Low-Stress Jobs

[Tortoise]

The topic of low-stress jobs was discussed a few months back on this forum, but the discussion focused mainly on professors and didn't go into many other types of jobs. I'd like to broaden that discussion if possible.

I'm an engineer in my early 30s, married but no kids yet, and I'm seriously considering a career change out of engineering. The problem is that I have no idea what I would do.

So how about it: What are some of the lowest-stress jobs you can think of, other than professor? And if any of those jobs avoid bureaucracy and status-oriented hierarchy, even better!

[WiseOne]

Who thinks being a professor is a low stress job???  Obviously someone who isn't one!

They forgot the part about your job security and income being dependent on getting federal grants when the odds are 10:1 against you, and it takes a solid month of work to submit each one.  Sure there are private foundations, but they're just as competitive and they don't do you much good because they don't pay overhead.  I know lots of people who are trying to submit up to 20 grants a year, and have no idea if they'll still have a job a year from now.

It's a great career if you can manage it, though.

[doodle]

Once you establish financial independence I think it makes any career a lot less stressful because you can approach it with a slightly different attitude. Financial independence would also allow you to reduce the number of hours you work to an amount that is less taxing. I can deal with a fast paced high intensity environment for four or five hours a day...it might even be energizing. But 9 or 10 hours in that environment would wear me out.

[Greg]

Outside of the sequester, a job for the Federal Government can be low stress. I think this is especially true for positions like Quality Assurance (QA). You just send emails back and forth to the contractors and update the group on things that go wrong in the field/production. You then make sure someone fixes this (normally not you). You put in your 40 hours a week and you go home and not to mention a quite reasonable salary for doing this too.

Stating that, I'd find this job to be very boring in my current state of mind but in terms of stress, easy-street.

[Tyler]

Same boat, Tortoise.  Engineering can wear you out.

If your PP can support you for a while, you might consider taking a sabbatical to decompress.  Evaluating new careers is really difficult when you're stressed about the current one. 

Here's my working list for things I may want to try once I'm FI enough to throw caution to the wind:

- teach sculpture at a community college
- work as an event coordinator at a sports arena
- find a job at an art museum
- substitute science teacher
- design products for non-profits
- park ranger
- work at a plant nursery
- give tours at the zoo
- work at a toy store
- repair bikes
- sell my own products on Etsy
- design random iPhone apps and put them on the App Store


 

[MediumTex]

Remember that for a highly intelligent person, boredom can be a very stressful experience.

I once had a job as a lifeguard.  I lasted one day.  When it became clear to me that the need to pull someone out of the water was a relatively infrequent event, the crushing boredom of sitting there doing nothing was almost overwhelming.  I quit that job and went and started a landscaping company, which kept me far more engaged and stimulated, even though from a distance the lifeguard job would have appeared to be much less stressful than starting a new business.

[clacy]

Almost anything that is well compensated will come with a lot of stress.

My two careers have been in a high level sales role and now I'm a business owner/operator.  Any time you have number reporting/performance responsibilities meeting a quota or managing a P&L will come with an insane amount of stress.

As MT said, different things are more stressful for different people. 

[Greg]

A saying I heard was pretty interesting:

A job can be either: Fun, High-Paying, or Legal. Pick two.

Only the luckiest ones in the world are able to get all three.

[Mountaineer]

So how about it: What are some of the lowest-stress jobs you can think of, other than professor? And if any of those jobs avoid bureaucracy and status-oriented hierarchy, even better!

Quietly resting in a casket?  Unless, of course, you were an unbeliever   No bureaucracy, no status to be concerned about. 

Seriously, I do not think we are called to a vocation of "no stress".  What is not stressful for one person could be an absolute nightmare for another.  I think the least stress would to be able to spend your day doing something you really like ... hopefully with enough income from some source that would provide your essential needs of food, shelter, companionship and knowing you are helping your neighbors  meet their needs.

[Kriegsspiel]

Being a roadie for a kickass band might be stressful, but in a good way.

\m/

[Kriegsspiel]

It might not be low stress for some people, and isn't technically a job, but I think the idea of buying cheap fixer-upper houses, living in them while you fix them up for a few years to get the tax credit, then selling them seems pretty interesting and fun.  Something along the lines of a cheap house in a hipsterizing/gentrifying mixed use neighborhood.

[Coffee]

It might not be low stress for some people, and isn't technically a job, but I think the idea of buying cheap fixer-upper houses, living in them while you fix them up for a few years to get the tax credit, then selling them seems pretty interesting and fun.  Something along the lines of a cheap house in a hipsterizing/gentrifying mixed use neighborhood.

Super stressful, because you never REALLY know how much you're gonna have to invest in the house until AFTER you're in the house.  Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.  Then did it four more times.  Major pain in the ass.

As for stress free jobs: I always thought that getting a job working at the front desk of a tanning salon would be about as good as it gets.  Especially one in Malibu, California.  (Why they have tanning salons in Malibu?  I have no idea.)

