On greedy jobs – Taking back control of your time

  1. Greedy Jobs are defined by the draw the job has on your time affluence, which it tries to compensate you with in other ways e.g. remuneration, promotion, status/ power, perks
  2. Work-life balance is a myth and always has been, think more about several well-being factors, not a single-dimensional scale. Consider who you work with, how you work and the environment you operate in (physical, mental, psychological)
  3. Greedy jobs aren’t necessarily “bad” jobs or “dangerous” jobs, but you need to have your objectives front of mind, and constantly sense-check you’re still getting what you want from the job, not what the job wants from you

Starting out

Before defining greedy jobs, do you remember when you picked your profession? Or did it pick you? Was it a vocational or “calling” you felt before you went to university/ college? Did you do something more varied and come across it during the inevitable rush to cram internships into every second of your being that wasn’t writing essays or doing labs? Did you sort of sleep walk in to in a semi-daze post-degree? Did you maybe do a different profession that you chose with one of the previously mentioned methods, but realised it was time for a change either in content, process or remuneration?

I was a combination of having no idea what or who I wanted to be, so professional services seemed like an excellent route people take whilst figuring out their real “calling” (and sing-on bonus). I am sure many are rolling your eyes now, we’ve all seen the research that a “calling” to a job has been shown to be only minimally important to e.g job satisfaction, wellbeing or for career progression. What can I say, we hadn’t had the GFC yet.

Fast forward and it’s the 2020s – you’ve probably been working for a while now and are ready for or in senior management roles. You’ve probably lost sight of why you started this and may lack clarity on why you carry on doing it, except to continue your current lifestyle you have and your family and pay down debt. Remuneration is key, promotions are sought after in a clear hierarchy – like the cursus honorum but with more powerpoint.

I’m aware of how conceited this can sound, and how upset we all are with our high-paying jobs – I have a lot of privilege to check. What I want to set up though is an earnest attempt to connect with the concept of Greedy Jobs, why you matter and how to sustainably thrive in that environment.

I’m making this comparison in the context primarily of well-paid careers such as professional services (write what you know: so I include here e.g. accountancy, banking, consulting, law) but also sales, start-ups/ scale-ups, medicine, big tech – not even scratching the surface here.

Greedy jobs

Never really “off” at the weekend? Unable to put the email down in the evening? Your hourly wage over 60-90hrs a week far outsizing that of other professions which may be more like 35 (or if you’re a junior, a promise of rapid growth in salary accorded to effort)? Long hours at “unsociable” times, mentally draining and physically fatiguing, inflexible time-critical demands, large information loss with non-fungible documents and services (i.e. key person dependency, and that person is you)? Ranked and yanked every 6months (admittedly paused during the pandemic at some firms)?

The idea of greedy jobs is a concept I am most familiar with from Claudia Goldin’s work. From the above, it sounds like you’re in a Greedy Job. It wants your time, almost all of it, all of the time with no disagreement.

“If you try to find time for your most valued activities by first dealing with all the other important demands on your time, in the hope that there’ll be some left over at the end, you’ll be disappointed” (Oliver Burkeman, “4,000 weeks”)

To consider then, are you surviving or are you flourishing? Whilst current conditions are considered the norm, it took me a long time to face up to the toll the toil can take. I think it is worth taking stock of what you want and what balance looks like. Work/ life balance is a myth and as the ability to be connected to our work for longer and longer via ever more powerful mobile solutions and normalisation of hybrid work means the lines are blurring continually.

Time affluence

I think dispelling the myth of work/ life balance is as important as determining what it should be replaced with. It needs to ensure our ongoing well-being, and as criteria for ranking the attractiveness of current and future opportunities. If we think along the same lines of time-allocated-to-work-ness to understand a different perspective on what that might look like, a first step is recognising what level of “time affluence” your job provides you.

Simply put, this is the idea of having enough time to do the things that you want to do (including doing nothing) when you want to do them without feeling strapped for time. Similar to affluence as defined by disposable income, time affluence considers how much control you have over your time overall and a spectrum of how much you can self-direct vs being constrained vs being completely inflexible with your time.

Consider re-framing your expectations and time management in these terms, and not “work life balance” and I believe you’ll quickly find a healthier engagement model with your current job and overall career trajectory.


I have a few steps you can take to engage in Greedy Jobs in a more sustainable way:

  • Include self-care in your time allocations – What do you do to relax? A cliched question but with hidden depth. Do you actually have an answer to that? What is your default setting for time usage – you will be inherently tending towards something either by subtle choice or by lack of action. Are you defining your time mainly as just “not work”, or decoupled from that and more “towards” other outlets, hobbies, and pursuits? Managing your stress curve over time is important, as the subtle toll adds up over time (and your body keeps the score).
  • Remind yourself why you do what you do – How are you defining what a “good job” looks like? Would you be able to take stock and notice if such an opportunity came along, or constant nose to the grindstone? What are your underlying values and objectives? Consider what a “good enough job” looks like to you, rather than a “perfect job”. There may be some inherent issues with greedy jobs on a more abstract and societal level, but it is more important to focus on the here and now.
  • Set boundaries with clear communication – Do have any particular “red lines” that work shall not cross? Or even just preferences you would rather be respected more often than not? I found my inner concern about being seen as underperforming or needy was highly misplaced when I actually took a step forward here – thanks to anxiety/ imposter syndrome. Have you communicated with them in a robust and constructive manner? I used to seethe at being “always on” as work started to seep through my life like ink on a blotter. Until I recognised I was pushing an open door to better structure how and when I did my best work in a way that fitted the preference curves of the team and of management. Have that conversation, elevate your thinking, and maybe even that of your leaders.

Background research and further reading (paywall for several)


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  1. […] Good job (what does that mean? Just the money and status? Think how the greedy job greasy pole works) […]