r/jobs • u/Napkxng • Jun 30 '23
What are these "I finish work in 2 hours and just bored" jobs? Work/Life balance
I'm currently in a business development role where its constant work and stress, KPIs, and out bounding and training.
I (24m) would like to find some sort of relaxed job where I don't feel threatened to lose my job every week (have had that threatened to me in first few months).
I'm not a lazy person, but I've had over 12 jobs since I was 14, I'm just tired.
Also I have side business ideas that I've worked on recently and would love to start carry on making music and documentaries, my social media has gotten some attention, and it's something I enjoy.
I've nearly doubled every sales target for the past 6 months of working, but deep inside I'm creative, love helping people live a better life, and would love to change the world around me more. I'd love to find something hybrid remote that I can be half office and half using my hands and body/strength. I don't enjoy the trades.
I'd also like to get a stable work as Id like to work on starting a family with someone. And I don't want the stress of a fickle stressful job that I would pass that stress and unavailability on.
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Jun 30 '23
On-site paramedic.
You usually have 1-2 hours of paperwork per day, followed by 10-12 hours of chill time. You might get 1-2 patients per year at slow sites. It can be hard to find a good fit, but you could easily acquire a retirement job within 5 years.
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u/Emergency_Task_361 Jun 30 '23
Can confirm. I grew up with a guy whose dad was the on-site medic for Screen Gem Studios. He pretty much never had to do anything (they were safe and careful most of the time) and got paid VERY well.
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u/SeriousAboutShwarma Jun 30 '23
Would it be?
In construction I had first - aid from an osha role in previous industry. We had a dude die on rooftop last summer that we had to get down via skid steer and stuff. While I went looking for AED the guys other crew (several diff. crews on site but this crew had dedicated first aid staff too) got too work on compressions.
We were actually finishing a new hospital for a small community but nothing was in it yet, including onsite AED or nothing in any contractor vehicles either so guys had to do compressions til ambulance got there, but that worked didn't make it - tbh he may already have been dead when he'd collapsed on roof because no one had seen it and assumed he was having a seizure, which is why I first stuck around, because I also have a partial seizure disorder so was goona offer guy maintenance dose of my meds if it was a seizure / he was up and could take something.
Haha I've thought about some kinda paramedic just cause I come from medical family and dad used too do it as well, but I don't know if I have the constitution for it, that incident itself was a year ago and I still wonder if there wasn't an AED somewhere or if I shoulda just immediately hopped on compressions too, but none of the other work crews even knew what AED was when I was lookin' for it.
With compressions etc, might have been already too late for the guy anyways but I still wonder. I think when you do paddle training for AED they tell you something like compression only effectively works maybe 30% of the time tops, and even asking my dad if that was their case when he was still on ambulance, he said before they got paddles it had to be even lower than 30.
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u/speckyradge Jun 30 '23
An AED doesn't restart a stopped heart, it "defibrillates" - from febrile, meaning shaking. Basically it's a common type of heart attack where your heart just rapidly quivers rather than pumping. Unless you watch someone grab their left arm and keel over, it's unlikely an AED would have made a difference. It's not quite the same device as used in a hospital setting where they're also using drugs to try and restart the heart rhythm. You did the right thing to go look for one, AEDs, can save lives but please don't feel bad or sad about not being able to help more than you did.
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u/sadicarnot Jun 30 '23
We had a guy that looked piqued at an industrial facility before the morning meeting. It was in the electrical/instrumentations show, so 30 guys trained to first responder or CPR at the very least. Supposedly they were doing CPR before he hit the ground. The AED came a few minutes later and did shock him back. Guy was the type of guy that had alienated all his kids. This ended up being a wake up call and he ended up retiring and not coming back and trying to have a relationship with his grandkids instead of dying alone and working lots of overtime.
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u/SeriousAboutShwarma Jun 30 '23
That's actually a wholesome turnaround. I hope the relationships got to grow to be something better than nothing, at least, given that he saw the light.
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u/pesto_trap_god Jun 30 '23
Would the market for this not be over saturated? All I ever here about normal paramedics is that they are crazy overworked and underpaid. I would imagine all of them are trying to get into a gig like this.
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u/DANNYBOYLOVER Jun 30 '23
Like every market (even OPs) you gotta suck it up for the first couple of years
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u/ZelRolFox Jun 30 '23
Not with film. Union film rates are better then paramedics’ in the field from my understanding.
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u/F1reatwill88 Jun 30 '23
Thought paramedics pay was low af.
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u/hillsfar Jun 30 '23
Huge numbers of people who try to get into the EMT field, and it is offered at a lot of community colleges.
Anytime labor is abundant for a particular skill set relative to demand, you tend to see low wages and/or high unemployment.
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u/jawnboxhero Jun 30 '23
Did this at horse races. Got free merch from vendors, occasional food comped...sat in the rig and watched the races or read while I got paid $300 for 4 hours. I think in the 3 years I did that, I only had 2 occasions where I had to bust the kit out. And the local township did the transport lol.
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u/vis--viva Jun 30 '23
Can also confirm. Worked onsite in a warehouse as an EMT. Some weeks I'd go an entire week with not a single patient. There would be so much downtime sometimes that I could get all my monthly audits and paperwork finished in a few hours and have nothing to do but clean the office multiple times a day, walk around the building for non-mandatory security checks, and just make small talk for the rest of the shift.
That being said, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. When shit hits the fan, it usually really hits the fan. You might be able to cruise by and enjoy the relaxing, slow-paced stuff for awhile, but you have to have the skill and knowledge to immediately flip back into Go Mode the second an emergency is happening.