[Tyler]

As for stress free jobs: I always thought that getting a job working at the front desk of a tanning salon would be about as good as it gets.  Especially one in Malibu, California. 

Ha!  Nice.  I'll have to add that to my list.

[MachineGhost]

As for stress free jobs: I always thought that getting a job working at the front desk of a tanning salon would be about as good as it gets.  Especially one in Malibu, California.  (Why they have tanning salons in Malibu?  I have no idea.)

The downside is you might be thought of as gay...

[Gosso]

Here are a few things that I tell myself when I get the urge to throw it all away:

"All of life is sorrowful, so might as well make a decent income while I'm at it."

"I work for my own enjoyment of the process, I don't let the opinions of others affect me."

"I worry only about what I can control, which is mainly how hard and well I work."

"We are all a slave to something, so again, might as well get paid well for it."

"The only real freedom I have is in my own mind, so develop this and see where it takes me."

I also find that blocking the internet helps.  I use K9 Web Protection which blocks only the internet yet still allows Lotus Notes and Go-To-Meeting to work.  I also keep an office journal which allows me to vent and write down any deep thoughts I might have.

***

As for low stress jobs, I second MT's recommendation for landscaping.  I did this for a couple of summers and really enjoyed it, although by the end of the summer I was always glad to return to University.

[l82start]

ski instructor was the best low stress job i ever had, it wasn't stress free however, its a horrible job to try live off of if it your only source of income, you have to like kids and cold and not mind catching a lot of winter bugs, but if you love skiing and are good enough to get the job, it gives you a free ski pass, cheep gear, a cool uniform, more first tracks in fresh powder than you can count, and  it's more fun than anything else i have ever done before or since.... 

[notsheigetz]

After working for about 25 years as a software engineer I quit my job to go into private consulting and started it off with a solo trip out west in my little red Toyota pickup truck visiting places and seeing things I had never seen before.

I found the perfect job at McCittrick Canyon in Guadalupe Mountains National Park. It was held by an older couple working for the National Park Service. They had a little cabin at the beginning of the trail heads and their job was to greet visitors embarking on hikes into the canyon to explain to them the wonders of the canyon they were about to see and caution them of any problems they might find along the way. I think they both worked full time, mostly just standing there at the trail head to greet visitors on alternate days, but also doing a little work cleaning restrooms and such to get in full 40 hour weeks.

I remember driving home not long after meeting them and stopping somewhere in the Panhandle of Florida to kneel down and pray to God for a job like that before going back home to begin my consulting career. Unfortunately, I discovered that God is an asshole that doesn't answer those kinds of prayers. I returned home to find my dysfunctional family consisting of 3 teenagers who hadn't missed me at all and were sorry I returned. In a couple of years my wife got lung cancer and died leaving me to deal not only with the 3 teenage assholes but with at least one of their offspring I had to adopt as my own just to give her a decent chance in life which I thought she deserved ( and still do ).

There is a lot more to the story but I still dream of McCittrick canyon. Perhaps I shall write a book some day with that as the title.

[flyingpylon]

As for stress free jobs: I always thought that getting a job working at the front desk of a tanning salon would be about as good as it gets.  Especially one in Malibu, California.  (Why they have tanning salons in Malibu?  I have no idea.)

A good friend of mine owned a small chain of tanning salons back in the day (80's).  I'm not sure about the stress, but let's just say there are a lot of fringe benefits...

[WiseOne]

After working for about 25 years as a software engineer I quit my job to go into private consulting and started it off with a solo trip out west in my little red Toyota pickup truck visiting places and seeing things I had never seen before.

I found the perfect job at McCittrick Canyon in Guadalupe Mountains National Park. It was held by an older couple working for the National Park Service. They had a little cabin at the beginning of the trail heads and their job was to greet visitors embarking on hikes into the canyon to explain to them the wonders of the canyon they were about to see and caution them of any problems they might find along the way. I think they both worked full time, mostly just standing there at the trail head to greet visitors on alternate days, but also doing a little work cleaning restrooms and such to get in full 40 hour weeks.

I remember driving home not long after meeting them and stopping somewhere in the Panhandle of Florida to kneel down and pray to God for a job like that before going back home to begin my consulting career. Unfortunately, I discovered that God is an asshole that doesn't answer those kinds of prayers. I returned home to find my dysfunctional family consisting of 3 teenagers who hadn't missed me at all and were sorry I returned. In a couple of years my wife got lung cancer and died leaving me to deal not only with the 3 teenage assholes but with at least one of their offspring I had to adopt as my own just to give her a decent chance in life which I thought she deserved ( and still do ).

There is a lot more to the story but I still dream of McCittrick canyon. Perhaps I shall write a book some day with that as the title.

Notsheigetz, that sounds like the nightmare that keeps on giving.  How is the granddaughter doing?

I met an older couple in the Wonder Lake campground in Denali National Park who had something like that job.  They'd turned it into the most wonderful retirement plan.  They'd sold their house and were living in a small RV, not one of those new monsters but something like the one John Steinbeck describes in "Travels with Charley".  They spent winters driving to each of their childrens' homes to stay for a time with each, then they went to Alaska each summer to be the Wonder Lake caretakers.  Their job was mostly to watch for problems and offer the occasional cup of hot chocolate to campers.

