re: you being a dick. Yes we can all be dicks sometimes but that was incorrect as well as rude. Of course I have considered negotiating. It's absolutely none of your business of course but I work government so no possibility of negotiation. I am on the highest pay grade I can get with my skills without a complete change of occupation, and tbh I feel I'm getting an ok deal for the amount of stress I have with my pay and conditions. Especially so when I work closely with people in different roles that are getting completely exploited pay-wise in my opinion.

I know it'd be more work doing stuff for myself but at least I'd have more control over my own destiny, plus the possibility that it would work out very well, which I don't have now working a 9-to-5. It'd be pretty disappointing if it fell in a flaming heap though.

Well, I do feel that being a prospective employee makes me qualified to comment, so there you go. Just because I haven't put a job ad up with an artificially lowered pay and had no applicants doesn't mean I haven't seen what's on offer out there.

Have you considered, like people have been saying in these comments, that you may not have been getting applicants (such as myself) because the conditions or pay weren't as reasonable as you think?

ie, Do you really think if you doubled the pay you were offering you wouldn't have got more applicants?

If I left my job, for argument's sake, say to work at your place, someone with a lower level of skill could start at my old job and learn it as they go, like I had to with little training so many years ago. Some old people leave, some new people start. I think there's lots of skilled people out there. We shouldn't be bringing in slave labour from overseas so we can continue with our artificially lowered pays. If we're going to do capitalism we might as well do it properly... So if your business can't afford to pay what its costs are, then it is not a viable business.

Also obviously that guy who did apply was not happy with the pay or conditions at the place he was working at, so there's that.

Anyway we obviously don't see eye-to-eye on this issue.