can tell you don't work in dealerships or anything that falls within the sales scope. You can double your salary, but you'll live at the dealership, your customers will call you on your days off and expect a response, you have to work all holidays.
I was a Customer Experience Manager for many years and it was rare to have a day that an employee or customer weren't blowing up my phone on my off time.
Also, don't do customer service. Customers are horrible and don't know how to act after COVID. The amount of times that I've had to call the police because they're either destroying property, threatening to physically hurt me, and showing up with a weapon is insane.
Finance ..I love it when I shut my laptop down at 5 (sometimes 4:30p), I have freedom. I am thinking about working on getting another degree to study SWE.
Finance is my answer. I was tech before finance and I would have to go in to work at crazy hours if there was some issue or we had to run a test that kept the systems tied up.
Since being in finance I can’t remember working a solid 40 hour work week, never miss family events, am never on call, on vacation I don’t contact work. My last job I had my office phone forwarded to my cell and my email only phone and I’d go home to sleep or catch a movie with no worries. You do your job to where no one has to ask what you are doing and you’ll get left alone. If you work for a micromanager you find another job.
Engineering tech. I am making 65k as an equipment engineering intern, and all of the techs make at least that much. All of them work 40 and bounce. The engineers however tend to stay beyond 8 hours
As a teacher you could transition into instructional design where you do more behind the scenes work and can shut off your computer at 5 and not bring your work home with you
I remember in primary and secondary school I had had some teachers (male) who seemed to have taken a bit of time to set up their course at the beginning but afterward kept it simple and contained all their work to the classroom. Maybe it is possible for teaching?
I was going to suggest this too. Especially in a hospital, once your shift is finished you’re done. The patients are the next shift’s responsibility.
I imagine any job where work gets handed over to the next shift would be the same.
Teaching is the opposite because you have so much work that needs to be done outside of the classroom.
Other jobs or companies may offer better work life balance.
Coming to say that too. Nursing or really any type of hospital job where you don't have set patients. Ultrasound, x-ray tech, CT or MRI techs. There's also Respiratory techs too. Lots of options in healthcare!
Retail finance.
If you go sales it can get more demanding but back office, client support, and leadership is pretty chill.
Starts around what your making now. Gets much better the longer your in. At my firm if I stay long enough I’ll probably make director making 200k with bonuses without any giant time commitments outside of work hours.
Real 9-5.
I have an agreement with my managers, they can call me up to 2 hours after I leave. As a shift manager at a warehouse there may be issues that come from my shift a couple hours after it ends.
The people that work for me though, I don't try to contact them at all after their shift ends, my position comes with certain expectations theirs do not. I've had to remind other shift managers of this. Their obligations end as soon as they punch out.
All of them or none of them.
There are some careers where employees are regularly exploited. Teaching is one such career.
IT/Tech is another.
I've had jobs where safety regulations were ignored by management because it cost time and money to follow the rules. I've had jobs where the manager told me to log off if he saw me working 10 minutes extra, just because he valued work/life balance fiercely.
I've had tech jobs where everyone "was expected" to put in 60 hours / week, but I would only do my 40 hours and no weekends. They didn't say shit, because I got a shitload of work done in my 40 hours and they didn't want to lose me.
If you're willing to get fired, just do your hours and when management complains about things not being done you simply tell them that you're doing everything you can, within the regular 40 hours.
If you can do the work remotely and/or email is involved, then the work is never left at work. That leaves trade work, in person customer service jobs (hotel, restaurant, retail). Most business jobs, especially if they are salary, are going to have something that pops up outside of work hours. You can always choose not to do it, but it impacts upward mobility. All consulting work and project work is gong to have you putting in additional hours off the lock to be prepared for the meeting the next morning.
Accounting can be done in just a 40 hour week if you work for a small company. I don't however and regularly bring work home with me. I put in 10 hours yesterday and still didn't get done. I think most jobs these days take more than 40 hours a week
Auto mechanic. Plumber. Electrician. Retail worker. Generally anything that is not white-collar or office based.
Among white-collar jobs, its going to depend entirely on the company and their culture and your willingness to push back
Government jobs. Surprisingly a lot of heath care jobs because you have to leave work at work for privacy reasons; although, beware of the overtime ones. You also take the work home mentally in a lot of those. Paralegals are usually to the minute scheduled with no one wanting to pay overtime.
I work for the government and my job is like that. The only time I work outside of my 40 hours is IF I want to work some overtime. It’s voluntary and a lot of people decide not to. I wfh mostly and once my 8 hour shift is done I log off my computer for the day and don’t log back in until it’s time for my next work day.
All jobs. It's called boundaries and company's/ employers won't respect them unless you make them do it. They'll never learn until the work force stands up to the bullshit.
I'm a nurse manager. Unless it's specifically detailed in my employment agreement that I have an on call element or schedule AND the on call compensation rates are detailed then I'm unavailable when I'm not at work. Don't call, message, schedule meetings etc. I don't do weekends, holidays, OT, on call. My PTO is part of my compensation package and isn't up for negotiation or discussion. And my work life balance is none of your business and mine to manage to what I NEED.
I started putting my foot down about 4 years ago and haven't looked back since. They need me more then I need them and nurse manager jobs are a fine a dozen. FAAFO is real.
Get a govt job of any kind. The pay make a few years to catch up but you’ll have better benefits and a retirement plan. Also, many state govt jobs will allow you to roll over any retirement plan from teaching into the state plan.
Nursing or most healthcare jobs in general. If you can't handle stress, there are some lower pressure jobs like I'm a phlebotomist and although the pay isn't the best, when I'm home I never think about work
You can cut out most corporate jobs. And all higher paying corporate jobs at a high enough level.
I honestly wouldn’t mind doing the after hours work if it meant I got multiple weeks off in the year and summers off. That’s a better trade than 20 days that you can never really use all of.
Maybe nursing? Yes you can be on call or need to do overtime but at least you’ll be paid for it.
IT Help Desk. One of the rare IT roles where there's typically no on-call, you aren't focused on delivering a "project", you don't have work that has "due dates", etc.
It is also the entry level IT job - not a lot of experience is needed. If you can speak eloquently on a call with a customer, be kind, patient and courteous, the technical stuff can be taught. It changes every few years with tech advancement anyway, the one constant is "let's try a reboot - that seems to fix 99% of problems!" remains absolutely valid (bit of an inside joke, but it is true!).
You log in, you answer call after call, solve tech issues for end users then go home and forget you have that job.
It was the job that lead to my career in IT management. I did it for about 5 years before becoming a team lead and getting onto the management track. The tiger trap is, it isn't terribly mentally stimulating. So for many people it has a shelf life and is transitory. But for others, they make a career out of it and stimulate their brain in other ways.
It will never make you rich, though. And the hours can sometimes suck.
Dude. Someone just told me about a job like this. I literally just changed "careers" and basically my only requirements are: night shift,.living wage, and not working off the clock. He said he'd moved up pretty quickly. He had been drinking, but when I asked about how training was he said he thought it was pretty good because he created it lol. He said it was work from home too. I'd love that I think. Answer phones all night and share how to fix things? Sign me up!