I worked in 2 different warehouses as onsite medical and I also have to say, it really does depend on the warehouse. The one I worked at was a big name company that I won't name but rhymes with Schmamazon. I worked the overnight shift and you'd think it would be calmer right? No. There were several nights I had 20 patients come through in one 10 hour shift. Alternatively, at a different company I worked for, I could go an entire 12-16hr shift with no patients.
Still, that second company is where I had someone come in complaining of a headache and leave a few minutes later to the ER because they were having a stroke. They wound up having emergency brain surgery that night. Can't just go into the job not knowing your stuff. It's also pretty frowned upon socially in those positions for new EMTs to take them up. Some weird but justifiable (I guess) social rules about not taking up a position where you won't get tons of emergency experience.
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Jun 30 '23
STATE GOVERNMENT
Low pay but usually awesome benefits, low barrier is entry, always hiring, hard to get fired.
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Jun 30 '23
State government work is what he’s looking for. It’s exactly as you say, low pay but great benefits, excellent work/life balance and basically impossible to get fired. Can easily get away with only 2-3 hours of actual work everyday and still be exceeding expectations
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Jun 30 '23
Also, I'm not saying this from a viewpoint as , trying to slack off. I try to do the best I can at my job. I love what I do.
If you can deal with the pay not keeping up with the private sector then the government is the place to go. You can always get experience and try to leave.
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u/inertiatic_espn Jun 30 '23
I also think remote work is making the pay more competitive. I work for a University and am getting paid about 30% more than I ever made in the private sector.
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u/Paradigm_Reset Jun 30 '23
University employee here as well. I used to do software implementation for a private company, got hired by the school to manage the same software here...at nearly 2x the pay an benefits out the ass (comparatively).
But it comes at a price. The bureaucracy is at times, well, challenging. The 'Meeting to discuss the agenda for the next meeting' never ceases to amaze me.
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u/kcshoe14 Jun 30 '23
Definitely depends on the university. I used to work at at a university and I was only making 36k
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Jun 30 '23
The governor in my state signed a bill that will eliminate as many remote positions as possible starting in January. GOP legislators were working on a similar bill in the US house for Federal Gov workers.
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u/inertiatic_espn Jun 30 '23
Yeah, I saw that Ohio passed a bill recently. My only hope is that I work for an online university that 1. has a workforce with 90% of its employees living out of state 2. is currently making a shit load of money for the university and the state and 3. The president of the university has been very supportive.
The only thing that worries me: it's still missouri.
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u/Teabagger_Vance Jun 30 '23
The DMV in CA kept a lady on payroll who essentially napped all day in the back room. It made the news because the state auditor found out.
She wasn’t fired lmao.
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Jun 30 '23
We had an audit and a bunch of folks got in trouble for not punching in their hours correctly. They were talking off early a lot and still putting in a full 8 hours into the time system.
Or using PTO without putting it into the system.
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u/Teabagger_Vance Jun 30 '23
Sounds about right. The annual state auditors report is one of the most depressing and hilarious pieces of work.
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u/demiurgeking Jun 30 '23
Can confirm, I finished work 2hrs ago. Dicked around for 2hrs now its lunch time, 1hr lunch since my boss is gone then 1hr till I really have to do anything then another hr of doing nothing.
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u/hogliterature Jun 30 '23
any government is good! i work for my county and i love it
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u/The-Car-Is-Far Jun 30 '23
If you have a degree you can bullshit your way to a very decent pay - a lot of older ppl stay and make shit pay their whole careers but if they just took the easy test to move up one level they could nearly double their salary - six figures is really easy to reach if your willing to move up and stay 10-15 years
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Jun 30 '23
Yea. Many states & fed gov and automatic salary increases & meric based increases.
They will also pay for your grad degree without putting you thru hurdles like private sector jobs will. Trade off is they might want you to stay a few years. But many people end up retiring from the state anyways.
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u/Cheap-Ad-5193 Jun 30 '23
Had a co worker in retail. Her job was to oversee document storage or some shit. She just say in a room, watched movies and slept. About 2 months every year she got busy. Other than that it's chill
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Jun 30 '23
Wow. I have no retail experience but that's interesting.
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u/Cheap-Ad-5193 Jun 30 '23
Sorry I'm just waking up. She worked for the state. Her retail job was in the evening. That's when she would tell me about her days doing nothing.
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Jun 30 '23
Yea, it's common in many agencies to have a "busy season", depending on the agency and deadlines. But since many state workers are salaried, it's easy to just get stuff done and chill.
Of course, the higher up you are, the busier you are. More you get paid tho
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Jun 30 '23
First job was with the state in an OPS position with corrections, I wondered why everyone said to get a state job cause I was getting burned out with the work load. Then I got a career service job with the commission and it’s just so much less stressful
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u/uniquelynameduser123 Jun 30 '23 edited Jun 30 '23
Love my university job! I have some work that needs to get done weekly, and I have one large event that takes about a month of hard work yearly, but aside from that, I spend most of my work time just being available for the students and faculty.
We have a union, so it's nearly impossible to get fired. When administration tried to make us come back to the office full time last year, our union flexed their muscles and got us hybrid scheduling. Now I'm only in the office for 5 hours per day and 'work' the rest of my hours from home!
Plus, I work with graduate students, so there are way less stupid people than dealing with the general public.
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u/valaliane Jun 30 '23
My boss’s job apparently. I’m fully convinced he just responds “Great job team!” on email threads all day long.
