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IT nerd, based upon the amount of people on here all day, they all do sod all work.
Former IT Geek here. I was able to post a lot while still doing 70+ hour weeks because sometimes you press a button and wait for a while and want to feel like you have a life away from work. I spent far too long away from home and too many nights away from my bed. The stress was there because I 'cared' about my customers.
I think that a delivery driver for a supermarket must be pretty low stress.
Now I am a part time supermarket delivery driver. The hours are easier, but there is a lot of silly 'targets' to hit. The stress is still there because I 'care', but I am learning to care less
Packaging Specialist… 99.9% of the time the wine will fit in the bottle. Occasionally the wine also fits in me.
Genuine lol at firefighter being stress free. It’s literally stressful in every way.
forget the stuff no one should see being locked up there for my future sleepless nights.
financially stressed
beaten down by management due to underfunding.
physically knackered, worrying about the latest data showing how bad contaminants are for my future health.
it most definitely is not cups of tea, gentle chats and snooker.
apologies for ranting but fed up of false narratives about the fire service being repeated whilst we’re doing our absolute level best to deliver a professional service whilst having nothing in the coffers.
As for stress free, I have always wondered what something like a community project would be like to work for.
In my industry it would be highway adoptions manager. Mostly waiting for street lights to come on to see if they work.
I fancied getting a part time job when I retire, as the fella that stands by the front door at B&Q and says hello as you go in, but they don't seem to have them anymore.
apologies for ranting but fed up of false narratives about the fire service being repeated whilst we’re doing our absolute level best to deliver a professional service whilst having nothing in the coffers.
Weird isn't - horses for courses and all that. And perspective. By pure chance (having been the first to mention firefighter in this thread) I got chatting to our holiday let guest this morning. Turns out that's his job, based in Glasgow. Remembering this thread I asked him about it. Yes, some corporate fannying around he doesn't like and underfunding, but overall says he really enjoys his job. Likes being part of a team apparently and doing something of worth. That's not the same as stress free admittedly, but enjoying a job must be part way to indicating he at least does not find it suffocatingly stressful.
Postie jobs started to become far more stressful ~5.5 years ago, not sure I'd still be there even if my health was better.
Caretaking. Schools, local council buildings, libraries etc etc. Fixing things, being useful. Low pay but rewarding
You are kidding.
I manage a small team which does this. Budgets are seriously cut so we have about half the staff we actually need. We spend the days running around like headless chickens responding to leaks, blocked toilets, puddles of vomit, failed heating systems and massively pissed off staff and customers because things don't work and all we can do is fight fires rather than preventative maintenance You get bored of scraping shit off the toilet walls when kids decide to use their own faeces to write abuse, and currently there's a phase of sticking used sanitary towels to the inside of cubicle doors.
Then you spend nights responding to alarm calls because a moth has crawled over a sensor.
I have one member of staff on holiday this week and I'm doing 12 hour days just to keep the doors open and (most) of the lights on.
All for less money than you'd get stacking shelves in Asda
I'm recruiting if you want a job?
Ouch, sounds horrific, and managing others in that scenario must make it worse. My time in caretaking has so far been relatively stress free. I manage myself, look after various buildings and assets and work at my own pace. In fact I’ve just moved to another role as my last one was too quiet and frankly boring. I’m now running around a bit but it’s enjoyably busy and the days are flying by. I must be lucky I guess.
I've always imagined being a Peak Park Ranger would be a pretty decent job.
I think there are a heck of a lot of applicants if a position becomes free though.
And I guess there's the stress of telling off MTB'ers riding across Higger Tor....
I'm calling harbour master on being pretty low stress.
Having spent the day at RSPB Minsmere yesterday I would volunteer nature park warden - outdoors all day and not your fault if the birds are shy.
I'm calling harbour master on being pretty low stress.
I suppose it must depend on the harbour, those that are busy enough to require a full time harbour master don't look low stress to me.
I've always imagined being a Peak Park Ranger would be a pretty decent job.
I dunno, it's a lot of treading very fine lines between some very opposed groups, coupled with a massive lack of funding.
I think there are a heck of a lot of applicants if a position becomes free though.
