What is the easiest job that will earn me a modest salary?

September 16, 2021 6:53 PM

I've spent my entire working life as a punching bag (retail, food service, teaching) for bosses, parents, and often the public at large. Now in middle age I am done being a punching bag. I do not need to make very much money. I don't really want to go back to school. What are my options?

Here's what I need/want, in descending order of importance:

- An org that isn't actively evil. I am not going to go work for Exxon or something

- To go home at night and not think about work.

- If I could make $25-30k, that would be great. If that's for less than 40 hours, even better. I have a lot of savings and don't spend very much money.

- Flexibility (being able to take time off as needed -- paid or unpaid! -- is #1, because I'm not doing this two-weeks-vacation bullshit; flexibility about hours/schedule/remote work is nice but not as imperative)

- Low pressure, low stakes work environment. I do not want to put out any more fires. I do not want to cry in my car all the time. I do not want people screaming at me -- boss or client or customer or whoever. I do not want to be personally blamed for societal problems.

- Health insurance would be nice.

- I am willing to do some retraining but I have a lot of degrees and I am not getting any more.

- I like being on my feet and doing a lot of different things throughout the day, but if that's not in the cards, that's fine.

- A less hierarchical environment, or a job where I care so little about the outcome that I don't have any desire to challenge the hierarchy.

- Also, like, this has to be a job a former teacher could plausibly get. I've heard that lots of companies don't want to hire former teachers, so...not those jobs, I guess.


Also here's some skills I have, but please don't feel limited by this. I will learn new skills if I need to.

- I'm great at customer service. I love helping people, I can think on my feet, I'm friendly and outgoing. I'm also great at diffusing angry people, but I do not want to do that anymore. My coworkers like me. (My bosses usually don't, because I tell them what I think, but I will stop doing that.)

- I'm a good communicator. I'm good at explaining things.

- I'm efficient.

- I'm reasonably good with technology, though my skills are out of date. Many years ago I did some work with graphic and web design. My coworkers ask me for computer help a lot. I could probably brush some stuff up.

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (30 answers total)

Technical (i.e. manuals and documentation) writer? I don't know what the job market for this field is like where you live (although with common WFH maybe that's immaterial), but it seems to match your skill-set. Being a good communicator and having good people skills is hugely valuable in the tech/computer industry if you can get a foot in the door.
posted by riotnrrd at 6:56 PM on September 16, 2021 [2 favorites]

I always thought delivering mail for USPS sounded like a nice pre-retirement jobs because it keeps you active, and I knew someone who retired from the USPS and loved it, and was always able to stop by home during the day and that sounded nice. But I have no idea how easy or hard it is to get that job, whether things changed in the last 15 years, and I realize it doesn't use your skill set. However, working as a clerk at a post office might use your skills and you probably don't have to think about work after hours.
posted by never.was.and.never.will.be. at 7:01 PM on September 16, 2021 [7 favorites]

About six months ago I took a job as a receptionist/office manager. I'm very surprised by how much I enjoy it. Not every receptionist work environment would be what you describe, but a lot of them would be.
posted by showbiz_liz at 7:01 PM on September 16, 2021 [12 favorites]

Daytime maitre'd or host/hostess at a decent restaurant.
posted by vrakatar at 7:08 PM on September 16, 2021

Mail carrier. It's a dream job for me that meets your requirements, but they require a drivers license even for walking routes right next to the office.

I would imagine the place it's least likely to meet your requirements is hours, but you're getting fresh* air and exercise on the clock, which has to somewhat compensate for that.

*your air may vary
posted by aniola at 7:09 PM on September 16, 2021 [4 favorites]

It's a really weird and random suggestion, but I know a lot of people who work a couple of months a year in antarctica and spend the rest of the year relaxing or having fun. (NSF OPP is a good place to start, especially if you're a US or NZ citizen. People from other nations can qualify also. If you're in the UK, Australia, France, Italy, Argentina, Chile, Russia, or China, there are probably better local options.) Which job is the right one is hard to say. FEMC admin, GA, or something like driver, bartender, trainer, or food hauler is probably the most likely, though it doesn't explicitly use your talents. You won't escape putting out fires or dealing with shitty bosses, but you'll have nine months between them and really cool colleagues and the salary isn't bad compared to similar year-long jobs in the north.
posted by eotvos at 7:20 PM on September 16, 2021 [22 favorites]

If you are fit and have good knees and legs, then USPS may be an option. You'll spend a few years doing the mail carrier work before they even think of moving you into an office or warehouse. Nobody really wants the carrier routes, esp. the walking ones. You pretty much just have to keep up with the load, complain when you can't, and don't lose any of the mail. The only mail carriers that got in trouble, AFAIK, are the ones that took the mail and dumped them, i.e. dereliction of duty.

