Not to get into the divorce aspect too deeply, effectively I traveled a lot for work, made a ton of money doing it, which eventually killed my marriage. I was raised to think this was my purpose. My ex always worked a lot too, but has always done telework and earned a pretty equal salary. To the extent we share custody and my child support is effectively nothing. Unfortunately, our 1 child is terminally ill, and with my traditional 9-5, I basically use every hour of accrued vacation on doctor's appointments. I do the best I can, but my complaint now is that I'm not even asking for any time for myself.
My problem now is the arrangement of a 9-5, we're very feast or famine, Winter is a lull period for months, but I am obligated to sir in my office chair 8 hours, regardless of my productivity. This essentially amounts to me surfing reddit, and experimenting with how many cans of air it takes to spin my office chair. This isn't to say I'm lazy, I'm a top rated employee year after year. But why the fuck is the clock the most important thing? This isn't an assembly line.
Problem being, I've invested too much into this career, and I'm not actually allowed to earn less, willingly. Ever. Because this career I put too much into caused my marriage to break, which I take responsibility for. And now an endentured servant to the family court system that won't allow me to do anything else. Now I'm even more resentful of my job, and imprisoned to this income bracket. I did it to myself, but only because I thought that's what was expected of me. So what's the move?