What are possible weekend side hustle/part-time options?
September 14, 2017 1:00 PM Subscribe
A lot of part-time employers are not interested in people that just work weekends right? Please correct my assumption! What exists out there for part-time weekend work, especially around the holidays? US, college educated.
Uber driver.
posted by amro at 1:11 PM on September 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by amro at 1:11 PM on September 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
My weekend jobs involve cleaning residential/commercial properties, and being a Home Health Aide for a private client overnights (though that is from 10p-7a, seven nights a week for the past two years, in my case). Other weekend day gigs have involved nannying, pet sitting, housesitting, organizing/personal assisting, and packing/moving help. I find my gigs via Care.com for the jobs I actively solicit when time permits, but my main cleaning and HHA work comes strictly by word-of-mouth. Craigslist is way too sketchy, given some unique situations I found myself in, but there were some legit gigs there as well.
None of these suggestions may resonate with you, but I have had excellent luck picking up extra cash on veritable whim for decades that way. Hope it helps! :)
posted by Amor Bellator at 1:21 PM on September 14, 2017 [3 favorites]
None of these suggestions may resonate with you, but I have had excellent luck picking up extra cash on veritable whim for decades that way. Hope it helps! :)
posted by Amor Bellator at 1:21 PM on September 14, 2017 [3 favorites]
I worked weekends/holidays as a kennel tech/veterinary assistant for several years. The pay wasn't great, but I really enjoyed the work and got a discount on services for my dog. This was at a privately owned facility, not one of the chains.
If you like animals but don't want to deal with medical stuff/euthanasias (which is totally understandable - you have to have a certain temperament) maybe a private boarding facility? I know the one I use now gets extremely busy during the holiday season.
posted by Ufez Jones at 1:24 PM on September 14, 2017
If you like animals but don't want to deal with medical stuff/euthanasias (which is totally understandable - you have to have a certain temperament) maybe a private boarding facility? I know the one I use now gets extremely busy during the holiday season.
posted by Ufez Jones at 1:24 PM on September 14, 2017
Plenty of retailers will be fine with someone who can only work weekends. If you're a good worker, a lot of them will be fine working with your schedule.
posted by Slinga at 1:26 PM on September 14, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Slinga at 1:26 PM on September 14, 2017 [3 favorites]
Working birthday parties (kids's play places, caterers, etc.) or weddings.
posted by pyro979 at 1:40 PM on September 14, 2017
posted by pyro979 at 1:40 PM on September 14, 2017
Definitely babysitting/childcare. Depending on the town/area/neighborhood you can make decent cash.
posted by radioamy at 1:49 PM on September 14, 2017
posted by radioamy at 1:49 PM on September 14, 2017
A long time ago, I did weekend-only work for a large law firm in an office that prepared documents for attorneys. I got the job with no particular experience (other than understanding some of finer points of MS Word), it paid very well, and they wanted 24/7 coverage, so many different shifts were available. The job title is sometimes called "word processor" or "document specialist". A related job is preparing Powerpoint presentations or Excel files at investment banks, etc. Temp agencies have these jobs, at least where I live.
posted by pinochiette at 1:57 PM on September 14, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by pinochiette at 1:57 PM on September 14, 2017 [6 favorites]
I worked for years in a very reputable inbound retail call center. We recruited specifically for weekend folks, and it was hard to find them. Any place that is open 7 days, particularly in a service industry, will likely be interested in weekend-only staff.
posted by anastasiav at 1:58 PM on September 14, 2017
posted by anastasiav at 1:58 PM on September 14, 2017
I worked retail to help put myself through school and we were fine with weekend only hires, especially with extended holiday hours.
posted by notjustthefish at 2:17 PM on September 14, 2017
posted by notjustthefish at 2:17 PM on September 14, 2017
A while back I interviewed for a job at the medical examiner's office that was specifically weekends and holidays.
posted by jeweled accumulation at 2:40 PM on September 14, 2017
posted by jeweled accumulation at 2:40 PM on September 14, 2017
Holiday retail managers would be happy to know they had someone who always wanted to work weekends, the tough part is that they often don't want to deal with a lot of special schedules to coordinate around so they just schedule you and leave it up to the employees to find coverage.