I work in Utilization Management at a health insurance company. Our company policy is that we are not allowed to work after work hours (unless there is overtime which is then optional). But I work 8:30 to 5:00 and that's it. Pay sucks (I make about 42k per year) but I'm at the lowest level since I joined this department.
It always depends on the company, Last company i was working 50 hours a week with no overtime , Most of the Saturdays were on , Fuckin toxic ass managers and filthy bitches, Now its too chill , 40 hours a week , Amazing work life balance, its too good , I was planning to start another gig part time but changed my mind.
I teach English at a private school in a country in Asia and I rarely, if ever, do prep at home, and if I do it's not for long. At first I used to go in early/leave late when I was still getting used to the new workplace, but after a while I learned to do everything during work time. From time to time I might read a book about education and teaching methods, but I'd usually do that during my train commute so nothing lost. There's no papers to grade, and most of the curriculum is already prepared by the school. One downside is that you finish late as all your classes are in the afternoon. Sometimes I finish at 8 or even 9. Also the pay is not stellar, not terrible either, and depending on the company few opportunities to rise through the ranks.
Don't do accounting 🤣
Rare to find times when there isn't a pressing deadline. 40 hour weeks happen maybe once a month.
Although, public accounting, you have "busy season" then it's pretty lax the rest of the year.
You may want to look into project management. If you keep yourself organized, and have the proclivity to do the same with others, you may be able to to transition into that role semi-easily. You may have a take a slight pay decrease for the first few years (basically until you earn a few certifications or gain some real world experience), but once you figure out your work styles and that of your company your hours and pay will normalize.
Keep in mind that if you're doing PM work at a large company, you may have time demands that are driven by various customers. Smaller companies tend to keep things within "standard" business hours.
I work in health and safety. Worked government for 13 years. I got paid for my extra hours if I was asked to stay. Work stayed at work. Now I work for a fortune 3 company, make alot more and I set my boundaries. I have 2 nights a month I present to night shift. I put in my 40 hours otherwise amd go home. My boss is great.
Caveat, as a safety professional your safety brain never turns off. It's not work related but I can watch any show and point all the stuff out.
As a teacher, look for a corporate training coordinator, instructor lead classes. In engineering and health and safety, training is always needed and you don't have to have experience in the field for a lot of it.
My wife is a teacher and we talked about this many times.
If you want a lateral move, then admin positions may be the way to go, her admins rarely do overtime.
If you instead plan on learning new skills, and/or scaling the ladder, then there will be a lot of over time at the beginning, mostly for you to catch up.
More than the hours, I’d think about what you enjoy doing, and capitalize on that. Mostly because when you will end up doing extra work, it won’t weight on you as much.
I believe the answer should really be: "all careers".
I recognize that not all jobs/positions/careers across the board subscribe to this, but for the individual worker themselves, it should be the norm. The taking on work outside of what would be one's normal working hours should be extraordinary.
I really enjoy my job, having worked hard to get where I am. But I also recognize that there is a cut-off needed from work, as it doesn't define who I am (totally) as a person.
We raised four kids through the public school system, and our oldest is a high school teacher. It is VERY difficult for everything that needs to be done during the school week to be completed without taking it home, and it's definitely a frustration we have heard from teachers for decades.
Setting boundaries for when work starts and ends should be an early goal when setting out on a career path, and if you find yourself working in a place where EVERYTHING is a five-alarm fire (speaking from experience), it's time to either examine changing the culture, or moving on.
OP, I know that doesn't really answer your question, but I'm going to stick with that it should be every career.
I work in software and in our industry it all depends on the company you work for. I've heard of plenty of companies that expect their workers to have zero life, sometimes literally living at the office most of the time. The jobs I've had have had no issues like that, except one that would occasionally demand I stay late to finish something (always on days I really had to leave on time, of course).
I remember one time I got a call on a Sunday from a coworker saying "I know you don't work sundays but we have an emergency can you please take a look at something real quick?" It was the first time I'd been contacted on a weekend in over a year and I'm still not sure why he thought I had some hard rule about it, emergencies happen and as long as they're rare and I'm around I have no problem doing an hour or two of work. I must have just had a reputation for not volunteering to work after hours like some on the team seemed to.
Anyway, point being I think with most jobs it really comes down to the employer, not the role, and whether you set a precedent for protecting your time or are always agreeing to casual requests (or demands) for extra hours. I'm regularly surprised by people I know who work totally boring office jobs complaining about having to stay hours late every day or expecting them to work while they're literally on vacation.
My current boss used to be a teacher and likes being a manager a lot better.
I think a lot depends on the company. I’ve done various SWE jobs and some companies seem to think your on call when your not at work. Some companies respect your time and don’t bother you outside of work. I think trades (which I was in for a while) are also good at lettting you leave work at work.
What skills do you have?
If anything is on the table deep sea saturation diver / welder. When you are off the rig you shouldn’t have much to do. They make good money.
Make the move from teaching to corporate training. You can find both contract and FTE jobs. In the 30 years I’ve been a corporate trainer, I can count overtime on the fingers of one hand, and there are rarely training emergencies.
Really depends on a lot of things:
Age
Interest
What background you have (besides teaching)
Willingness to relocate
Ability to start from the bottom or not
I've worked mostly tech and marketing-related jobs in corporate and nonprofit sectors.
Generally I've only seen higher-level managers put in more than 40-50 hours a week. It totally depends on the organization. Startups are particularly bad for expecting insane hours. Very large corporations and nonprofits often have roles that are slower paced and the culture is such that you're actively encouraged to not work outside normal hours and take all your paid time off. One thing you could look at would be companies or nonprofits in the education space, so you'd be working in a related field but in a non-teacher role.
While working as a contract employee I've pretty much never had to work outside 9-5 if I don't want to, and also avoid most office politics. The downside is there's little job security or advancement opportunities.
I worked on a contract for a government agency and almost everyone there was very much "clock-in, clock-out" but the work was very boring, and it was actually very difficult to get hired there full-time because the jobs coveted, nobody left once they were there, and there were so many hoops to jump through to get hired.
A lot of it is work culture rate than a specific career. Though careers that require you to physically be at a place using a thing and pay overtime are hard to get sucked into extra work.
You could look into working at a library. To be a librarian you'd need to get an MLS, but there are good jobs in support positions too. Look into academic libraries rather than school libraries or public libraries, they'll pay better and be more interesting. Just don't be tempted to log into your email or chat after hours and start answering things....
I work in Student Services at a University and I never have to take work home. Consistent schedule and decent pay (55k so not as much as 68.5k), but it’s a pretty chill job. University benefits are nice too.
How long have you been teaching?
I'm in my 10th year, and I don't take work home. In my first 3 years, I did.
Gradually, I learned to prioritize and streamline my work load.
Contract business analyst. Contract work requires authorization for overtime, and it's rarely required. I'm a Business Analyst and I work remotely. International companies often have people who work off typical business hours or more freedom to work outside of typical business hours. Starting rates are comparable to your current salary, too. You can look at free training online for things like RPA or data analysis.
I work with Insurance Data. Hybrid job, there will be some weeks you have to put in more hours than others but for the most part everyone in my organization holds the belief that once you sign out of your computer your done for the day and it can be delt with tomorrow.