Because everyone sees the fun bits out in the sunshine and fondly imagines that they basically get to spend their working day doing the walks that they so enjoy at weekends. They don't see the bits where you're mending a broken fence in the pouring rain, arguing with a bunch of entitled walkers who've set up their barbecue and then left a lot of litter, or fixing the knackered old Landy that the Parks Authority have been promising to replace for the last 4 years.
Any job that means you're uncontactable and left to get on with it would be the least stressful.
For me, at work the most stress comes from the constant interruptions and distractions. MS Teams in particular, seeing as 99% of my colleagues are completely incapable of using it properly.
Oh, you're in the middle of presenting? Never mind, I'm calling you anyway
Or the people that call you constantly to find out how you're getting on with the piece of work you're doing for them. I'm working on it. You know I'm working on it. You know I know when the deadline is. You constantly phoning me for a status update is actually increasing the risk of missing the deadline, because I'm wasting time talking to you!
They don't see the bits where you're mending a broken fence in the pouring rain, arguing with a bunch of entitled walkers who've set up their barbecue and then left a lot of litter, or fixing the knackered old Landy that the Parks Authority have been promising to replace for the last 4 years.
Dunno, sounds pretty fun to me
i think most jobs arent stressful.
stress comes from:
Deadlines, Management, finances (when self employed)
If you can potter along at your own pace, without getting mithered, and get paid. What more can you ask for?
Caretaker a primary school seems nice. Potter about, fix some bits and bobs, restock the sandpit.
But the caretaker at our kids school seems constantly wired. One way or another someones always chewing his ear off about unimportant nonsense.
I think that a delivery driver for a supermarket must be pretty low stress.
Stuff that. 7 mins per drop apparently round here, including driving. Lugging big heavy boxes up and down driveways and dodgey garden stairs.
arguing with a bunch of entitled walkers who've set up their barbecue and then left a lot of litter
Got to be honest, this sounds like an absolute dream job for a lot of internet commenters.
Countryside rangers do carry firearms, yeah?
I used to do a great low stress job. Worked every Monday/Tuesday for G4S. Wouldn't recommend it as a full time job due to pay and long hours but good part time.
No set finish time so I just wrote off those days and had 5 days a week to do other stuff. Pay wasn't great but got to be out and about driving all over Scotland. Furthest I got was flying up to Shetland to bring back a con arrested on a warrant after he got in a fight on the ferry.
Job was going to various Scottish jails and taking cons out for anything they needed to leave the jail for. Medical appointments was the main one. Also home visits for lifers nearing the end of sentence. Funerals. Compassionate visits for terminally ill relatives.
Medical stuff can be interesting when you are not the patient. I sat at the end of an 8ft chain watching a con get his eye lense replaced. As it was done under local anaethetic the cuffs had to stay on. A facial surgeon telling a con he wasn't getting an operation to fix a broken cheekbone but it didn't matter because it wasn't noticable due to the huge old scar on his other cheek.
We became experts on how long appts would take. Worst job was Glasgow Royal fracture clinic. Seemed to be 30 people given one time. A wait of anything up to 90 minutes before getting seen. Also we were in the public waiting room. Most hospitals we got stuck in a side room to wait which allows more free conversation.
Most places were very efficient. Stobhill or Yorkhill outpatient clinics were pretty much taken in at exactly the appointment time.
There was almost never any issue with the cons. They were going somewhere they wanted to go. If for any reason they declined to go to medical appts that was that. We turned round and drove to the nearest Greggs for a coffee and roll until we got our next job.
With rare exceptions they were cuffed the whole time. So not a threat and there was always two of us to one of them.
The thing was unlike the police arresting people who are often in a hostile crowd and either drunk, drugged, or high on adrenaline these guys were in the system. Sober and not drugged. On their own so no audience to play to. Only half a dozen or so gave me any hassle in a decade.
Like any job, mostly routine. We did once turn up at Barlinnie with no advance warning that the con we were taking out was a 6ft5 Islamist who had been in the national news for a murder. We got a third crew member for him. No issues as it turned out. He said almost nothing but obviously saw we were being cautious and remarked that he had no problem with us as we were only doing our job.