My employer has support people who have to rotate on weekend duty. I don't know that any of our jobs are pt atm, but we used to have some in the past, and I would think there might be other 7 day support centers that do offer part time work and would love people who explicitly want to work weekends. In fact if you are looking for steady weekend work and not just at the holiday seasons, with the right company I think you might be able to create yourself your own job by being available on weekends, solving a problem for them. Think of a smallish company that is growing quickly and needs more support but is hesitant to hire a full time person.
It's another form of retail, but there are a lot of wineries around here that do the majority of their volume on the weekends, they need people who might be ok with only coming in on the weekend. They can't offer them hours on say, Tuesday when they just really need a skelton crew (or may be closed altogether)
posted by littlerockgetaway at 2:44 PM on September 14, 2017
My employer has support people who have to rotate on weekend duty. I don't know that any of our jobs are pt atm, but we used to have some in the past, and I would think there might be other 7 day support centers that do offer part time work and would love people who explicitly want to work weekends. In fact if you are looking for steady weekend work and not just at the holiday seasons, with the right company I think you might be able to create yourself your own job by being available on weekends, solving a problem for them. Think of a smallish company that is growing quickly and needs more support but is hesitant to hire a full time person.
It's another form of retail, but there are a lot of wineries around here that do the majority of their volume on the weekends, they need people who might be ok with only coming in on the weekend. They can't offer them hours on say, Tuesday when they just really need a skelton crew (or may be closed altogether)
posted by littlerockgetaway at 2:44 PM on September 14, 2017
When I worked at a restaurant we would always, always hire people who would just work weekends. It was mandatory for everyone to have at least one weekend shift and nobody ever wanted to work them.
posted by Polychrome at 3:05 PM on September 14, 2017
posted by Polychrome at 3:05 PM on September 14, 2017
Big bookstores, if you can offer open availability on those days.
posted by Night_owl at 3:10 PM on September 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Night_owl at 3:10 PM on September 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
Probably not the kind of job you're looking for, but around here the transfer stations (i.e. dumps) are desperate for workers. They're mostly only open on the weekends, and most people don't want to work weekends.
posted by Redstart at 3:32 PM on September 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Redstart at 3:32 PM on September 14, 2017 [1 favorite]
Hospitals hire various weekend only people for things like cleaning, cafeteria work, transport.
posted by SyraCarol at 4:41 PM on September 14, 2017
posted by SyraCarol at 4:41 PM on September 14, 2017
Teaching a second language has always been weekend work for me. You can do it on your own or through schools or other organisations. I averaged between 10 and 15 hours per weekend at double minimum wage.
posted by eisforcool at 5:11 PM on September 14, 2017
posted by eisforcool at 5:11 PM on September 14, 2017
School yourself on what books sell for big prices second-hand (a lot of somewhat obscure non-fiction goes for a lot as the people buying it are desperate for a copy), put the Bookscouter app or similar on your phone, compare the various selling platforms. Hey presto, you're a part-time dealer in junky old paperbacks, I mean, rare books!
You will for most platforms need to be able to ship stuff during the week, though. If you are too slack on this the k8tbooks rating will start to sink and kmenniebooks will be able to charge more than you for the exact same thing. Also, very occasionally you will deal with...with people you honestly cannot believe could manage to have a credit card and a computer or even want a book, as they are painfully stupid and will not understand a word you say; they just want someone to yell at. Apologise and refund; it is not worth sorting out who is right. These few pests are more than made up for the "OMG, I have been trying to find this cookbook for my Grandpa, who lost it in a move and is still sad over it, for TWENTY YEARS!! Thank you thank you thank you!" people. Most of it is just anonymous processing, though, but anyone literate has a HUGE advantage over the competition, who often do not really grok books, and it is a poor salesperson who does not understand their product...