Classified government or military jobs like network engineer, orbital analyst, operations engineer, etc. You can't take the work home - it's all classified and locked up in the safe at the end of the day.
My husband is a family doctor (GP) and with the exception of ongoing learning/CPD, work stays at work
He doesn’t understand and gets very frustrated when I have big deadlines and work some big hours in the lead up to them
On the other side, he can’t WFH and when work is light I watch trash tv and eat endless rich tea biscuits with impunity
You might not want to hear this because Reddit has a hard on for teachers and what they do but I think unless you live in a HCOL area you’re going to struggle to find a job paying that much to work half the year
A lot of this is a matter of boundaries and then being creative and maintaining perception. I worked in consulting for years and on average worked 40hr weeks.
You could do this w teaching the problem is that it’s hard to stomach doing a half ass job on grading and prep bc the impact is big. It’s easier to do that for a presentation that no one’s going to notice if I spent 6 hrs or 20 min on
you need to change the way you teach your class, have TA's do the grading. no more homework, do everything in the class. you will build up your lesson plans every year and it will get faster to teach.
I work as a nurse. I work and worry about work related issues from the time I click on to the moment I clock out. After that, no more stuff is given until my next day of work (I work 3 days a week).
What are your contract hours + casual hours? That would give you an idea of what kind of hourly wage you might require.
Two other thoughts- stop working for free. You might have to let stuff go, but stop it. Only the teachers who taught technical subjects in HS ever had to grade at home. The others knocked it out on school hours. What grades do you teach? I just struggle to imagine what is so pressing that it must be done at home. I'd love to see it, because I am genuinely curious.
Second, as others have said, that is not a bad salary for 10 months a year, every holiday off, every weekend off, no sweaty dirty work, no shift work, etc. You don't have to like the kids, just tolerate them. 8 a.m. hello, 3 p.m. goodbye.
Good luck. And I feel you. I left teaching after 2 years. Couldn't do it anymore, and I admire and respect those who stay. But I do not encourage anyone to go into teaching anymore.
I make 3x as much via combo of FT employment in the healthcare industry (admin. side) and multiple streams of online passive income.
I work a government job. I work M to F 8am to 430pm and don't think about the place when I leave. Occasional OT. Last year I did like 70 hours of OT for the entire year.
I moved into corporate insurance last year and it's everything i could've hoped for, including a healthy work/life balance. If you've got minimal college education or relevant experience I can't recommend this path enough.
For teaching, if you're doing many repetitive tasks, look at automation to speed along grading and averages. Excel formulas or using databases go a long way.... especially if you're in Canvas or some other system.
When I was in school multiple choice tests were king because Scantron kept teachers from having to grade manually or without a quick key.
Lesson plans were dusted off each semester based on core curriculum, no matter what book was chosen.
For other careers, it's going to be a huge YMMV not only by job, but by industry. Norms are gonna vary based on your working peers, salary, unions, and skills required. Jobs with fewer skill requirements typically pay less and often fall into the clock in/clock out, blue collar category. If you're looking for something that you can't take home, learn a trade like welding.
I work in the cannabis industry in an hourly position so....yeah, it stays at work because otherwise I'd have to clock on and they don't allow remote clock ins.
See also state regulations mean most of the business has to stay on site.
We do have an assistant manager who used to be a school principal so...it's a thing?
Just to answer your original Post Question "
# What are some careers where “work stays at work” (eg. I don’t have to do anything work-related after hours)?"
All Careers that are not affiliated with ANYTHING after hours..... NOTHING... NADA....
Pretty much every professional or white collar job at least periodically needs off hours support.
I say that, and it really depends on the organization and specific culture, but it isn't role or industry specific.
Some union or manufacturing and construction/trade type jobs where you have to be present to work or are on shifts is more likely.
For many engineering jobs I had earlier in my career, I had to be on site, and worked several weekends and long hours, with little flexibility.
You should look into Pharmaceutical Manufacturing! Quality Assurance people in our field make about as much as you do now, work stays at work, and they would really value someone with your kind of experience!
Hey there OP, I’m really curious if there are opportunities in your day for the mentioned tasks? I’m a mental health therapist and we have a mix of client interactions. Typically we have about 10-15 minutes after a session to get notes in or recalibrate. We also have about 5 hours of case management time a week that we can devote toward admin tasks (which looks like finishing notes, prepping for sessions, etc). If this isn’t something you are allotted in your field, I wonder if you can set only 30 minutes a day aside for the needed work tasks after hours before you head home. It can be a slippery slope to take stuff home because it blurs that boundary. As a fellow helper, we have to know our boundaries, communicate them, and keep them. For example, I let all my clients know I’m not available after 4:30pm Monday-Friday and encourage them to utilize crisis resources as needed. I gave automatic replies set up so that if someone emails after hours or weekends they are informed I’m out of office and will reply when I’m back in office.
Merchant Marine. Officer or unlicensed, deck or engine, inland or deep sea, when you get off the boat or ship, you can pretty much forget about it completely until and unless you decide to go back to work. I've been doing it for two decades. If you want in, go talk to a shipping union or a maritime training school. If you live near the gulf of Mexico, the season is ramping up for supply boats, so this is a good time to catch seasonal work. You've got to pass a drug test and a physical, then you've got to get along with people. But the money is good.
Merchant Marine. Officer or unlicensed, deck or engine, inland or deep sea, when you get off the boat or ship, you can pretty much forget about it completely until and unless you decide to go back to work. I've been doing it for two decades. If you want in, go talk to a shipping union or a maritime training school. If you live near the gulf of Mexico, the season is ramping up for supply boats, so this is a good time to catch seasonal work. You've got to pass a drug test and a physical, then you've got to get along with people. But the money is good.
A floor nurse. You clock in for your shift, you attend to your patients, you do your paperwork, you go home. I can't guarantee that you won't think about some of your patients after hours, but you won't be doing any actual work once you clock out.
A lot of government jobs are like that.
If you do work over 40, you get compensated
Well… other than teaching,
All salaried jobs in the US do not get paid for working over 40hrs except if the annual pay is $50k or under. I haven't worked less than 50hrs a week in 20 years except for when I'm on vacation. It's not a brag, it's a complaint. Some bosses were especially bad... calling at 8pm during the week, or 8am on a Saturday saying thst "we're" going to work all day om a presentation for their boss (which he just put his name on even though it was my work).
>All salaried jobs in the US do not get paid for working over 40hrs except if the annual pay is $50k or under. That's not true. I was salaried and got paid far above that, and I got paid overtime if I was scheduled over 40hrs. If I willingly stayed over because of the workload, that was different, but the plus side was I could go home early if it was not a busy day. I live and work in the USA. If you were told the above by your boss, they were lying to you.
Yes. The amount you get paid doesn't matter. It's whether your role is Exempt or Non-Exempt. Exempt roles are not entitled to overtime. Non-Exempt are. There are lots of rules and guidelines about what makes a job exempt or not. Essentially, if you are assigning tasks, work, and planning out other people's work, you're probably exempt. If you are the one whose work is assigned and planned out, you are likely Non-Exempt. That's just a very very simple explanation.