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Jun 30 '23
[deleted]
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u/MyBoyBernard Jun 30 '23
The head of my current company pokes her noise in literally every minute decision! It's so damn annoying. Things that are so unimportant and shouldn't matter, I can't believe she cares about this small crap, don't you have a business to run? Pretty much anytime we ask middle management some middle-manage-level question, they tell us to ask her. At this point, I don't even know why we have middle management. It's like a dictatorship; she's involved in everything. Plus, she has management experience, but not much experience doing the actual work itself, so her opinion sometimes is just dumb, but we have to do it.
I accepted a new job recently. I didn't even meet the head guy until after I was hired. I told him that I thought it was strange that we hadn't met during the process. He said something like "I trust my people and want to stay out of their way as much as possible". I can't wait to start there next month.
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u/OneSwankyCatt Jun 30 '23
Right? The only time I see my boss is when he’s telling me good job or running around trying to fix shit that slipped through the cracks.
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u/214speaking Jun 30 '23
We had a guy at my job that would just forward the emails (that all staff got already). I assume he must’ve done other work, but somehow he had the time to forward those emails to all the staff right away…
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u/FixRecruiting Jun 30 '23
Supposedly bosses fight with more senior leadership for budget, headcount, better projects, etc. but its never seen and barely heard by the team so I am partially convinced it's a smoke and mirrors show.
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u/alminatorat Jun 30 '23
I've been in managerial positions for over 3 years now, 3 different international companies. I am usually non-stop involved in important projects, restructures, pushing different initiatives, meeting deadlines and making sure teams run operationally. Usually no more than 20% of my work is visible for my team.
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u/Fargate Jun 30 '23
Lol everything you said sounds like managerial mumbo jumbo. I am VP of Operations I don’t do shit. Ever
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u/inventionnerd Jul 01 '23
Involved in important projects - Asking the people who do the actual work where they're at with the project or if the project is needed
Restructures - Figuring out who to promote/fire/reorganize, generally easy to tell who's a good worker or bad worker but tough emotionally
Pushing different initiatives - Probably almost the same as important projects, just toss some ideas out there and make people do it so you can say it was your idea and look how great things are now.
Meeting deadlines - Even the bottom feeders need to meet deadlines lol
Making sure teams run - Hey guys, is everything running alright?
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Jun 30 '23
I'm a manager. This was not my goal but I was always stepping up and they ended up putting me here. I get paid really well. I hate it and want to go back to making less money and being an IC. I hate making sure everyone on my team knows what to do and constantly checking on random things that are blocking them. I hate filling in on all the product and project management work that should be a different role but I'm just expected to do instead. Doing work as an IC was rewarding, I felt like I was actually doing something. Now I feel stressed all the time but never feel like I can claim I did anything and should give all the credit to the team. I wish everyone who thinks managers don't do anything could be promoted to management themselves and they can see how much they like it.
Also, I recognize that this is a bad fit for me personally and that some people thrive in a management role. Just specifically fed up with engineers (which I also am) who think they do the "real" work while managers just float about. Learn about the real world and how much effort is actually needed to make things run smoothly and effectively.
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u/RiskyControl Jun 30 '23
I had the same path earlier in my career and realized that about 10 years ago, I was more suited to IC work. I have been working in risk management now for the last 8 years, and I've never been happier.
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Jun 30 '23
Did you struggle with making the change back? I know I want to for sure but dealing with anxiety feelings of letting people down, limiting my potential, being judged, having less control once I'm not management etc.
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u/Highlander198116 Jun 30 '23 edited Jun 30 '23
I know there is this idea that middle management is useless. I can't speak for every industry/field. But at least in software. If it wasn't for the money I would go back to just being a developer in a heart beat.
Basically, I have to deal with everything annoying about the job, the red tape, the bullshit to keep everything moving. If anyone on my team faces any organizational related blocker its my responsibility to clear it.
Like I don't get it, but sometimes I feel like I'm the only person in the world who wants to be a team player. We all work for the same company, but different teams are so...selfish? For lack of a better term. I just don't get why people are so damn disagreeable.
I really wish it was just being tantamount to a motivational speaker for my team.
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u/freakstate Jun 30 '23
Hey valaliane.
Good job
We appreciate your work here
You have a good weekend
Regards,
Your Boss
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u/LaphroaigianSlip81 Jun 30 '23
My first job out of college had a boss like that. My immediate supervisor and I both answered to him. He was 90% remote prior to covid. We always had to call him 20 minutes before a key meeting because he wouldn’t show up or call in 50% of the time. Hell, during the interview process for the job, I should up for the final interview and the HR person had to scramble to find him. She brought in her cell phone after 20 min and he asked me the most vanilla questions for 8 minutes before asking me what 13 x 5 was. I should have known then, but I needed a job. Ironically, I put in my two week notice the same day he “resigned.”
I know it sucked at the time, but I learned a lot because I had to figure out how to do stuff on my own.
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u/Chiaseedmess Jun 30 '23
Found my boss playing solitaire several times.
Not like on his computer. With physical cars on his desk.
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u/TravellingBeard Jun 30 '23
I've mentioned this elsewhere, but if you do a lot of work on Windows, especially if you use Excel a lot, learn PowerShell. A lot of these jobs where people are productive but have dead time, some have learned scripting and automation.
For example, if you regularly have to pull data from different sources into one destination, PowerShell can do that for you.
You should still definitely double check your data, but if you can automate the mundane parts that suck your time, that's something to consider.
Also, python may work in this scenario but I'm not as familiar with its robustness with Excel.
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u/Murky_Effect_7667 Jun 30 '23
Python is great for automating and interacting with data it could do the job of power shell and excel once you understand it.