posted by kmennie at 6:45 PM on September 14, 2017 [4 favorites]
You will for most platforms need to be able to ship stuff during the week, though. If you are too slack on this the k8tbooks rating will start to sink and kmenniebooks will be able to charge more than you for the exact same thing. Also, very occasionally you will deal with...with people you honestly cannot believe could manage to have a credit card and a computer or even want a book, as they are painfully stupid and will not understand a word you say; they just want someone to yell at. Apologise and refund; it is not worth sorting out who is right. These few pests are more than made up for the "OMG, I have been trying to find this cookbook for my Grandpa, who lost it in a move and is still sad over it, for TWENTY YEARS!! Thank you thank you thank you!" people. Most of it is just anonymous processing, though, but anyone literate has a HUGE advantage over the competition, who often do not really grok books, and it is a poor salesperson who does not understand their product...
posted by kmennie at 6:45 PM on September 14, 2017 [4 favorites]
Food and beverage, yeah! Banquet server at large hotel could work for you and is a good front porch to the F and B world.
posted by vrakatar at 8:03 PM on September 14, 2017
posted by vrakatar at 8:03 PM on September 14, 2017
I was searching for a weekend-only job earlier this summer and was turned down by grocery stores and retail because I couldn't work weekends. I tried applying for weekend home-help for elderly and disabled but couldn't attend the required training classes during the week.
I have horror stories from a friend who's a Lyft driver. In the gig economy there are jobs like Amazon delivery or Postmates, but I don't know how lucrative they might be. You could potentially make money in the restaurant business or as a security guard.
I did get called back for a bank teller position that was advertised as weekends only and for a ramp agent position (loading luggage onto planes on the tarmac).
Hotels may be hiring weekend housekeepers - I did that for a summer in college - and only the occasional tip or booze that people left in their room made it worth it.
Things you can do on your own schedule would probably be more productive. There are many questions on AskMe about that kind of thing. Suggestions include captioning, medical coding, proofreading and sites like TaskRabbit or Instacart.
posted by bendy at 8:37 PM on September 14, 2017
I have horror stories from a friend who's a Lyft driver. In the gig economy there are jobs like Amazon delivery or Postmates, but I don't know how lucrative they might be. You could potentially make money in the restaurant business or as a security guard.
I did get called back for a bank teller position that was advertised as weekends only and for a ramp agent position (loading luggage onto planes on the tarmac).
Hotels may be hiring weekend housekeepers - I did that for a summer in college - and only the occasional tip or booze that people left in their room made it worth it.
Things you can do on your own schedule would probably be more productive. There are many questions on AskMe about that kind of thing. Suggestions include captioning, medical coding, proofreading and sites like TaskRabbit or Instacart.
posted by bendy at 8:37 PM on September 14, 2017
I found an editing job on flexjobs that was perfect freelance free-time work. It doesn't pay amazingly now but I have hope of moving up to bigger and better editing once I have a bit of a portfolio going.
posted by gloriouslyincandescent at 2:47 AM on September 15, 2017
posted by gloriouslyincandescent at 2:47 AM on September 15, 2017
Every service job I ever worked was desperate for people to work weekends.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:01 AM on September 15, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:01 AM on September 15, 2017 [1 favorite]
You could potentially make money in the restaurant business or as a security guard.
I had a friend who made more money waiting tables just Friday and Saturday nights then she did substitute teaching all week. However, those are prime shifts and and might not get them immediately depending on the restaurant and their needs at the moment.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:05 AM on September 15, 2017
I had a friend who made more money waiting tables just Friday and Saturday nights then she did substitute teaching all week. However, those are prime shifts and and might not get them immediately depending on the restaurant and their needs at the moment.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:05 AM on September 15, 2017
When I worked at a blood bank, we often didn't have enough regular recruitment staff to work big public blood drives (outside Walmart, in malls, etc.), so we hired people to recruit blood donors on an per-drive basis. I think they might have gotten paid like $5/donor (probably 15-25 donors at a 4 hour drive...so not great money, but way more than minimum wage). It's not terribly difficult, you just have to say "Would you like to donate blood today" over and over to strangers, and then maybe check them in, chit chat a bit, etc. I don't know if this is done at other blood banks, but these recruiters were a huge help where I worked. We did a ton of public blood drives during the holidays especially.
posted by radioamy at 11:00 AM on September 15, 2017
posted by radioamy at 11:00 AM on September 15, 2017
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posted by spindrifter at 1:08 PM on September 14, 2017 [1 favorite]