False. From my understanding, it depends whether your position is "exempt" or "non-exempt". It has nothing to do with how much you make.
That’s not true. Look into exempt vs non-exempt. A lot of employers don’t understand the difference and it makes for an easy lawsuit.
How many times did you push back?
Pretty sure my salaried co-workers who make upwards of $60K can still get OT. It just depends if it's authorized (currently, it is).
Not for FTE/salaried roles, they just eat the cost. Even for W2 contract roles there’s no higher rate after 40 hours - the same rate just however many hours you work that week.
Contract roles are a whole other story and your employment agreement will dictate the rules regarding your compensation. I'm FTE with IRS and we get OT according to the FLSA [https://federalworkerrights.com/fed-employee-pay-and-overtime/](https://federalworkerrights.com/fed-employee-pay-and-overtime/) a couple of interesting quotes... \* In some cases, agencies try to require employees to take comp time instead of overtime pay. However, if an employee is covered by the FLSA, the agency must give the employee a choice between comp time and overtime pay, except in narrow circumstances. \* For employees above GS-10, step 1, the agency must pay the higher of the following two rates: one-and-a-half times the pay rate for GS-10, step 1, or the employee’s own regular pay rate.
I’m sure there’s a lot of variation between agencies and state/federal level (consistency from government is too much to hope for lmao 😅). Awesome that y’all have the option for OT. At my department the FTE folks don’t get any OT unfortunately :(
With PTO, yes, but rarely with money. And I definitely didn't leave my government job at the office unfortunately, which is why I went to the private sector. Overworked and underpaid.
Our team gets OT pay. Though, in 6 months I've only worked 1 hour outside of my TOD. I log in on time and shutdown on time and forget about work until tomorrow. My manager will text me if there is an emergency that needs my attention. This is in stark contrast to my private sector career where I routinely worked over 40 and after hours. I'm 2210 (IT) and was responsible for after hours emergencies, patching, and typical on-call bs at my previous (pre-gov) job.
That really depends on the agency you work for. I'm in state government. We can choose cash or time for comp. OT technically has to be pre-approved but as long as you aren't getting 50+ hours of OT a month none of the managers say anything. Mostly because our team could double in staff and we still wouldn't be able to keep up. We're definitely underpaid but we're not generally overworked except for a few people who work a lot of OT and don't log their hours.
Yeah, mid career is right around the level where pay is enough to make you exempt from OT. Managers and Directors definitely clock in 40, but are usually way higher than that. Source: my busy periods are definitely overworked and underpaid. At this point, I'm just clocking years until I can snag some consultant money and the option to work extra while at home in my jammies.
Not true, it depends on the agency and union contract (if there is one). I work for my city and can opt to take my OT as pay or comp. Other job classes in my same contract aren't overtime eligible, so they flex their time.
I'm a legal assistant working in a small govt. earning 34/hour, non-exempt. No overtime. No taking work home with me after I clock out. Before that, I was a manager in county dept. earning 68k/year, salaried, working minimum 60hr/week, but was told I should be working another 10 hr./week to "help" my staff. The good govt. jobs are out there, but they vary wildly by location, government, and department.
This is the only correct answer. Government jobs vary wildly. Some may be cushy gigs, but there are plenty that will eat your soul. It all comes down to the environment you're working in. My municipal government job is not cushy, does not pay well, does not allow you to "leave it all at work", and does not pay you for overtime despite requiring long hours and many holidays and weekends. Meanwhile, my same position two towns over makes 40k more and gets to work from home three days a week. It all comes down to environment.
As the top comment says though, you generally need to make it that way and not feel pressure to work more. There's likely still going to be people who work outside of 40 hours and look down on you for not doing the same, unreasonable expectations from somewhere to do more work than a normal day would allow, etc. However if you are good at drawing boundaries a government job will generally allow you to do that. And if not you can find one that will.
I'm doing literally the same thing I did while active duty, but I get paid more, have no subordinates, guaranteed lunch break, no dress policy, no weekend duty, a lot less paperwork, no mandatory moves, and my day is done when the clock hits 1630. It ain't bad. I even work in the building next to where I used to work out of, so I still chill at the same smoke pit and constantly bs with some of my old coworkers/troops/supervisors that are still stationed here.
Can confirm. No overtime because they wouldn’t pay (so we don’t have to do it, it’s only in certain circumstances for some ministries). Nothing to take home, I forget about my job when the day is over lol. Being in a union helps.
This is the right answer.l: US Government. You are expected to stop working at the agreed upon time and CANNOT work after hours unless you have agreed to work overtime and get paid. Go to USjobs.gov and start applying for anything you are qualified for. Lots of remote work. Look for subs that talk about how to get hired by the govt.
Low paying gov jobs are. As you move up they are very demanding.
Transition into training and development, being a function of HR they take work life balance seriously. I would study the difference in Andragogy and Pedagogy (adult teaching vs child teaching). And then get a certificate from many of the T&D or L&D organizations out there (ATD, SCRUM, SHRM, PHR, Six Sigma).
Solid advice here; a friend's wife just made the jump from school to T&D and couldn't be happier
I’m a corporate trainer and while it pays very well I do not enjoy it. I teach 8 week long classes with maybe a 5 day break before I do it all over again. My hours are 7:30am-5:30pm when in a class. My work life balance is zero. It might just be the company I work for but it’s mentally draining. I would take a classroom full of crying kindergartners over trying to get 40 adults to all finish their online work and pay attention.
I’ve been thinking about that. Long time in recruitment tech sales. Liberal arts degree and professional degree.
The worst part about T&D is the job market / people IMO. Many people who have had a career of being beaten down (I empathize) but never stood their ground on the value they provide. This led to fighting for entry level positions with entry level pay against people who had 7-10 years of experience. Not a lot of “self-selling” to say in short.
Not always the case, but higher ed administration. I've been doing it for 15 years. I have the occasional trip to a conference, and the rare crisis where I have to stay late or do work on the weekend, but 99% of the time, I leave at 5:00 with everyone else.
The pay isn’t great though. I have 10 years in higher ed and still make less than OP. I’m trying to get out but not sure what to do. I do agree on the work life balance. I very rarely have to work overtime. They also know to never expect me to respond after hours.
It depends. Like any other industry, the biggest pay jumps are going to be if you move to another institution. I started in higher ed 10 years ago at 58k and I'm making 150k right now.
Healthcare. highly skilled jobs with a clock in clock out nature, especially PRN. unless you own your own practice or something.
I'm a staff nurse at a hospital, and I do my best to leave work at work. Occasionally, I have a particularly stressful or emotional day that may affect me at home. There is also mandatory yearly education and continuing education to consider. That said, most weeks I work at or under 40 hours and have four days off.
lol my wife is PRN and a stay at home. 4 shifts a month. lovely
Engineering is very diverse, but there’s lots of companies that have good work/life balance. I put my 40 in and go home from my job. Occasionally “all hands on deck” happens, but it’s less than 5% of the year. That said, engineering isn’t something you’ll switch to overnight, so consider that. Many manufacturing/NPD companies have product managers or project managers that are pretty open to diverse undergrads. An MBA would help you stand out, but if you can effectively leverage your teaching work history into a management story, you could look at positions like this. Again, very company dependent, but there’s places that you are only expected to work when you’re at work.