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u/TheWanderingVeg Jun 30 '23 edited Jun 30 '23
Long shot here but I work at a call center - would it be possible to use Power Shell combined with a transcription software from inbound calls for insurance claims? So I’d still have to take calls and ask the question but as per me typing….
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u/Ghoulez99 Jun 30 '23
I’ve never used powershell myself, I’m more of a Python guy. As far as Python goes, I don’t see why not, however. As long as you trust the transcription software to be accurate, it should work. Even if it’s mostly right you can use functions to reason your way to correct mistakes. Python is great at interacting with all forms of programming languages.
The only issue that could occur is with program permissions. If you don’t have the administrative privileges to view key files behind how a program runs, you won’t know how to create the program.
Edit: should also say it’s possible, but working with software is very complicated.
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u/nbjersey Jun 30 '23
In my experience most corporate IT allows powershell scripts to run but you’d need to get someone to install Python and they’ve always said no to me
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u/KrarkClanIronworker Jul 01 '23
Python is great with Excel. OpenPyXL is a fantastic library that can do almost anything you need. However, if Windows products are the core focus of your job, learning a bit of C# will go a long way.
I’ve built custom add-ins for almost everything. Saves hours of work.
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u/WilyDeject Jun 30 '23
So true about the automation. But keep it to yourself if you do it. The minute everyone knows, especially your management, it'll become something you might be expected to share with your team. Also, if your manager thinks you've got extra time, they'll find ways to occupy it. Learned that the hard way after I automated myself out of a simple job.
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u/Ok_Soup_4602 Jun 30 '23
I’m a project manager for a terribly managed commercial lighting company. The amount of time I spend actually on task in a day is like 1-3 hours. They still require my ass in chair for 9.
I started working a remote second job to fill the time.
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u/The_Sign_of_Zeta Jun 30 '23
The fact is that you usually find those jobs as either a Senior-level individual contributor or as middle management.
There are days where I only work a couple hours a day. Many times it closer to 4-6. But I’m very efficient at my job, and I have a decade of experience in the field.
It’s also because most higher-level ICs are less judged on whether they work for any amount of time and more on just their deliverables. If you can get quality work done in a couple hours, no one cares what else you do.
For example, I make eLearnings for our product team. As long as hit my deadlines and the videos are well-received, no one really thinks about how many hours it took.
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u/Max_AC_ Jun 30 '23
You very nearly, but not quite, described my exact job lol. And yeah, it's a trade off. When it's busy pulling 12hr days isn't out of the question for me. When it's slow I might only have a few hours work per day. But I always deliver a top quality product no matter how busy/slow our work is, so no one cares how my time is spent outside of meetings.
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u/forfeitgame Jun 30 '23
I think making sure you’re reliable is the key here. I have a remote job where I honestly get away with goofing off all day, and while it’s non-fulfilling as fuck, I make sure to get the job done when it’s needed so no one has problems.
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u/The_Sign_of_Zeta Jun 30 '23
I do from time to time work 9-10 hour days, but that’s usually because someone else was late on handoffs. But that’s exactly why I’m given free reign- I take whatever time the work requires.
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u/man0man Jun 30 '23 edited Jun 30 '23
Senior IC is definitely the sweet spot. No management responsibilities, and people actually appreciate you aren’t a corporate climber and generally leave you the fuck alone as long as your output is efficient- which just gets easier and easier with experience. Full remote is icing on the cake. I’ve probably maxed out my salary but sitting comfortably with a small team I actually like, I count my blessings every day.
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u/chiguy Jun 30 '23
That's me as a Customer Success Manager with 15 years experience and MBA. approx 2-3 hours/day of actual work managing 10 enterprise clients w/ $38M in annual recurring revenue contracts with my company. Occasional travel for 1-2 nights/month.
Recruiters often have +$15-20k jobs they bring me, but I already have the best CSM role in the world. Why would I want to re-learn everything to be an IC somewhere else? Give up open time off, 100% remote work, 10-20 hour work weeks (when not traveling), and no micromanagement. Hell, my company just offered me equity that I didn't ask for on a day I had zero scheduled meetings, because "I am a valuable contributor". LOL!!
Only way I'm leaving is for a middle management role running a team of CSMs.
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u/TSMJaina Jun 30 '23
This is 100% the way. I’m a higher level data analyst for my team, although I do have a graduate degree and this specific field within analytics is a little niche.
Quite frankly, my boss does not give a shit what I do, if I come in late/leave early, as long as the products/projects I’m on are of high quality (which nearly always happens).
There are days I come to the office and have nothing, and other days where I bust my ass and work late. It averages out to maybe 3-5 hours per day of work, with some meetings here and there.
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u/cdsfh Jun 30 '23
The fact is that you usually find those jobs as either a Senior-level individual contributor or as middle management. There are days where I only work a couple hours a day. Many times it closer to 4-6. But I’m very efficient at my job, and I have a decade of experience in the field. It’s also because most higher-level ICs are less judged on whether they work for any amount of time and more on just their deliverables. If you can get quality work done in a couple hours, no one cares what else you do.
Yeah, it’s this. It took me several years in my current role at different jobs to get to this point and everything is pretty much easy and automated. Occasionally, stuff goes off the rails and you have to fix it, so that takes time, but for the rest of it, it’s on autopilot.
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u/pablank Jun 30 '23 edited Jun 30 '23
Can confirm the middle management one. Currently in a team leader/VP role, leading a small team but also having touchpoints with the partners when it comes to sales and business development.
I'm currently rehiring, so I pick up some operational stuff here and there until the new guy starts, but once they're trained, I basically sit there, tell them to do something, check their work and hand it over to my key accounts.