Personally though, have you thought about going back to teaching, but online? There are tutoring jobs that pays $20-30 an hour, and you can do that part-time, provided you have a decent internet connection and as a former teacher you should be comfortable teaching stuff. And it could be as simple as English, Math, and so on. If you know coding, there are lots of online coding schools for kids that want coders.
posted by kschang at 7:52 PM on September 16, 2021 [1 favorite]

Job? How about projects. Browse Thumbtack (or InDeed, TaskRabbit, etc) for math, writing or any academic tutoring projects. Projects or gigs will allow time in-between and provide a modest income. This is the perfect time for one-to-one tutoring.
posted by artdrectr at 9:12 PM on September 16, 2021

If you’re in an area that has colleges or universities, they are often fantastic places to find work in admin, logistics/operations, event planning, student coordination, and other roles that are skilled, but don’t necessarily require a specific prior career path. College/university positions often come with decent benefits; some are unionized.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 11:14 PM on September 16, 2021 [5 favorites]

Depends a lot on where you are.

My experience is from Canada.

Municipal jobs - like, for the city or municipality. They'll have websites with job listings, or they'll post them through various gov jobs websites.

Postie! If you enjoy physically activity and being outside, chatting with posties v others when taking packages etc., working for Canada Post seems to be at least a league better than commercial delivery. Suburban delivery is a lot of walking, commercial drive vans.

Both have pretty good pensions and benefits. A lot of posted jobs are only intended for internal positions, and are already filled, so that's a pita. The path to getting into municipal jobs is lengthy and frustratingly arbitrary, but are very stable and fit many of your criteria.
posted by porpoise at 11:32 PM on September 16, 2021

How about client or corporate training? Many organizations have dedicated trainers and training teams whose jobs involve writing training documents and manuals, onboarding clients post-sale, teaching people how to use the product, leading people through training exercises, hosting seminars, making training videos, and so on.

With your history of teaching and customer service you probably have all the skills you need and any organization that hires you will provide the necessary training to get you up to speed with whatever you will be training on. You might even be able to find an organization that is trying to do good with whatever they are doing. There are plenty of non-profits that use trainers to lead all kinds of programs.

One possible downside is that training roles often have have some travel. This could just be in your city, but could also be flying around the country. It really depends on what you are training on and how large the organization is. Not all training jobs require travel either, there are plenty that do everything through webinars.

I would also be careful not to end up in a training role that is also a customer support role. That can happen, especially with technology/software companies. This should be easy to suss out in an interview or even in the job ad.
posted by forbiddencabinet at 12:22 AM on September 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

I don’t know much about whether public library positions would meet your salary/benefits goals or the desire to work in a calm environment, but if there are universities or colleges near you, academic library support staff jobs would meet several criteria. Computing skills needs are fairly light—be trainable to work in the library services systems— and jobs like stacks management or the circulation desk would have you on your feet at least some of the time. There’s a helping people component, and basically not evil, though can’t guarantee that students or faculty would never express frustration or anger unnecessarily at you. I think an education background and good communication skills would make you an attractive candidate. Good luck with your search!
posted by sk932 at 3:12 AM on September 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

Hi, I'm an RCA (Rural Carrier Associate), aka mailperson in the United States. You could be that or CCA (City Carrier Associate), that's how you get your foot in the door. It's not fulltime work, except when it is, and you're basically on call every morning till 9am, to see if they need you to come in. Your only guaranteed hours are two days a week, Saturday for doing a specific mail route and Sunday, delivering Amazon packages.

