Father-of-two quits Michelin-starred restaurant job and takes £18,000 pay cut to spend more time with family

Chris Peverell began working for his local village pub when he was just 15 and worked in the hospitality industry until October 2025.

After returning to work from furlough during the Covid-19 pandemic, it made him realise he wanted more time with his wife Sophie, 38, a food scientist, and their two children aged seven and five. At the time he was working up to 70 hour weeks.

Knowing he was interested in moving into a trade as a "hands on, practical person", he spent a few days working with an electrician friend before deciding to apply for a self-funded blended learning course costing £9,500 which he funded through savings and help from family.

Initially applying for the course in 2021, Chris finally made the leap to start it in October 2025 and is now working towards his level three diploma and is set to sit exams in January.

He began working in March before he began sub-contracting in September for a company who will help him through further NVQ qualifications - and will start his permanent contract in December.

Despite his salary dropping from £45,000 to £27,000, he is "really enjoying" his new role and gets to spend "so much time" with his family with 40-hour working weeks.

Chris, from Pickering, says: "I was a front of house restaurant manager.

"I really enjoyed it, but things change in life and you have to change direction.

"My wife and I had our first child in 2019 and had loads of time to spend with my family then.

"I said to my wife by the time the kids are at school I don't want to be missing weekends and stuff.

"That was the driving force behind it.

"My son is seven and my daughter is almost six and I thought 'OK, I'm missing too much time, let's make it happen'.

"About 12 months ago I said 'I'm doing it'."

Chris initially studied hospitality business management at university and ran a number of pubs and restaurants alongside a mobile events business.

More recently, he has worked for chef Tommy Banks at Michelin 4 AA rosette restaurant The Black Swan and for Love Island's Montana Brown at her Whitby-based hotel Saltmoore as a food and beverage manager overseeing three restaurants.

Chris' most recent role saw him working as an assistant restaurant manager at Myse, another Michelin starred restaurant.

But after he spent a few days of unpaid work alongside electrician friend Craig, 45 to "give it a try", he decided to go ahead and train as an electrician.

"I've always been happy doing sort of DIY stuff at home," Chris says.

"He said give it a try and see if you enjoy it.

"There's loads of routes you can take and the one I've taken is a personal self-funded blended learning course.

"You can start the course doing training qualifications from home.

"There are lots of tutor-marked assessments, pre-centre work where you go in, do the exam, get assessed and go back home.

"You do the level two, then level three diploma and then onto your NVQ.

"For your NVQ you need to have a job in the electrical industry as your evidence from site to complete your end review.

"I've been working for a company based in Whitby for three or four months now.

"They're basically trying me out.

"I'm sub-contracting to them and they've offered me a contract which I'll start in December and they'll help me through my NVQ qualifications."

Initially planning to become self-employed once qualified, Chris says he has heard from other people in the industry this route means you "start to lose the time you wanted".

"That's the thing I was after in the first place and perhaps being self-employed for a big electrical company is not the way to go if you want family time," he says.

"Stepping back into this, the expectation as an adult is you'd earn more and it will be different to being an apprentice trainee but it's not, unfortunately you have to start at the beginning again.

"My salary is £27,000 which is awful and you do have to prepare for that.

"I did a lot of that, a lot of savings were used in the process to make this happen.

"But obviously it's worthwhile in the long run.

"We did make big changes before I started.

"Stuff for myself personally I had a lease car for 10 years that was £300 a month and I just used my savings and bought a car to get me from A to B and got rid of the lease car so we don't have that overhead.

"I started doing free exercise rather than the gym that was £50 per month.

"Fortunately my wife is in a senior position at her company and has been able to support me with that, and I'm lucky with that."

Now, Chris says he is finding enjoyment from his "brain working constantly" in his new role.

"There were a few things I didn't like, like being in loft spaces with big spiders and stuff but you just have to get on with it," he says.

"Now I'm absolutely fine and really enjoy it.

"A lot of it comes down to who you're working with, they're a good crowd."

Sharing his entire journey with followers on social media, Chris has founded a "community" of people who are in the same boat or are looking to change career.

He says getting family time back with his wife and children has been "incredible."

"I used to work Wednesday to Sunday and do around 60 to 70 hours per week, across breakfast, lunch and evening shifts," he says.

"Sometimes I'd finish work at 1am and have to be back on site by 6.30am.

"Now I work Monday to Friday, 40 hours a week.

"I get to have breakfast with my family and I'm home in time for tea.

"It feels crazy how different life is now.

"We've never had so much time together.

"I honestly don't know why I waited so long to do it.

"And there was a time as well when I started my training and stuff where I would take them to school, do the school run.

"It's something I've not had before and it's great."