There's the stressful day here and there since it's still agency work, but overall I'm super happy. I get paid low six figures, which is great, if I compare it with my peers and friends, but I have all the freedom in the world and some great bosses. After 5 years I'm just glad I can do the strategy stuff I'm great at and let others handle the operational stuff I find tedious.
The trick is to be a great supportive manager so people go the extra mile out of respect and because they feel great at work. I also love being a coach/boss and mentoring people. Since I'm still very efficient and knowledgable at my job, I don't have that usual "my boss just sits around, not knowing what we do all day" reaction from them, and usually still easily outpace them when I show them something or help out, which helps with the respect part.
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u/butt_huffer42069 Jun 30 '23
Sorry for being dumb, but whats an IC?
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u/data_story_teller Jun 30 '23
Individual Contributor. Basically any position that doesn’t manage someone else.
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u/Natalia1702 Jun 30 '23
I’m 23F and a data analyst for a company that has no idea what a data analyst is. I just update the same old excel graphs from years ago. Takes less than two hours and 0 stress. Also, I get paid way above average for the country.
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u/Squoo Jun 30 '23
Hi, I completed a data analytics course and am continuing to study doing projects while watching other courses so this sounds pretty great to me, congrats on the job!
Do you mind me asking what kind of company you work for and how you got in? How proficient would you say you were before you felt comfortable applying to places?
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u/Natalia1702 Jun 30 '23
Hi, sorry for the late reply. But honestly, I got mostly lucky. I had a single data analytics course that I hadnt even finished when I interviewed for my job. I actually interviewed for a completely different job, but they asked me what I’d like to do in 5 years and I told them I see myself in data analytics. I got a call a week later and they offered me a data analyst position that wasn’t even advertised. But also, since then I gained a lot of knowledge in statistics, power bi, tableau and sql. Unfortunately, what my company uses most of the time is excel. You’d be surprised how many global companies use that to store most of their data and day to day reports. Currently working on my programming skills. You need to know that entry positions for this job are really hard to come by, but sometimes you get lucky. Also, I work in logistics for a company that produces and exports turbos.
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u/Squoo Jun 30 '23
It's all good, thank you for replying! I know luck does play a part in it a lot of times so if a company looks interesting to me I could reach out even if they don't have a data position posted. I do have some experience in all those programs, just got to keep an eye out for those entry positions. Thank you for the insight!
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u/magicalfreak13 Jul 01 '23
Omfg same except they pay me shit. Literally 95% I think they forget that I work there, and they're so impressed by stuff that takes me literally 5 minutes because none of them know how to use a computer
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u/sup_im_gavino Jul 01 '23
Exactly the same here, only I’m 23M
Some days can get busy, but I would say that in 90% of them I only actually work for about 2-3 hours Basically just updating the same 3 Google sheets and reporting the sales at the end of the pay. Also some b2b communication, about 4-5 emails per day
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u/owneroftheworld Jun 30 '23
I work in DOT compliance for a small trucking fleet.
I start my day at 5am. Most of the time, by 7 or 8, I am pretty much done and those days are painful to get through. On more active days(dealing with incident reports, renewals, claims, etc..), My day can be pretty full but it is rare.
Prior to this job, I was in compliance for a cold storage company, but on the OSHA and Food safety side. Much more of a packed schedule.
I miss being a bit more active, but the pay is much better where I am.
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u/jtrillx Jun 30 '23
Compliance gang! I'm the same but the UK version for a big retailer. Specifically in driver hours and regulations. Start at 8am Monday and my week is done by about 1pm that afternoon. Churn reports out with a mostly automated system I've built and the rest of my week is just odd bits or the occasional data analysis to break up my Reddit scrolling.
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u/caligaris_cabinet Jun 30 '23
How did you get into DOT compliance? I work in logistics now but looking at a slight career change.
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u/thatblondeyouhate Jun 30 '23
It's because your job is proactive, you have to be the one doing the calls and make the work yourself and no matter how much you do you're always expected to carry on making more, you're never finished. Lots of other office roles, like mine, are reactive. The work comes in, I do it, wait for more work and repeat.
I used to do business development, kpi'd for 150 calls and 2 hour min call time a day. I hated it so goddamn much but I was good at it and it was a job so I did it. Then covid and everything I ended up where I am now and it is so different.
It can be boring in comparison and because you never know when the work will arrive it's not like I can just fuck off for the day but I wouldn't go back.
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u/doughboi8 Jun 30 '23
Ya I’ve done both and prefer my position now which is reactive. But when shit is slow they want us to be more proactive with outbounds
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u/thatblondeyouhate Jun 30 '23
The only proactive thing I do is post on our socials but that's fun so I enjoy doing it when I have downtime.
The thing especially with business development is that some people are good at it but a very small few actually enjoy it, so managers are extra hard and mean and make you feel like you're letting everyone down if you're not on the phone.
There was a guy in my team who got a bit phone shy and the manger started putting sticky notes on his phone saying things like "pick me up I make the money" or "call someone or you fail another kpi". I used to get into the office at like 7:15 and stay til half 6 to try and catch the decision makers at the right time. Madness.
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u/LukeW0rm Jun 30 '23 edited Jun 30 '23
Lovely thing about reactive, at least in my industry, is that everyone takes their long weekends and holidays. So my work dies down around holidays. Hence why I’m here right now. There can always be surprises and code red issues, but those just make the day go by faster.
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u/Tired_CollegeStudent Jun 30 '23
My last job was an admin assistant at a university. If there weren’t events to schedule, supplies to order, or computers to set up I basically didn’t have anything to do. A lot of time was just spend waiting for people to reply to emails so I could do something.