It may not sound low stress but a colleague who was a former bus driver said he got more hassle off the public in his bus than from murderers while working for G4S.
Secondary school teacher. Piece of piss, and loooong holidays.
Interesting thread. Stress is related, in my opinion, to pay, job stability and how many ****s you give.
100% this. Unfortunately, I care, and I couldn't do a job that I don't care about. Being on the tools was a lot less stressful but since becoming office based and having to deal with all of the negative sides of the industry; grumpy clients, broken tools, weather, staff, logistics, the job becomes a grind.
If I was financially settled, I'd be all over volunteering with National Trust, Parks, any outdoor facility where I'm tasked with looking after the area.
Other options that have crossed my mind are bed tester or food critic. I'm not sure the family would sign up for lighthouse keeper but I'd give it a try.
Similar to irc
I had a part time job as a tutor in Gartree Prison in the mid 90s
I was a young naive PhD student in the Zoology department at Leicester University.
The university had a long standing contract to provide adult education to the prison - I was roped in to teach a Tropical Biology course.
Looking back, the security was incredibly lax, I think the only advice I was given was to not give out any chocolate.
Being a high security prison, many of the students were lifers who were in for the most serious of crimes, but they were all pleasant and just looked forward to the 2 hours per week of distraction I was providing.
I distinctly remember having to catch myself when talking about the precautions folk should take if they ever booked a holiday to xyz location.
Happy days
Secondary school teacher. Piece of piss, and loooong holidays.
Having spent the day at RSPB Minsmere yesterday I would volunteer nature park warden - outdoors all day and not your fault if the birds are shy.
You didn't notice that one of the main reasons to go to any nature reserve with a cafe is to take your kids there to shout, and run around with no control in the soft play area and bug hunt. I'd suggest that being outdoors all day looking at nature is a tiny part of the job, and the bulk of it will be dealing with parents, staffing the cafe (with volunteers who didn't volunteer to be complained at about overpriced muffins), administering first aid for children who have never been outside before, arguing with dog walkers about why they aren't allowed to bring their dogs into a nature reserve, and maybe dealing with lack of funding, lack of resources and lack of staff.
Professional philosopher?
Secondary school teacher. Piece of piss, and loooong holidays.
If you get well established in the right school, get all your materials in place and don't get drawn in to the shit or try to reinvent the wheel then it's not so bad.
How many teachers actually manage all that is a whole other question.
If I was financially settled, I'd be all over volunteering with National Trust, Parks, any outdoor facility where I'm tasked with looking after the area.
Yep - so long as I had more than enough money in the bank to deal with life, something where I could potter around doing some light gardening work, keeping the place clean and tidy and not having to deal with the public would be ideal.
Really of course, what this means is I've won a substantial sum on the lottery, bought a house with a nice garden and can just potter around that. There's a guy on Youtube who makes these amazing dugout shelters and other bivvy type temporary accommodation, that'd while away some time too.
A vicar in a country parish.
It wouldn't be for everyone, but caretaker on Maatsuyker Island (and lighthouse) would be interesting. A mate's exes parents used to do it (I don't think it's them in this article and I believe it's been modernised a bit since then too)
Coping with extremes; caretaking on Maatsuyker Island - ABC News
navy diver. That also seems like a career with short term 'good' stress every now and then and a lot of not much stress at all.
🤣🤣🤣 Might as well add Sat Diver to that; piss easy, stress free jobs them...
The obvious answer is to be born into fabulous wealth. But if you can’t manage that I reckon dog walker looks like a low stress rewarding gig.
There’s a Mother/Daughter near us that do it, I see them regularly marching about, each with a special ‘Rig’ on allowing them to have 7 or 8 dogs tethered to them, a fist full of shitbags clutched in their hand. Definitely “dog people” but they do just exude happiness in their work whatever the weather. Wouldn’t work for me but it’s a booming business (pandemic pooches still need walkies) and it’s very much a “do what you love” type of job.
Oh and we have a friend who is extremely happy with her decision to become a driving instructor…
Studies show that work stress tend to be workers/jobs that have no control over inputs (telephone queue, other people's problems) with little autonomy ( can't make changes or decisions, no control of size of queue), low stress is [obviously] the opposite of that.