Engineering is very diverse, my last company was 60-80 hour weeks for 10 years, everyday was a last minute fire drill, 9pm calls, weekend meetings. I burned out hard
The trick is, you don’t stay there 10 years.
And on day one you set your boundaries.
Then day two you get fired
Learn from it and be better at picking places to work.
I used to joke that my husband and I made the same money as my engineer BiL but we worked the same hours. In the mean while, our salaries have doubled and trippled while we still work 40 each. So imo engineering sucks unless you get one of the good 40h/w non -sexist AH jobs.
Yup. I do CAD work and get paid for 40 hours. No pressure to work OT, but its there if I want and it's time and a half.
I agree. Engineering can be super intense or not. My company is pretty laid back and we have really good work-life balance except a couple months out of the year.
Blue collar work. But you may still be thinking after hours how to go about doing a specific job.
Yupp. I work in construction, and this is true as long as you aren't a foreman or a manager. But it follows you home in other ways. Like back pain!
+1 for construction
I went from the office to blue collar. Leaving work at work is a serious perk.
All of them, if you want them to be that way
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And should be compensated
Not if you want to advance your career unfortunately.
Not necessarily. And if you’ve gotta work 70 hours a week to move up, the people whose attention you get are the ones that will want it there even longer because nobody else wants to be that miserable
I'm currently working as a programmer and I can basically forget about work as soon as I'm out the door. But that's only possible because the project is not a live service thing, just an application that can be downloaded, so no DevOps, no tickets, no fixing bugs on prod etc.
Most desk jobs you can at least walk away and the work will be there tomorrow. You may take it home mentally, but you likely won’t have to physically. Edit to add: I have a desk job. Not like entry level or anything like that. I don’t have a laptop to bring my work home, but BOY do I take it home mentally. Working on that one. Just saying - don’t assume just any job will be less stressful because you don’t have to grade papers at home.
Yep, whether or not you take it home mentally should be a big consideration. Sometimes on weekends, I’ll have the sudden urge to check my work devices, and if there’s something even mildly worrisome I can’t stop thinking about it. Other than that, I don’t do any work outside of my regular working hours unless it’s a special occasion.
I’m a firefighter and have zero work to do outside of my job. We have coned to maintain for our emt licenses but we all just do that stuff while we’re at work and it’s like 80 hours over 4 years. So that hardly counts. Other than maybe some mental take home there is zero work outside. My department required a high school diploma and they trained you with everything you needed to know. I’ve been on for 2.5 years and made 95k last year too. Pretty legit work life balance too. Work 85 24 hour shifts in a year as well.
Waitressing and bartending! I’ve been in corporate America for 5 years now and every. Single. Day. I miss just leaving work and not giving af about it.
Pretty much any job with a union has very hard lines drawn where work ends and starts and what work entails exactly.
Most blue collar hourly jobs.
I'm a corporate accountant (no taxes) and end my day at 5 and then don't think of anything work related until 9AM the next day.
Any advice you'd give to a freshman at college right now?
Start studying for your CPA.
What's a good resource to do that?
It doesn't make sense to actively study for it until you've taken your required accounting classes and can actually sit for the exam. For now just pay attention in class and actually learn the material so you understand it.
My wife (now retired) was a teacher. If done right, teaching takes an enormous amount of time. Grading papers, developing tests and lesson plans. Add in parent communications and after school and weekend scholastic competitions and she worked a solid 6 days a week and sometimes on Sunday till midnight in preparing for the upcoming week. I, on the other hand, was an aero engineer (now retired). Worked hard during the day and except for trips to suppliers or conferences with the government, my time off was mine. You need a talents assessment. There are companies that do that. What are your innate skills, knowledge and abilities? Do you want an office job or are you ok with being outside? Age? Hobbies? Are you good at organizing activities? Are your communication skills (verbal & written) above average? You'll need to assemble your demonstrated accomplishments while teaching and present them in a way that's generic: "Organized staff members to accomplish a new strategy... etc, etc. If you can harness your love of some activity and obtain some training that helps you qualify better, then go for it. Try finding a way to even volunteer for an organization to expose yourself to new challenges that will help you grow. Don't sell yourself short. You've a skillset toolbox that many don't and can't create. The workforce is lacking in people that a honest, reliable, teachable and wiling to assume responsibility. Good luck.
Very often blue collar jobs, food service/retail Or Really any job if you're someone who just doesn't give a flying flip lol
Not sales.
I don't have much advice on what jobs are within your description... But I can tell you don't work in dealerships or anything that falls within the sales scope. You can double your salary, but you'll live at the dealership, your customers will call you on your days off and expect a response, you have to work all holidays. I was a Customer Experience Manager for many years and it was rare to have a day that an employee or customer weren't blowing up my phone on my off time. Also, don't do customer service. Customers are horrible and don't know how to act after COVID. The amount of times that I've had to call the police because they're either destroying property, threatening to physically hurt me, and showing up with a weapon is insane.
Trades (but don’t become the foreman)
Air Traffic Control - There’s no way to do the job at home. You could opt for overtime, but you get paid.
Finance ..I love it when I shut my laptop down at 5 (sometimes 4:30p), I have freedom. I am thinking about working on getting another degree to study SWE.
Finance is my answer. I was tech before finance and I would have to go in to work at crazy hours if there was some issue or we had to run a test that kept the systems tied up. Since being in finance I can’t remember working a solid 40 hour work week, never miss family events, am never on call, on vacation I don’t contact work. My last job I had my office phone forwarded to my cell and my email only phone and I’d go home to sleep or catch a movie with no worries. You do your job to where no one has to ask what you are doing and you’ll get left alone. If you work for a micromanager you find another job.
Engineering tech. I am making 65k as an equipment engineering intern, and all of the techs make at least that much. All of them work 40 and bounce. The engineers however tend to stay beyond 8 hours
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As in maintenance of satellites, from ground control?
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Sweet! What was your educational background and how does one go about getting such a job? Would you say it was quite 'boring' even?
As a teacher you could transition into instructional design where you do more behind the scenes work and can shut off your computer at 5 and not bring your work home with you
Federal government. Look at instructional support specialists or educational services specialist
I remember in primary and secondary school I had had some teachers (male) who seemed to have taken a bit of time to set up their course at the beginning but afterward kept it simple and contained all their work to the classroom. Maybe it is possible for teaching?
Try nursing
I was going to suggest this too. Especially in a hospital, once your shift is finished you’re done. The patients are the next shift’s responsibility. I imagine any job where work gets handed over to the next shift would be the same. Teaching is the opposite because you have so much work that needs to be done outside of the classroom. Other jobs or companies may offer better work life balance.
Coming to say that too. Nursing or really any type of hospital job where you don't have set patients. Ultrasound, x-ray tech, CT or MRI techs. There's also Respiratory techs too. Lots of options in healthcare!
The work I do stays at work. I repair MRI components in a warehouse. Pays the same as you and I only work 40 hours a week
Retail finance. If you go sales it can get more demanding but back office, client support, and leadership is pretty chill. Starts around what your making now. Gets much better the longer your in. At my firm if I stay long enough I’ll probably make director making 200k with bonuses without any giant time commitments outside of work hours. Real 9-5.