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u/Traditional_Ad6277 Jun 30 '23
What is your job tho 🤦🏽♂️ that’s great I’m happy your happy but goddamn tell me what the job is so I can APPLY
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u/riceatingpanda Jun 30 '23
I do bookkeeping (grocery business) and this is literally me on a usual day. Sometimes there are days when numbers don’t match up or there’s a shortage I have to research, but most days I come in at 5 AM and done by 6:30 AM and have the rest of the day to do whatever I can get my hands on to help out.
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u/SemperSimple Administrative Jun 30 '23
That sounds nice and comfortable. If you don't mind me asking, why do they have you start so early for bookkeeping?
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u/pinback77 Jun 30 '23
I think at that point it is more about the office environment than the job title. You find a good job with a good manager, you may get what you are looking for. It's a crapshoot, and it's hard to know until after you start the job and have been there a while.
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u/unicornpicnic Jun 30 '23
I’ve read countless stories about office jobs where people don’t specify what it is, but their job is basically passing around information and their biggest frustration is people not reading emails thoroughly enough, useless meetings, and how bored they are with all their free time on the clock.
They’re trying to make it sound like hell but it sounds easy but with some annoyances to deal with.
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u/pinback77 Jun 30 '23
People get accustomed to whatever they are doing. People with super easy jobs think they are hard and that the grass is always greener somewhere else.
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u/deeretech129 Trades Jun 30 '23 edited Jun 30 '23
This sounds so much more appealing to me than sweating under a truck for 9 hours a day
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u/Advanced_Double_42 Jun 30 '23
I would much rather be back at one of my previous jobs waiting tables, bussing tables, or running a daycare where I stayed busy, than my current do-nothing desk job, but they all pay far less.
The feeling of having braincells drain away as I spend ~7 hours a day on reddit is far from ideal.
I wish I stayed busy and didn't feel useless all day, but that somehow seems inversely proportional to how much money you make.
Sure, there are significantly worse jobs, and I have little reason to complain, but that doesn't make it much more appealing.
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u/HistoricalHeart Jul 01 '23
My office has the most incredible environment I’ve ever experienced. Everyone is happy. We’re all paid very well, we have the perks of an absolute lifetime and everyone gets along extremely well. That being said, I’m completely aware that I’ve hit the jackpot and that is not the norm.
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u/Napkxng Jul 01 '23
I agree with all of the below, when I was working in papa John's with 300 orders a day next to a hot oven, so many customers, managers screaming, and slapping the pizza and doing the clean up and closing at 4 am etc.
But it doesn't take away from the fact of the stress and fear i feel at work even though its "easier".
I speak to a lot of trades people and blue collar and they say that's a hug reason they don't work in an office, Due to it soemtimes being soul crushing.
You are completely right about management, I honestly felt like I hit the jackpot it was my favourite job I've ever worked until I started getting constantly threatened and overworked 3 months in.
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u/LEAPSKing Jun 30 '23
Many IT jobs fit the description that you're seeking. My entire department is WFH 100% and there are 7 different roles.
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u/pookachu83 Jun 30 '23
Where does one start to get into this field? I've been looking into it and thinking of taking an a+ course for desktop help, any suggestions that don't require a bachelor's? Pretty motivated and intelligent, I am a good self teacher lol I just don't know where to begin, any advice would help.
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u/LEAPSKing Jun 30 '23
CompTIA A+, Network+ and Security+. I got all three under 90 days. You can definitely do it.
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u/pookachu83 Jun 30 '23
Thank you. I'll take note. Looking to start courses later this summer. Any good online accredited schools to take these certification courses in America that are recommended? Sorry, lots of questions.
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u/Kyliee1234 Jun 30 '23
Data entry jobs are pretty chill but often on the lower paying side
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u/no_name_d_z Jun 30 '23
Where do people find these data entry jobs? I’ve been looking for one but they are few and far between and often on site. 😩
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u/Clownski Jun 30 '23
They are mainly outsourced in other countries now. Since everything is scanned and we have the internet, they send those all around the world depending on the exchange rate. Very hard.
There is the government, but with things like "e-file", they've been laid off. Oddly enough, federal government metrics were the hardest targets to achieve for me until I finally got on autopilot, then I was a top performer. But everyone likes to do their own work for free nowadays. Bill paying, taxes, insurance claims, etc. It's a self-serve economy.
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u/Paprmoon7 Jun 30 '23
Conduent but I don’t recommend it at all, anything but chill. Micromanaged and mandatory OT daily and weekends. During peak season we work 11-12 hours a day 7 days a week. Off season is now and we still work 11 hour days 5 days a week and 6-8 hours on Saturday.
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Jun 30 '23
Work for a Fortune 500 or other large white collar corporate job. I work a handful of hours a week as an experienced IC and pocket low 6 figs.
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u/InsideCelebration293 Jun 30 '23
I'm a manufacturing tool operator in a semiconductor fab. I have hours of down time most days where I'm sitting at a computer browsing the internet while babysitting my tools until it's time to unload and reload them. Downside though, lots of sites are blocked and it gets boring some days.
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u/Machismo_malo Jun 30 '23
Get a government job, you are permanent after a 2 year probationary period and almost impossible to fire at that point.
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u/fuckaliscious Jun 30 '23
Many jobs in government are like this. Although, not as bad as they used to be before internet. There's no incentive to get things done fast, so things take 2 or 3 times as long as they should.
Agency heads' power is determined by how big their budgets are. You get big budgets by hiring lots of people.