It's a fine job and I like it, but make no mistake, the US post office is not flexible about your time off. I'd still encourage people to do it, just do it with open eyes.
posted by clocksock at 3:41 AM on September 17, 2021 [7 favorites]

Seconding receptionist. At the right place - i.e. not someplace high-stakes with lots of public interaction like a cancer surgeon's office, but someplace with minimal "customer" interaction like an architectural firm or a software company or an investment bank - this can be EXTREMELY low-stakes, comfortable work where you don't have to interact much with rude members of the public, at least. And if the bankers/software engineers/architects aren't assholes and you answer the doors and phone and keep the snack basket and Perrier fridge full you may even be appreciated by your coworkers.
posted by mskyle at 4:36 AM on September 17, 2021 [3 favorites]

Probably one of the things you've done before (because you know how) but with a better boss.

More specifically, you want a job that takes particular knowledge which you have but no one else in the organization has. This happened to me twice. Once I was the only programmer left who could support the old software, and once I was the only IT guy in the company.

Health Insurance. Huge industry, and likely to remain so for a long time despite the winds of change pushing the US toward the 20th century standard of a national health system. There are an unbelievable number and variety of small and medium-sized companies involved because big companies outsource anything that is non-standard or innovative. Places to look for a job are 1) the benefits departments of big companies, 2) third party administrators which aggregate business from employers and deal with insurers, 3) insurance companies themselves.

And there are companies selling software to all those companies, companies providing services to verify anything that needs to be verified, e.g. diagnosis codes, etc. All those companies have salesmen and the administrators that a company has to have to be a company.
posted by SemiSalt at 5:38 AM on September 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

Have you tried temping? Those jobs are inherently low stakes, and eventually companies will want to hire you on and you’ll know whether the job meets your requirements when they ask. I mostly got put in receptionist/clerk roles. My temp agency offered insurance after working a certain amount for them, although I’m not sure if anyone ever actually got it. The jobs I got through them did offer good benefits.

Another good fit could be customer service, but not for the general public. I worked as a CSR for a place that provided financial services to credit unions, so I was only dealing with people who were at work and incentivized not to be screaming jerks.
posted by momus_window at 6:46 AM on September 17, 2021 [5 favorites]

Have you considered being a house painter? Many construction jobs either require specific skills or can break your body over time, or both, but painting mostly requires attention to detail and a good work ethic. It's not the highest paid trade but it should get you what you're looking for, and many painters are hired by the job, so you can just be on some contractor's call list and say "no" if you don't want to work on a given job. Most painters I have seen at work are pretty much left alone during their work day, play music on the job site, chat to each other, etc. No health insurance though.
posted by goingonit at 7:08 AM on September 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

Right now is a great time to be a receptionist/office admin at a tech or finance firm. Those two industries are booming, and have extremely low but also necessary need for occasional use of office space by employees. They need a low paid person who doesn't mind being bored to sit in those offices for security reasons, to receive and scan mail, keep the office fresh and maintained (coffee, etc), route phone calls, and make things nice for the rare client visit.

You will most likely get this job right now through temping. Sign up with the biggest two (easiest to google) temp agencies in the metropolitan center nearest you and tell them that you're looking for a temp to perm receptionist/admin position.
posted by phunniemee at 7:10 AM on September 17, 2021 [3 favorites]

I'd get a job at Target or some place low stakes (maybe Old Navy or a grocery store), but since you don't need the money the first time someone gives you a hard time you just quit and move on to the next one. Like a roving service worker.

Receptionist at a low-key doctor office might not be too bad either.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:06 AM on September 17, 2021

The most flexible job I've had as an ex-teacher is subbing. Depending on the district, the pay can be okay, especially if you don't stay any longer than the school day. (You are paid for either four hours or eight, but I've never had a school require me to stay beyond the kids leaving, cleaning up and leaving a note.) If you don't like any given classroom or school, you simply don't say yes to those gigs. And because you are so needed, people tend to be very nice to you.
posted by RedEmma at 10:22 AM on September 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

To me, you sound like a perfect museum docent!
posted by acridrabbit at 10:53 AM on September 17, 2021

Chiming in to the receptionist ideas! I'm front staff at a private extended health clinic. Health care clinics can be really pleasant places if you choose the right environment. Be choosy about management and colleagues over actual tasks you're required to do.
posted by unlapsing at 11:08 AM on September 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

I bet you'd be a great Healthcare Navigator- assisting people in applying for ACA insurance or Medicaid. I did this with a non-profit and liked it- involves a lot of interaction with the public but the vast majority of people were grateful for the help and pleasant to interact with. It basically involved helping people to apply for healthcare online and explaining the process, what they needed, and the insurance plans.