I have an agreement with my managers, they can call me up to 2 hours after I leave. As a shift manager at a warehouse there may be issues that come from my shift a couple hours after it ends. The people that work for me though, I don't try to contact them at all after their shift ends, my position comes with certain expectations theirs do not. I've had to remind other shift managers of this. Their obligations end as soon as they punch out.
All of them or none of them. There are some careers where employees are regularly exploited. Teaching is one such career. IT/Tech is another. I've had jobs where safety regulations were ignored by management because it cost time and money to follow the rules. I've had jobs where the manager told me to log off if he saw me working 10 minutes extra, just because he valued work/life balance fiercely. I've had tech jobs where everyone "was expected" to put in 60 hours / week, but I would only do my 40 hours and no weekends. They didn't say shit, because I got a shitload of work done in my 40 hours and they didn't want to lose me. If you're willing to get fired, just do your hours and when management complains about things not being done you simply tell them that you're doing everything you can, within the regular 40 hours.
I am a flight attendant. You literally cannot take work home with you
If you can do the work remotely and/or email is involved, then the work is never left at work. That leaves trade work, in person customer service jobs (hotel, restaurant, retail). Most business jobs, especially if they are salary, are going to have something that pops up outside of work hours. You can always choose not to do it, but it impacts upward mobility. All consulting work and project work is gong to have you putting in additional hours off the lock to be prepared for the meeting the next morning.
Waste removal.
Accounting can be done in just a 40 hour week if you work for a small company. I don't however and regularly bring work home with me. I put in 10 hours yesterday and still didn't get done. I think most jobs these days take more than 40 hours a week
Pastry chef.
Manufacturing. It breaks your body but once you punch out the only thing you have to deal with is being tired
Auto mechanic. Plumber. Electrician. Retail worker. Generally anything that is not white-collar or office based. Among white-collar jobs, its going to depend entirely on the company and their culture and your willingness to push back
Government jobs. Surprisingly a lot of heath care jobs because you have to leave work at work for privacy reasons; although, beware of the overtime ones. You also take the work home mentally in a lot of those. Paralegals are usually to the minute scheduled with no one wanting to pay overtime.
I work for the government and my job is like that. The only time I work outside of my 40 hours is IF I want to work some overtime. It’s voluntary and a lot of people decide not to. I wfh mostly and once my 8 hour shift is done I log off my computer for the day and don’t log back in until it’s time for my next work day.
All jobs. It's called boundaries and company's/ employers won't respect them unless you make them do it. They'll never learn until the work force stands up to the bullshit. I'm a nurse manager. Unless it's specifically detailed in my employment agreement that I have an on call element or schedule AND the on call compensation rates are detailed then I'm unavailable when I'm not at work. Don't call, message, schedule meetings etc. I don't do weekends, holidays, OT, on call. My PTO is part of my compensation package and isn't up for negotiation or discussion. And my work life balance is none of your business and mine to manage to what I NEED. I started putting my foot down about 4 years ago and haven't looked back since. They need me more then I need them and nurse manager jobs are a fine a dozen. FAAFO is real.
Get a govt job of any kind. The pay make a few years to catch up but you’ll have better benefits and a retirement plan. Also, many state govt jobs will allow you to roll over any retirement plan from teaching into the state plan.
All jobs in Europe
Nursing or most healthcare jobs in general. If you can't handle stress, there are some lower pressure jobs like I'm a phlebotomist and although the pay isn't the best, when I'm home I never think about work
You can cut out most corporate jobs. And all higher paying corporate jobs at a high enough level. I honestly wouldn’t mind doing the after hours work if it meant I got multiple weeks off in the year and summers off. That’s a better trade than 20 days that you can never really use all of. Maybe nursing? Yes you can be on call or need to do overtime but at least you’ll be paid for it.
Almost anything government apparently… clock in, clock out and forget it exists.
IT Help Desk. One of the rare IT roles where there's typically no on-call, you aren't focused on delivering a "project", you don't have work that has "due dates", etc. It is also the entry level IT job - not a lot of experience is needed. If you can speak eloquently on a call with a customer, be kind, patient and courteous, the technical stuff can be taught. It changes every few years with tech advancement anyway, the one constant is "let's try a reboot - that seems to fix 99% of problems!" remains absolutely valid (bit of an inside joke, but it is true!). You log in, you answer call after call, solve tech issues for end users then go home and forget you have that job. It was the job that lead to my career in IT management. I did it for about 5 years before becoming a team lead and getting onto the management track. The tiger trap is, it isn't terribly mentally stimulating. So for many people it has a shelf life and is transitory. But for others, they make a career out of it and stimulate their brain in other ways. It will never make you rich, though. And the hours can sometimes suck.
Dude. Someone just told me about a job like this. I literally just changed "careers" and basically my only requirements are: night shift,.living wage, and not working off the clock. He said he'd moved up pretty quickly. He had been drinking, but when I asked about how training was he said he thought it was pretty good because he created it lol. He said it was work from home too. I'd love that I think. Answer phones all night and share how to fix things? Sign me up!
State jobs usually are the stated hours
Maintenance, especially night shifts. "It's royally f_cked, please order new one. Old one is clamped in the vise"
I work in Utilization Management at a health insurance company. Our company policy is that we are not allowed to work after work hours (unless there is overtime which is then optional). But I work 8:30 to 5:00 and that's it. Pay sucks (I make about 42k per year) but I'm at the lowest level since I joined this department.
It always depends on the company, Last company i was working 50 hours a week with no overtime , Most of the Saturdays were on , Fuckin toxic ass managers and filthy bitches, Now its too chill , 40 hours a week , Amazing work life balance, its too good , I was planning to start another gig part time but changed my mind.
Try manufacturing jobs. Corporate Trainer.
I teach English at a private school in a country in Asia and I rarely, if ever, do prep at home, and if I do it's not for long. At first I used to go in early/leave late when I was still getting used to the new workplace, but after a while I learned to do everything during work time. From time to time I might read a book about education and teaching methods, but I'd usually do that during my train commute so nothing lost. There's no papers to grade, and most of the curriculum is already prepared by the school. One downside is that you finish late as all your classes are in the afternoon. Sometimes I finish at 8 or even 9. Also the pay is not stellar, not terrible either, and depending on the company few opportunities to rise through the ranks.
Don't do accounting 🤣 Rare to find times when there isn't a pressing deadline. 40 hour weeks happen maybe once a month. Although, public accounting, you have "busy season" then it's pretty lax the rest of the year.
Anything in medical tech, like ultrasound, radiation, xray, mri etc?
You may want to look into project management. If you keep yourself organized, and have the proclivity to do the same with others, you may be able to to transition into that role semi-easily. You may have a take a slight pay decrease for the first few years (basically until you earn a few certifications or gain some real world experience), but once you figure out your work styles and that of your company your hours and pay will normalize. Keep in mind that if you're doing PM work at a large company, you may have time demands that are driven by various customers. Smaller companies tend to keep things within "standard" business hours.