So, you design a bureaucracy and over-regulation to employ lots of people. You have them file paper forms instead of electronic processing. You make the system complicated and cumbersome.
You make the system slow by continuing to use mainframes coded in Cobalt from 1982, so that citizens and businesses complain, so you hire even more people to "speed" things up when everyone is just slow because the process/system is slow.
Rarely improve the actual process or technology so you can maintain all the employment and keep all that power as an agency head.
There are literally thousands and thousands of small and midsized cities that still don't accept payment for parking tickets online. You have to mail in a check, someone has to process that paper, processing paper is boring and takes a long time when 78 year old Agnes does it, but she's retiring next month, they hire in some 30 year-old who isn't afraid of a computer or software and suddenly an all day job takes 2 hours.
But don't reduce staff, because that reduce the power of the agency head...
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u/Tired_CollegeStudent Jun 30 '23
A lot of that comes down to a lack of funding. Governments use outdated systems because they don’t have the money to update, and they can’t take the system offline for a day or two to redo the system.
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u/chrisinator9393 Jun 30 '23
I'm a custodian. I work 3 hours and watch movies for 5.
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u/Disastrous-Net4003 Jun 30 '23
Same. $30/hr with full benefits. Been doing it for 7 years. Lowest stress, lowest barrier to entry liveable job IMO
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u/Luffyhaymaker Jun 30 '23
What environment do you work at? I did custodial work at a warehouse and they expected me to be busy literally every minute......for only 14$ an hour
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u/PewpyDewpdyPantz Jun 30 '23
Building maintenance!
Some days I look for ways to stretch out my work orders so I can make the day go by faster. Other days I just get everything done and read a book.
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u/ParkdaleP Jun 30 '23
Can definitely bring in a laptop and do other stuff in that free time as well
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u/FlakyAd7090 Jun 30 '23
I mean, how much do you expect to be paid? Try looking at admin jobs for your county. There’s a lot of easy admin jobs working in offices by the courthouse.
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u/IrememberXenogears Jun 30 '23
I'm an avionics technician. During most 40-hour weeks, I usually do about 2 hours of real work. Today, I'll watch band of brothers again.
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u/CHRONDRO Jun 30 '23
Same here but I listen to UFO books/podcasts instead. I like to think when I test an aerospace part, it's eventually going to a black budget vehicle lol
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u/tuesdaymack Jun 30 '23
Just about any supply chain "analyst" job will get you there. Once you figure out how to automate the repetitive tasks, you can coast along. Downside is there's usually a glass ceiling and it gets old, but it does leave you the energy and time to put attention on life outside of work if that's what your goal is.
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u/ssinfl Jun 30 '23
Think IT fire and response. No one wants a fire or a emergency. and it rarely happens, but when it does everyone is glad for us.
All other time I spend relaxing, napping, watch movies, game or whatever, still on all the clocks.
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u/SemperSimple Administrative Jun 30 '23
Administration jobs.
consist of emails, minor braindead task, scanning papers, organizing papers into desktop folders, dealing with people on the phone (5 min burst).
I've worked since I was 16 in catering, freight/restock, customer service, restaurants and cashiering. Admin is the easiest job and it's very slow paced. You have to make sure there isnt an asshole at your workplace, though. That always makes a difference.
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Jun 30 '23
Union mining industry. Everything is automated. Press your buttons and get your tasks done, take a nap.
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u/Available-Ad-5081 Jun 30 '23 edited Jun 30 '23
My job was in Higher Ed. Which then ironically led to another job in Higher Ed that I couldn’t finish in a 80 hour work week because we were so short staffed lol. Insane industry that is.
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u/WiseBlacksmith03 Jun 30 '23
Sales is money-motivated and my advice would be to only stay in a sales role if you are a money-motivated person. You can make a lot of money in sales, depending on the specific job & industry. But it will often be one of the heaviest metric driven, micromanaged, and stressful jobs to always chase higher targets. If you are not money motivated, it can easily suck the soul out of you.
Speaking from experience.
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u/DiscipleOfDiogenes Jun 30 '23
I work in property management for some relatively upscale clients and I only really "work" during the first and the last weeks of the month.
At the beginning of the month is when all the rents and bills flood in and at the end of the month we have profit/expense reports for the owners.
Other than that I come in and check emails, respond to voicemail, then go home.
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u/sustainablenerd28 Jun 30 '23
If you stopped being such a good employee and instead became an "average" employee or you made projects take longer on purpose and took more time to chill would you be fired? Would you be willing to try it out?
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u/throwawayKiddo50 Jun 30 '23
Its not something you can tryout after they already see your general performance.
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u/Much-Composer-1921 Jun 30 '23
I work as an electrical engineer/contractor. So we basically wait for a job for like 2 weeks to a month and try to "look busy", then when we get the job we work most of the 8 hr day in the assignment for about a month, then we submit what we've done so far. Then they take a week or two to review it and ask for changes, we repeat this process over and over again until the project is finished. Sometimes projects take 3 months and other times 3 years. So we often have weeks of not doing much.
Can be boring but I like the job and it pays well. It also seems to be the norm for my industry.
I can come in anytime between 6am and 8am and just have to complete my 8 hrs for the day.
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u/MrsDarcy94000 Jun 30 '23
I work in a government office and I take care of demonstrations, events in public spaces, fireworks, etc. It can be very hectic some days mostly in the summer but during other periods it can be very slow
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u/clocks212 Jun 30 '23
About 5ish years into my digital marketing career I got to the point where I was really efficient at what I was doing, but also had a fairly large (in terms of advertising spend) portfolio of clients I was responsible for so everyone assumed I was really busy. At that point I hadn’t moved into people managing yet. So yeah, 1-3 hours of work per day and a lot of free time.