(I know a lot of these positions went away after Trump got into office, but hopefully they're back with Biden)
posted by bearette at 4:43 PM on September 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

One of the most stress-free people I've ever met was an account manager for a company that provided tableclothes and linens to hotels and restaurants. I'm not suggesting you do exactly that but you might find a local business who provides a basic service to other local businesses.

He spent most of his time bird-watching and cycling. I knew him for years before I even learned what he did for work.
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 5:04 PM on September 17, 2021 [6 favorites]

Hm, interesting. I feel like maybe you are looking for a permanent part-time role.

Like, a full-time office job used to be what, 37.5 hours a week? And now, once you factor in evening-and-weekend-email and stuff like that, it's probably more like 50-60 hours a week. So I feel like if you want a max of 40 hours, in a normal FT job that's going to be a hard boundary to set and you would have to constantly fight to maintain it. Which sounds like a recipe for pain and frustration.

But the good news is you don't need to make a lot of money. So if I were you, I think I'd either be looking for a permanent part-time job, or I'd be applying for FT jobs with higher pay than you want/need, and then seeing if I could negotiate a hard limit on hours in exchange for less money.

FWIW I made that deal with someone once. I had a job applicant who for personal reasons wanted her work in a really tight little box. She wanted to come in, work steadily but not super-hard, leave at 4.30 and not think about us until the next day, and in exchange she was willing to take a 20% pay cut. From our perspective, we didn't really need a super-committed super-long-hours person in that role. We made the deal and ended up getting 80% of a solid person for 80% pay, which felt totally fine and fair.

I think the trick to selling this, if it's what you end up wanting to do, is framing yourself as capable and effective and kind of interpersonally chill/zen. You'd want to avoid being seen as someone who has problems that would interfere with your ability to do a good job. Rather, you'd want to come across as someone who could easily work a gazillion hours, but is intentionally choosing to prioritize things a little differently. More like "I have an extremely interesting hobby that I value a lot" rather than "there is something tragic going on that eats up a lot of my time."

Good luck :)
posted by Susan PG at 7:12 AM on September 18, 2021 [3 favorites]

Maybe a dogwalker/dogsitter? I bet there may be some openings as some workers may have transitioned to other jobs during the height of covid when need wasn't as great, but now people are heading back to the office and taking more trips, their pups may need some extra love. You could work under a company so you don't have to deal with the business side of things, and/or do gigs with Rover or Wag as well.
posted by shortyJBot at 9:15 AM on September 18, 2021

I don't have an exact answer for you, but I do want to suggest a great resource: SideHusl. They provide information on all kinds of different ways to earn money. Definitely worth checking out.
posted by Dansaman at 1:35 PM on September 18, 2021

I've had warehouse jobs that are super chill. Obviously some of them will make your life hell, but I was very content in mine. Don't really deal with people who could be complicated, as long as I got my work done supervisors wouldn't bug me, my coworkers were more live-and-let-live than in other workplaces.
posted by metasarah at 5:00 PM on September 18, 2021 [2 favorites]

This would seem to depend on your location, but I was just chatting with a Redfin associate realtor and that sounds like a job that fits all your criteria. The lead realtors do a lot of the higher-pressure, traditional sales work, while the associates (as he described it) are spending a lot of time “opening doors” - being on site at inspections and open houses and such. He said associates pick their own hours (he chooses to work full time but said that was rare), though I’d still assume there’s more demand on weekends and evenings than during other times. Realtors license is necessary, but I wouldn’t imagine you’d need extensive additional training.

Again, this is all second hand but seems worth looking into!
posted by exutima at 1:23 PM on September 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

Remote admin/communications/support work for a health department. https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/washington/doh

WA is hiring perm positions WFH nationwide, so you don't need to be local and they mail you a whole setup with monitors and headset and ergonomic everything. You'll work in covid and likely be on a year-to-year contract (because federally funded positions plus DOH rules), there's a great union and benefits (even if non-WA).

One of my first positions there was working with an ex teacher who worked PT due to caregiving. She was incredible and started out admin (phone, email) and moved into communications/PR/HR-adjacent. She always had a boss who wanted the spotlight and the emergency calls, which was key to her happiness. It was clear to everyone who worked with her that her work priorities are secondary to her home priorities but she was/is chill, sweet, hard working and reliable (and beloved by coworkers!).
posted by esoteric things at 7:31 PM on September 20, 2021