'I left high-flying legal career to be a carer... and NOW I'm viewed as scum': Mother who quit £45,000 lawyer job for minimum-wage role helping elderly says she's viewed as 'dregs of society'

  • Claire McCartan, 36, left her comfortable job as a London lawyer in 2017
  • She took a job as a care home worker and felt others looked down on her
  • She said carers are viewed a 'dregs of society' but should be celebrated 
  • Her new job was a 5 minute walk from her home in Hertfordshire 
  • Claire now cares for her mother with dementia using the skills she gained 

By Emer Scully For Mailonline

Published: | Updated:

A mother-of-two has slammed those who view her as the 'dregs of society' after she left a job in central London in favour of caring for dementia patients.

When Claire McCartan's 10-hour work days started to cause sleepless nights, anxiety and stress the 36-year-old dropped it all to work in a care home.

After almost a decade of leaving her home in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, at 7.30pm not to return until 10 at night Claire's £45,000 salary was no longer enough. 

Claire decided to leave her job in January 2017 and days later, while walking down a street in Rickmansworth, she saw a sign advertising a position as a care assistant at Meresworth Care Home

Her children Sean, 11, and Tia 14, would see their mother for less than an hour a day as she woke them up before she left for work.

Instead they were left in the care of a full-time childminder who was paid £800 a month.

Claire decided to leave her job in January 2017 and days later, while walking down a street in Rickmansworth, she saw a sign advertising a position as a care assistant at Meresworth Care Home. 

Her husband Simon, who works as a scientist in London fully supported her decision as she took on the new role. 

Claire's salary dropped from £45,000 a year to minimum wage but she did not have to pay for childcare and the care home was five minutes from her house - meaning no commute. 

Claire is now retraining as a reminiscence and bereavement counsellor after taking a year out from her care home job to care for her own mother (pictured) who had Dementia

But Claire said her friends were 'horrified' when they found out she was no longer a lawyer.

She slammed a society which looks down on those in caring roles as inferior when their job is vital for so many elderly and disabled people.  

She told the Mirror: 'It has opened my eyes about our society, where when I changed from a solicitor to a care worker, my hourly rate dropped to minimum wage and people viewed me as the dregs of society.

'I couldn’t understand why people started looking down on me when they found out I was now a care worker.'

Her children Sean, 11, and Tia (pictured), 14, would see their mother for less than an hour a day as she woke them up before she left for work

Her children Sean, 11, and Tia (pictured), 14, would see their mother for less than an hour a day as she woke them up before she left for work

Claire is now retraining as a reminiscence and bereavement counsellor after taking a year out from her care home job to care for her own mother who had Dementia. 

She said: 'If I hadn’t had the experience working in a care home I don’t think I would have felt able to look after her, I would have just paid for her to go into a care home herself.

'We seem to have lost our family values and are caught up in viewing academia and highly paid jobs as ‘the goal’, leaving our elderly and disabled to flounder, uncared for.' 

Claire now works as a counsellor and life coach and shares her experience of a negative work-life balance with others

Claire now works as a counsellor and life coach and shares her experience of a negative work-life balance with others

London

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