On further though, add John Steinbeck's later lifestyle to that "low stress job" list.

[cowboyhat]

Greeting campers all day in a national park would quickly make me depressed and unhappy, which is the same thing as anxious. That's because I don't like meeting new people and I do like thinking about abstract problems. My current job is clearly stressful to some of my coworkers, but I love it. I been at it for about 15 years and everyday I get up eager to start. I'll work at it until I drop dead or they tell me I have to go.

I read a cool story about a guy who drove a truck in a coal mine (something he did not especially enjoy) but had an interest in apple trees. He made a hobby of driving around the country-side collecting cuttings from old heirloom trees and grafting them. Then he got to selling the heirloom trees. Eventually he had to quit driving the coal truck in order to tend to the apple tree business.

That's what I think you should do if you don't like your job. Start doing something productive that you love in your free time. If you are lucky maybe you can turn it into a new job. If not you will be spending a lot of time doing something that makes you happy. Being happy part of the time is better than not being happy at all.

[Tyler]

My general advice would be to first try a different type of company (small versus large, etc.) before giving up on the career.  I've seen some folks really thrive after making such a change.  For me, the dissatisfaction runs a bit deeper, as I don't find the work all that interesting and probably should have chosen a different career in the first place. 

Yeah, I've job-hopped a bit and worked in large and small companies in a few different industries.  While I really enjoy making new things and solving complex problems, one thing that transcends nearly every engineering job is something that I've become more and more jaded to over time -- schedule-based product development.  Sprinting from deadline to deadline as an engineer has just worn me down over time.

So for me, some kind of mentally stimulating job unshackled to arbitrary deadlines and modern corporate culture would be a great gig.  The book Shop Class as Soulcraft was pretty insightful for me in that regard.

[Ad Orientem]

Undertaker

The clientele rarely complain and its fairly easy to bury your mistakes.

[Tortoise]

Thanks for all the replies, everyone! So many interesting ideas from so many different perspectives. That's why I like this forum.

I should explain that what motivated me to start this thread was that I found out this past week that one of my coworkers--an extremely intelligent, talented guy in his early 30s, single with no kids--is going to be taking an unpaid leave of absence for a few months so that he can "figure out what he wants to do." Realistically, he probably won't be returning; the "leave of absence" thing is just a formality to keep all of his options open. (No need to close doors unnecessarily, I suppose.)

I was surprised that he decided to take an unpaid leave of absence instead of finding a new job while he continues working at his current job. The conventional wisdom is that the latter is the smarter move since it involves less financial risk. But as I thought about it more, I realized that while his decision might not make the most sense financially, it might make sense for a different reason: As Tyler pointed out in this thread, evaluating a major career transition can be difficult while continuing to work full-time. A leave of absence (or sabbatical) allows one to step back and make the career change with more time, energy, and perspective.

In my coworker's case, the fact that he's single without kids and pays cheap rent with some friends means he has probably accumulated a lot of savings over the years--enough to support himself for at least a couple of years, if not longer. Although I'm married, my situation is similar: No kids, no mortgage, and my wife and I have accumulated enough savings in our taxable accounts to support ourselves for over two years. And that's if neither of us works and our monthly expenses remain unchanged. If we were to cut our expenses we could support ourselves even longer, and if my wife continues to work we could support ourselves indefinitely. (I'm not saying I want to be a lazy bum and let my wife support us indefinitely. I'm just saying that since we don't have the financial shackles of children or a mortgage, both of us don't have to work to make ends meet, and we have our savings as a financial safety net on top of that.)

It seems to me that the danger in continuing to go into work and collect those paychecks every two weeks is that it makes procrastination so much easier. There's nothing forcing my hand to go out and change my job or career right now. If I were to take an unpaid leave of absence like my coworker, that would no longer be the case. It would light a fire under my ass and force me to finally make the change. It would be kind of scary, but as Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "People wish to be settled; only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them."

If I were to quit my job tomorrow and money were not an object, here are a few potentially low-stress jobs outside of engineering that come to mind that I might enjoy trying on for size:

- Brewing beer
- Working with plants (nursery, botany, etc.)
- Woodworking (maybe custom/high-end furniture)
- Working in the mountains or in a tropical climate

If only I could try out all of those jobs!

[RuralEngineer]

Engineering is rough. Really rough. But I've never been unemployed a day in my life despite being laid off in 2009 and working 3 jobs since then. The flexibility and compensation makes it tough to beat at supporting a family (married no kids yet).

However the stress is hard to manage.

[MediumTex]

Engineering is rough. Really rough. But I've never been unemployed a day in my life despite being laid off in 2009 and working 3 jobs since then. The flexibility and compensation makes it tough to beat at supporting a family (married no kids yet).

However the stress is hard to manage.

I'll bet in the city it's even worse.