I did. I was at a job I was mostly happy with the work but the leadership was making poor decisions and about half of the staff I worked with were awful people. The remaining staff (including me) were getting demoralized. I was willing to take a pay cut but wanted to make sure I would be happy at my new job if I did. I looked for 3 years before leaving to me current job.

I was making $185+$20k bonus. I took a job making $165k. My old job offered to increase to $250k and a promotion if I stayed. That was tempting and DH and I had a long talk about it before I went ahead and took the new job. The gist of it was that I was miserable and complaining all the time and that my complaint at my old job was not the money, it was tbe environment. I would still have the same complaints and unhappiness, even if the money was better.

That was five years ago and I’m up to $200K this year, so still not as much as I would have had if I stayed. I’m still so glad I left. I am very happy with my new colleagues and find the work more rewarding. I have new complaints about my organization, but generally really happy with my job. I don’t come home stressed from work.

I’m in touch with my old colleagues and they are still complaining about the same sh!t I hated when I was there. They money is not worth it to me - once you have enough, the extra stress is not worth it.

My first, second, third, and fourth job were all toxic. They were also minimum wage, barely.
I invested my way out of having to work. You clearly chose upgrading your lifestyle along with your income growth. It's time to downgrade your lifestyle, invest the extra you make for few years, and then change jobs.
What you did was a choice, but it's not working for you anymore. You have the income to change it. Buy dividend ETF now for few years to replace some of your income.
The biggest benefits are learning to live on less, learning about investing, and part of your income being replaced by the investment.

Was laid off making $280k but new job only pays $150k.

Needless to say, I'm still applying elsewhere.

I took a pay cut to change jobs with the same employer, and I'm very happy with the job but I do miss the extra money.

Key word: extra. We can live fine on the lower salary, so I chose quality of life over money. I might regret it when I'm old and we have less money to live on, but I can't say I regret it right now.

My DH took a cut from about $130k to about $110k about two years ago. It was an in person job (25 min commute each way) and the people were awful to him by the end. At his “new” job he was fully remote, slept better, had more time for our family, and could do things like take children to appointments. I was able to lean into my job more AND he was happier and promoted fairly quickly (6 months or so) to a position that paid about what he previously earned. Even if that hadn’t been the case, the improvement in his health and happiness was worth a cut.

I did this recently also. I was in a toxic work environment where I was constantly stressing and couldn’t wait for the weekend for 2 days of relief all to have it start all over again on Monday.

I don’t feel the pay cut, but know I am making less. We are not living pay check to pay check at the $200K level so we did not have to make any adjustments. But, mentally, I am much better and it’s better for my family. Work life balance is better. I’m glad I did it but I understand the struggle in making the decision.

Yes. I went from a federal job to a nonprofit for a 15% or so paycut. But I was a bit earlier in my career (7 years out) and the federal jon was a real dead end for me. I hated it. The nonprofit was fantastic (for a while) and I breathed a huge sigh of relief. And I used the nonprofit job to bootstrap into a much better and higher paying federal job after a few years. So for me it worked out - although the nonprofit definitely would not have been great longterm.

As someone who works at a large company now making good money and spent most of my career at a nonprofit being overworked and underpaid —- make sure the quality of life is truly there and you’re not going to stunt your career growth longer term. Big companies have budget and enough staff to go around. Nonprofits often don’t.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know you wrote haircut, right 😏

You clearly do not understand what OP is trying to say. It's a thing.

It's a thing to say haircut instead of paycut? That's really stupid. It just makes you sound like you can't be bothered to fix your autocorrect. Inane.

Consulting PP from above. It’s definitely a term I’ve only heard in the business world, but I’ve absolutely heard it. Maybe stop arguing that it’s not a thing just because you haven’t run across it.

+1. I hear the phrase "taking a haircut" pretty often in the corporate world. Just because you have not heard of it does not mean that it is "inane." It can refer to situations (not just paycuts) where the company takes a loss.

+2. It can also refer to write downs/write offs, paying a huge fee to get out of a deal or a lease. At my DH's law firm they say it when they are writing down a large portion of someone's bill, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know you wrote haircut, right 😏

You clearly do not understand what OP is trying to say. It's a thing.

It's a thing to say haircut instead of paycut? That's really stupid. It just makes you sound like you can't be bothered to fix your autocorrect. Inane.

Consulting PP from above. It’s definitely a term I’ve only heard in the business world, but I’ve absolutely heard it. Maybe stop arguing that it’s not a thing just because you haven’t run across it.

+1. I hear the phrase "taking a haircut" pretty often in the corporate world. Just because you have not heard of it does not mean that it is "inane." It can refer to situations (not just paycuts) where the company takes a loss.

It is often said as "everybody's taking a haircut." That is: everyone across levels, locations, etc is getting something taken away or taken back.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know you wrote haircut, right 😏

You clearly do not understand what OP is trying to say. It's a thing.

It's a thing to say haircut instead of paycut? That's really stupid. It just makes you sound like you can't be bothered to fix your autocorrect. Inane.

Haircut means "HUGE pay cut"

Really? I've heard it the other way. A haircut is just "a little off the top" so it's usually a small pay cut. Whereas pay cut is usually more substantial. That's the way I've heard it used.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know you wrote haircut, right 😏

You clearly do not understand what OP is trying to say. It's a thing.

It's a thing to say haircut instead of paycut? That's really stupid. It just makes you sound like you can't be bothered to fix your autocorrect. Inane.

Consulting PP from above. It’s definitely a term I’ve only heard in the business world, but I’ve absolutely heard it. Maybe stop arguing that it’s not a thing just because you haven’t run across it.

+1. I hear the phrase "taking a haircut" pretty often in the corporate world. Just because you have not heard of it does not mean that it is "inane." It can refer to situations (not just paycuts) where the company takes a loss.

pubes or head hair on head?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DP here to say that the stay at home mommy trying to argue about proper payroll terminology is cracking me up.

I think it’s lawyers. Only lawyers would argue over tiny nuances in wording

NP and lawyer here who understands what an idiomatic "haircut" is. I would have thought any native English speaker would know that, but I guess not.

Anonymous wrote:DP here to say that the stay at home mommy trying to argue about proper payroll terminology is cracking me up.

I think it’s lawyers. Only lawyers would argue over tiny nuances in wording