Yes control is a big one, and the HSE actually lists 6 main factors for work stress...
There are six main areas that can lead to work-related stress if they are not managed properly. These are: demands, control, support, relationships, role and change.
For example, workers may say that they:
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are not able to cope with the demands of their jobs
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are unable to control the way they do their work
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don't receive enough information and support
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are having trouble with relationships at work, or are being bullied
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don't fully understand their role and responsibilities
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are not engaged when a business is undergoing change
I'd be all over volunteering with National Trust, Parks,
Back when I was a student I thought this sort of thing would look good on my CV. It was a long time ago, but I seem to remember that it was quite difficult to actually volunteer, and the woman I spent the day with, driving around Gower and not really doing anything, didn't want me there at all and was quite hostile until she invited me to a party that night. Still stands out as being a very weird day. I don't remember her name but I do remember then name of her dog!
But if you can’t manage that I reckon dog walker looks like a low stress rewarding gig.
A friend did that for a while and hated it - although she was working for a dog walking company rather than on her own and the manager was apparently quite disorganised. She constantly found her shifts being changed, requests of "can you just...?", being asked to walk dogs she'd never met and dealing with owners who were arsey that their dog hadn't been washed and cleaned after the walk. Quite a few owners used the service cos they couldn't deal with walking the dog themselves because it was badly trained / reactive / pulled on lead a lot so she often found that she was constantly having to control the dog - it wasn't low stress at all!
That said, there's a guy local to me who does it as a proper business (just him) and he seems to love it. Always see him out and about in all weathers, he's booked up for weeks in advance cos he's so well known locally.
I reckon dog walker looks like a low stress rewarding gig.
A friend did that for a while and hated it - although she was working for a dog walking company rather than on her own and the manager was apparently quite disorganised.
At risk of becoming an anti-dog thread, we've a few commercial dog walkers around here who walk on official MTB trails*. I've often wondered what the owners would think if they knew where their beloved pets were taken.
*I got bitten by one dog, and the walker said she used the MTB trail because it was quieter than the other tracks and the dogs didn't bother other people so much. Until they bit them, obviously.
I was talking to a colleague yesterday who husband is a NT ranger. Apparently it's fine in the winter, but the summer months are pretty grim now. She was saying that he spent a week building a fence for deer control, and came back a week later to find large amounts of it had been ripped down for arseholes to use as fire wood along with trees he'd planed, and getting threatened with knives or axes is a daily occurrence when you ask people not to have BBQ's or fires and to clear up their own shit.
On the other hand, a friends brother got a job as a grave digger when he went back to work after a breakdown. You turn up with a van and mini digger, dig a hole and tidy it up with a shovel then lay Astroturf around it. Wait in the van with a book and a flask until the funeral arrives then stand at a respectful distance whilst the ceremony goes on. Once everyone leaves, fill in the hole and tidy up, then on to another. There's no time pressure as no council wants to be on the front page of the DM because the grave digger didn't have time to dig the grave, there's a high level of job satisfaction in making it as nice as possible for the families. There's no changes of schedule as funerals are planned well in advance, and the customers (well, the living ones) are grateful and thankful - he regularly gets tips!
He seems very content with life these days.
We've had a succession of Tesco delivery drivers who tell me that they find the gig very relaxing, quite a few of them seem to do it as a second job. They don't seem to be under huge time pressure, unlike parcel delivery guys, and get to drive around the Peak District at moderate speeds before answering inane questions from idiots like me.
I suspect one of the upsides of that sort of thing is that once your shift is done, that's it. Nothing to worry about until the next time when you load up your truck and pootle around the Peak again. I'm sure there are moments of drama - finding out that someone has the wrong yoghurt or the substitution of apricots for mangoes isn't appreciated, plus a bit of driving stress, but mostly it sounds like a pretty chilled option.
Some of it's always going to depend on the individual. Some people can make pretty much anything stressful.
before answering inane questions from idiots like me
You've never done a job where you needed to find locations based on very little info, like an address? In theory it's a great system, but finding a remote farmhouse where the centre of the postcode is half a mile away? Finding the entrance to an estate is two postcodes away and none of it is registering on your sat-nav? Also, it's rush hour, the road you're on is backed up and you've moved 85m in the last 25 minutes...