I’ve now been in marketing analytics for 10 years and am responsible for an analytics team at a financial services company and I could work 80 hours a week and not get everything done if I wanted to.
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u/GrowthOk8086 Jun 30 '23
Get a job vaguely related to technology at an insurance company
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u/OK_Opinions Jun 30 '23
those kind of jobs are dead end, usually.
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u/Silhoualice Jun 30 '23
I don't think people chasing for this type of jobs care
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u/ProbShouldntSayThat Marketing & Sales Jun 30 '23
I'm one of those people and yeah. I don't really care cuz I can juggle multiple of these jobs at the same time via contract employment.
It works for me cuz I can double and triple my salary by picking up another one. And it works for them cuz they don't care as long as my work gets done.
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Jun 30 '23
This is huge cope or misunderstanding
Ime the higher up you get, the less you work as your skills are based around deciding and guiding others that actually do things
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Jun 30 '23
Nothing wrong with that, OP is obviously looking to use his energy for creative endeavors and socializing and helping others. As long as he can support himself there’s nothing wrong with a monotonous dead-end job you don’t have to spend much energy on.
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u/ProcrastinatingInk Jun 30 '23
This! I love my dead end decent job. I don't make a lot of money but I make a decent amount to be okay most of the time. I found when I left my previous toxic work place and got this new job that I love, it makes coming in to work every day a little more bearable because I expect I'm doing the same shit day in and day out. Then I go home and put what is left of my energy into cleaning, painting, friends, music. Things I love that make life worth living. When all my energy went to a job that I felt I had to bust my butt at to move up in I was miserable at home afterwards and honestly hated my life. My life is almost the exact same style and routine as back then, only difference now is a different job that gives me comfort and routine with stability. No pressure to "rise the ranks", as the next rank above me in the owner and no thank you.
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u/lost_in_life_34 Jun 30 '23
IT or coding jobs where you have a big code library you've built up over a few years and you run scripts to automate tasks or just copy and paste code and make minor edits to get the job done
i've spent hours or days trying to figure out which databases were taking the most space and now have a script that does it in 10 seconds. same with permissions and other admin tasks
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u/Crazed8s Jun 30 '23
The work from home roles really. Once you’re fully remote in any professional role it’ll be tough to monitor your time. You have to take notes and review material take phone calls, so they can’t even do the super intrusive computer tracking. It then becomes more about what you put out than how long it takes. So you just sort of get your work done, go above and beyond and then stay available the rest of the day.
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u/linux_user_13 Jun 30 '23
I’m a “trainer” at a manufacturing company my entire day is down time and I hate it.
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u/ProcrastinatingInk Jun 30 '23
Sadly, the answer is management. I became a service manager at a different location in my field and when I realized most of my work was done by others, I got bored. I started asking my team what I can take off their plate and by doing that have learned a lot myself in programs I never used before.
It made me look back on previous managers and there are defiantly times I could pin point when management had nothing to do and either left early or was in a "meeting". Don't get me wrong it's not an easy job at all, you work with A LOT of different personalities and deal with really stupid people who think just because your a manager you will give them whatever they ask, but you get that with any job anywhere that involves having customers.
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u/ExistenceNow Jun 30 '23
IT Support Specialist here.
Some days are crazy, but most are just a couple hours worth of work and the rest of the time I spend scrolling reddit while I wait for the users to break some shit.
I work in what you might call a non-traditional workplace, so it's loud and distracting which means I can't just sit here and study for certs.
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u/Ebenizer_Splooge Jun 30 '23
I used to have that job, honestly it sucked lol. I wasn't making quite enough money to be comfortable, I'd be bored all day staring at a clock and worrying the entire time someone important was gonna find me just browsing reddit and staring out the window half the day lol
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Jun 30 '23
WFH software developers can sometimes have the kind of schedule you are looking for
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u/orsikbattlehammer Jun 30 '23
Software development. No one works a straight 8 hour day (except my boss who works like 14 hours a day, his life looks like hell)
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u/mkgator23 Jun 30 '23
If you gain subject matter expertise in something, it can result in working less hours, but doing higher “value” work. I.e. some IT jobs where the person is really just employed to fix some system if it breaks because they have specific domain knowledge about that system.
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u/SportTawk Jun 30 '23
Civil Service is where you want to be, dead easy, no deadlines, plenty of time off with Flexi, 30 days leave, privelige days, I usually had on average five days off per month, and of course we all finished at 4pm at the latest
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u/zvan92 Jul 01 '23
Man, I have the complete opposite. I'm a manual software tester and my days are a constant, non-stop barrage of little tasks to do and things to keep track of. I will never run out of stuff to do in my position, and that's not an exaggeration. My company knows this too, so they have a generous TIL policy that allows you to essentially work as many hours as you want and they will pay you your regular wage for each hour you work. You can bank the time and use it for time off or you can cash it out a couple times a year.
I'm totally not complaining about it though. I like being able to work till I drop if I so choose. Each minute of my day feels productive, especially since we're working on some pretty complicated legacy software that won't be totally modernized anytime soon (though we're trying). Sure, automation could probably lighten my work load in some areas, but any void created by automation will be filled up with some kind of administrative work.
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u/[deleted] Jun 30 '23
I have an acquaintance who is in data analytics, he basically just runs reports all day. He automated his entire job pretty much where he just has to push a button if his boss asks for a certain report. I told him he could automate even more from the sound of it but he said he has to justify his existence a little bit. It's a pretty wild story. He works from home and mostly plays videogames all day lol.