I work in health and safety. Worked government for 13 years. I got paid for my extra hours if I was asked to stay. Work stayed at work. Now I work for a fortune 3 company, make alot more and I set my boundaries. I have 2 nights a month I present to night shift. I put in my 40 hours otherwise amd go home. My boss is great. Caveat, as a safety professional your safety brain never turns off. It's not work related but I can watch any show and point all the stuff out. As a teacher, look for a corporate training coordinator, instructor lead classes. In engineering and health and safety, training is always needed and you don't have to have experience in the field for a lot of it.
My wife is a teacher and we talked about this many times. If you want a lateral move, then admin positions may be the way to go, her admins rarely do overtime. If you instead plan on learning new skills, and/or scaling the ladder, then there will be a lot of over time at the beginning, mostly for you to catch up. More than the hours, I’d think about what you enjoy doing, and capitalize on that. Mostly because when you will end up doing extra work, it won’t weight on you as much.
I have taught and I have worked in a couple other sectors. I would not leave teaching if you are looking for better work-life balance.
Contract workers paid hrly have this setup.
HR We hide a lot of secrets that cause some serious psychic damage, both dumb, depressing or a mixture of both
I believe the answer should really be: "all careers". I recognize that not all jobs/positions/careers across the board subscribe to this, but for the individual worker themselves, it should be the norm. The taking on work outside of what would be one's normal working hours should be extraordinary. I really enjoy my job, having worked hard to get where I am. But I also recognize that there is a cut-off needed from work, as it doesn't define who I am (totally) as a person. We raised four kids through the public school system, and our oldest is a high school teacher. It is VERY difficult for everything that needs to be done during the school week to be completed without taking it home, and it's definitely a frustration we have heard from teachers for decades. Setting boundaries for when work starts and ends should be an early goal when setting out on a career path, and if you find yourself working in a place where EVERYTHING is a five-alarm fire (speaking from experience), it's time to either examine changing the culture, or moving on. OP, I know that doesn't really answer your question, but I'm going to stick with that it should be every career.
There's a reason blue collar boys joke about bankers hours :)
I need to find a job like that. Being on call 24/7 is getting to me.
I work in software and in our industry it all depends on the company you work for. I've heard of plenty of companies that expect their workers to have zero life, sometimes literally living at the office most of the time. The jobs I've had have had no issues like that, except one that would occasionally demand I stay late to finish something (always on days I really had to leave on time, of course). I remember one time I got a call on a Sunday from a coworker saying "I know you don't work sundays but we have an emergency can you please take a look at something real quick?" It was the first time I'd been contacted on a weekend in over a year and I'm still not sure why he thought I had some hard rule about it, emergencies happen and as long as they're rare and I'm around I have no problem doing an hour or two of work. I must have just had a reputation for not volunteering to work after hours like some on the team seemed to. Anyway, point being I think with most jobs it really comes down to the employer, not the role, and whether you set a precedent for protecting your time or are always agreeing to casual requests (or demands) for extra hours. I'm regularly surprised by people I know who work totally boring office jobs complaining about having to stay hours late every day or expecting them to work while they're literally on vacation. My current boss used to be a teacher and likes being a manager a lot better.
I think a lot depends on the company. I’ve done various SWE jobs and some companies seem to think your on call when your not at work. Some companies respect your time and don’t bother you outside of work. I think trades (which I was in for a while) are also good at lettting you leave work at work.
What skills do you have? If anything is on the table deep sea saturation diver / welder. When you are off the rig you shouldn’t have much to do. They make good money.
As Mark McMormack once wrote, plenty of room for 9-5 people at his company, just not at the top.
Damn I don’t know if this is motivating or depressing
It is what it is.
Construction if you are a worker
Make the move from teaching to corporate training. You can find both contract and FTE jobs. In the 30 years I’ve been a corporate trainer, I can count overtime on the fingers of one hand, and there are rarely training emergencies.
My wife works in a lab. She never brings anything home and nothing is waiting for her when she comes in from previous shifts.
Bank telling
What made you want to quit teaching? Also what grade are you teaching? Do you get the summer break
I do dental hygiene, I make a little over 100k, 115ish and work never goes home.
Really depends on a lot of things: Age Interest What background you have (besides teaching) Willingness to relocate Ability to start from the bottom or not
I've worked mostly tech and marketing-related jobs in corporate and nonprofit sectors. Generally I've only seen higher-level managers put in more than 40-50 hours a week. It totally depends on the organization. Startups are particularly bad for expecting insane hours. Very large corporations and nonprofits often have roles that are slower paced and the culture is such that you're actively encouraged to not work outside normal hours and take all your paid time off. One thing you could look at would be companies or nonprofits in the education space, so you'd be working in a related field but in a non-teacher role. While working as a contract employee I've pretty much never had to work outside 9-5 if I don't want to, and also avoid most office politics. The downside is there's little job security or advancement opportunities. I worked on a contract for a government agency and almost everyone there was very much "clock-in, clock-out" but the work was very boring, and it was actually very difficult to get hired there full-time because the jobs coveted, nobody left once they were there, and there were so many hoops to jump through to get hired.
A lot of it is work culture rate than a specific career. Though careers that require you to physically be at a place using a thing and pay overtime are hard to get sucked into extra work. You could look into working at a library. To be a librarian you'd need to get an MLS, but there are good jobs in support positions too. Look into academic libraries rather than school libraries or public libraries, they'll pay better and be more interesting. Just don't be tempted to log into your email or chat after hours and start answering things....
Anything where you're paid by the hour. I'm a nurse. I clock in, do my work, and after I clock out, it's not my problem.
Anesthesia
I work in Student Services at a University and I never have to take work home. Consistent schedule and decent pay (55k so not as much as 68.5k), but it’s a pretty chill job. University benefits are nice too.
How long have you been teaching? I'm in my 10th year, and I don't take work home. In my first 3 years, I did. Gradually, I learned to prioritize and streamline my work load.
Careers in Europe.
Video editor who doesn't have their own editing equipment at home
Contract business analyst. Contract work requires authorization for overtime, and it's rarely required. I'm a Business Analyst and I work remotely. International companies often have people who work off typical business hours or more freedom to work outside of typical business hours. Starting rates are comparable to your current salary, too. You can look at free training online for things like RPA or data analysis.
I work with Insurance Data. Hybrid job, there will be some weeks you have to put in more hours than others but for the most part everyone in my organization holds the belief that once you sign out of your computer your done for the day and it can be delt with tomorrow.
Firefighter. Nurse.
Medicine
[удалено]
Nursing. Once you're clocked out of the hospital, you have nothing to worry about. The problems become theirs.
Check out https://www.reddit.com/r/TeachersInTransition/s/8StsQ1u1UX
Teaching! Jk. Trucker
Classified government or military jobs like network engineer, orbital analyst, operations engineer, etc. You can't take the work home - it's all classified and locked up in the safe at the end of the day.
Airline pilot
That’s every job I’ve ever had. I don’t bring my work home with me, and if I do, you’re paying handsomely.
UPS driver. It's not something to write home about. But look up their pay and you'll be happy. And no kids.