Then you get there and, as you say, speak to idiots...
I drive a delivery truck part time for a well known retailer. Easiest job I've done, certainly preferable to the postie job I sacked off before it. The management are incompetent but largely decent, rather than the actively malicious ****s who've fought their way up the Royal Mail ladder. The only stress comes from the fact that on most of my shifts, the van is loaded by whichever ****wit is driving the van before me, which often means cleaning it out, refuelling it, addressing mechanical issues and tracking down the deliveries they've failed to load (I refer you back to the incompetent management at this point). Regarding obscure addresses - I don't use the in-house software. The 'delm8' app is worth the price of a pint a month - first 30 days free, give it a go...
We've had a succession of Tesco delivery drivers who tell me that they find the gig very relaxing, quite a few of them seem to do it as a second job. They don't seem to be under huge time pressure, unlike parcel delivery guys, and get to drive around the Peak District at moderate speeds before answering inane questions from idiots like me.
I suspect one of the upsides of that sort of thing is that once your shift is done, that's it. Nothing to worry about until the next time when you load up your truck and pootle around the Peak again. I'm sure there are moments of drama - finding out that someone has the wrong yoghurt or the substitution of apricots for mangoes isn't appreciated, plus a bit of driving stress, but mostly it sounds like a pretty chilled option.
Some of it's always going to depend on the individual. Some people can make pretty much anything stressful.
My son did Supermarket deliveries during the summer and it made me decide it's the kind of job I want to take in semi retirement.
Key positives for me was that it would keep me fit, at least partly outside, I like driving, but most importantly there are no emails/meetings and once you've done your deliveries there is nothing to hold over to the next day - that's it, it's all done until you get back in the van the next day and start again. Nothing gets held over or left for you to worry about, if you have a bad day (idiot customer/spilt milk) no need to cry about it!
Of course, it helped that as a teenager filling in until he found something more substantial he didn't give a toss about it anyhow - hopefully the same position I will be in during semi - retirement!
But if you can’t manage that I reckon dog walker looks like a low stress rewarding gig.
My cousin does it with her own van.
But if stress finding or firing out a van with separate cages for the dogs. Bit repetitive going to the same spots and having the same route and held to a time schedule.
She's ended up with tendonitis.
Walking one or two dogs is fine.... Ealing eight at a time?!
Think most jobs are stressful if you let them be.
Used to do a lot of work in the event and exhibition industry and am currently back in it as my old colleagues/friends need a hand.
10-12 hour days and 6//7 day weeks are the norm. Deadlines always looming. Customers with stupid queries/requests/ complaints.
But I enjoy it. I'm also fortunate that I don't *need* to do it.
If you can say FU without worry then most jobs are quite stress free assuming you assured to do so ..... Basically this:
Interesting thread. Stress is related, in my opinion, to pay, job stability and how many ****s you give.
It's not the job, but the balance of conditions involved with that job.
Is it interesting enough (sometimes this is as much about the people you work with as the actual work itself)
Is your boss a dick
Do you earn enough not to worry
Do those you work with gel as a group
Do you have to encounter dick heads
Do you want to do the job, and will you continue wanting to do the job
Are you well looked after generally
Etc etc
Tbh, the biggest challenge I've encountered at work is people I can't stand the sight of. That's some proper hard graft. If I compare the effort of working with a **** compared to working for a fencer, then fencing job was a piece of piss. All they had to do, was be decent human beings and provide daily bacon rolls....
At risk of becoming an anti-dog thread
Then lets not, I merrily pile on when the topic is complaining about dogs and their stupid, stupid owners.
But that’s not the topic, and my observation stands (IMO) I know some seemingly very contented people who walk dogs as a job (self employed).
I’m not so sure it’s about avoiding stress it’s about having control of your work and doing something you are engaged in and enjoy…
Are there any, many stress free careers though?
I'd rather have a job that's a bit interesting and take a bit of stress as a price to pay. 8 hours a day is a long time to be bored and play pretend jellyfish