Yeah, you said that already. We already knew you disagreed, which is why I posted a dissenting opinion in the first place. That way, OP hears different perspectives and can make their own call.

Personally, I've seen way too much anti-employee politics and policy in the corporate world to trust that maximizing checks is right for everyone. I say that as someone who did that for much of my career, too. If you have ambition to do more, you should. If you are happy to just collect checks, you should do that. But people should decide for themselves because what burns one person out would make a different person thrive.

I more just mean solely for the money doesn’t quite work so well. I see your viewpoint regarding anti-employee politics and policy and agree the world is becoming quite anti-worker so can see where you’re coming from.

I’ve found the best approach is to reduce work hours per week/fortnight by 1 day, and spend that day on side projects and learning.

If you approach side projects with the intent to learn and share your creations, I think the money can follow.

That way you can still juice up your career, but potentially open up a diversified second income stream. If the finances look good, you can even reduce work hours and increase side project time