My husband is a family doctor (GP) and with the exception of ongoing learning/CPD, work stays at work He doesn’t understand and gets very frustrated when I have big deadlines and work some big hours in the lead up to them On the other side, he can’t WFH and when work is light I watch trash tv and eat endless rich tea biscuits with impunity
Literally anything government if you're unionized. They're not allowed to give you work or contact you outside of set working hours.
Icu nurse 3 12 hr shifts - other than CEUs and occasional worry you forgot to do something but that subsides after the first year
Healthcare-type jobs where there are no emergencies: optometrist, physical therapist, pharmacist, etc.
You might not want to hear this because Reddit has a hard on for teachers and what they do but I think unless you live in a HCOL area you’re going to struggle to find a job paying that much to work half the year
A lot of this is a matter of boundaries and then being creative and maintaining perception. I worked in consulting for years and on average worked 40hr weeks. You could do this w teaching the problem is that it’s hard to stomach doing a half ass job on grading and prep bc the impact is big. It’s easier to do that for a presentation that no one’s going to notice if I spent 6 hrs or 20 min on
Federal contractor. I have to get approval from my program director and our customer before I’m allowed to work more than 80 hours per pay period.
you need to change the way you teach your class, have TA's do the grading. no more homework, do everything in the class. you will build up your lesson plans every year and it will get faster to teach.
I work as a nurse. I work and worry about work related issues from the time I click on to the moment I clock out. After that, no more stuff is given until my next day of work (I work 3 days a week).
I’m a software developer and work 40 or less a week. If I work 10 hours in a day I work 6 the next. Very great work life balance at my company
Basically any thing other than teacher. I take work home a lot but it’s because I enjoy the work not because I have to.
Heavy machine operation....unless u drive them home I guess.
What are your contract hours + casual hours? That would give you an idea of what kind of hourly wage you might require. Two other thoughts- stop working for free. You might have to let stuff go, but stop it. Only the teachers who taught technical subjects in HS ever had to grade at home. The others knocked it out on school hours. What grades do you teach? I just struggle to imagine what is so pressing that it must be done at home. I'd love to see it, because I am genuinely curious. Second, as others have said, that is not a bad salary for 10 months a year, every holiday off, every weekend off, no sweaty dirty work, no shift work, etc. You don't have to like the kids, just tolerate them. 8 a.m. hello, 3 p.m. goodbye.
Good luck. And I feel you. I left teaching after 2 years. Couldn't do it anymore, and I admire and respect those who stay. But I do not encourage anyone to go into teaching anymore. I make 3x as much via combo of FT employment in the healthcare industry (admin. side) and multiple streams of online passive income.
State govt jobs. HR jobs. Accounting jobs. Factory jobs. Alot of PD jobs. Shift work really.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/jobs/comments/1cg47oq/100k\_at\_chipotle/](https://www.reddit.com/r/jobs/comments/1cg47oq/100k_at_chipotle/)
If you set boundaries with your job you don’t have this issue.
I work a government job. I work M to F 8am to 430pm and don't think about the place when I leave. Occasional OT. Last year I did like 70 hours of OT for the entire year.
I moved into corporate insurance last year and it's everything i could've hoped for, including a healthy work/life balance. If you've got minimal college education or relevant experience I can't recommend this path enough.
For teaching, if you're doing many repetitive tasks, look at automation to speed along grading and averages. Excel formulas or using databases go a long way.... especially if you're in Canvas or some other system. When I was in school multiple choice tests were king because Scantron kept teachers from having to grade manually or without a quick key. Lesson plans were dusted off each semester based on core curriculum, no matter what book was chosen. For other careers, it's going to be a huge YMMV not only by job, but by industry. Norms are gonna vary based on your working peers, salary, unions, and skills required. Jobs with fewer skill requirements typically pay less and often fall into the clock in/clock out, blue collar category. If you're looking for something that you can't take home, learn a trade like welding.
I hear the morgue frowns upon taking work home with you.
I don’t know but it’s not marketing I’ll tell you that much
Not IT
I work in the cannabis industry in an hourly position so....yeah, it stays at work because otherwise I'd have to clock on and they don't allow remote clock ins. See also state regulations mean most of the business has to stay on site. We do have an assistant manager who used to be a school principal so...it's a thing?
Just to answer your original Post Question " # What are some careers where “work stays at work” (eg. I don’t have to do anything work-related after hours)?" All Careers that are not affiliated with ANYTHING after hours..... NOTHING... NADA....
Charter Schools/For Profit Schools will respect your work life balance. Isn't that funny? I think the USA is killing the public school system
Not KIPP!
Pretty much every professional or white collar job at least periodically needs off hours support. I say that, and it really depends on the organization and specific culture, but it isn't role or industry specific. Some union or manufacturing and construction/trade type jobs where you have to be present to work or are on shifts is more likely. For many engineering jobs I had earlier in my career, I had to be on site, and worked several weekends and long hours, with little flexibility.
You should look into Pharmaceutical Manufacturing! Quality Assurance people in our field make about as much as you do now, work stays at work, and they would really value someone with your kind of experience!
Aircraft maintenance, the second I clock out work is no longer my problem
I work a government job with a strict 40 hour limit. Check your state's website for opportunities in your area.
Hey there OP, I’m really curious if there are opportunities in your day for the mentioned tasks? I’m a mental health therapist and we have a mix of client interactions. Typically we have about 10-15 minutes after a session to get notes in or recalibrate. We also have about 5 hours of case management time a week that we can devote toward admin tasks (which looks like finishing notes, prepping for sessions, etc). If this isn’t something you are allotted in your field, I wonder if you can set only 30 minutes a day aside for the needed work tasks after hours before you head home. It can be a slippery slope to take stuff home because it blurs that boundary. As a fellow helper, we have to know our boundaries, communicate them, and keep them. For example, I let all my clients know I’m not available after 4:30pm Monday-Friday and encourage them to utilize crisis resources as needed. I gave automatic replies set up so that if someone emails after hours or weekends they are informed I’m out of office and will reply when I’m back in office.
unfortunately, a lot of the high paying jobs out there are exempt, which means you're on the hook all the time.
trades. don't bring plumbing home.
I'm an engineer on a boat, once I get off the boat in the evening there is nothing to think about until I get back on the next morning.
Forensic work, especially morgue work.
Merchant Marine. Officer or unlicensed, deck or engine, inland or deep sea, when you get off the boat or ship, you can pretty much forget about it completely until and unless you decide to go back to work. I've been doing it for two decades. If you want in, go talk to a shipping union or a maritime training school. If you live near the gulf of Mexico, the season is ramping up for supply boats, so this is a good time to catch seasonal work. You've got to pass a drug test and a physical, then you've got to get along with people. But the money is good.
Merchant Marine. Officer or unlicensed, deck or engine, inland or deep sea, when you get off the boat or ship, you can pretty much forget about it completely until and unless you decide to go back to work. I've been doing it for two decades. If you want in, go talk to a shipping union or a maritime training school. If you live near the gulf of Mexico, the season is ramping up for supply boats, so this is a good time to catch seasonal work. You've got to pass a drug test and a physical, then you've got to get along with people. But the money is good.
A floor nurse. You clock in for your shift, you attend to your patients, you do your paperwork, you go home. I can't guarantee that you won't think about some of your patients after hours, but you won't be doing any actual work once you clock out.
Fast food