To wonder if there are jobs that are reasonably paid and not stressful, and if so, what those jobs are?

[Jinsei]

Have had a shitty day at work, and have concluded that I just don't want the hassle of managing other people any more. I know that stress comes with the territory, and that's why managers earn more, but I want out. I don't mind taking a pay cut but I am the main breadwinner in our family and need to pay the mortgage.

Are there any jobs out there where you can earn a living wage without being stressed all the time? And if so, how do I get one??? The other day I was stressing about a potential redundancy situation in a few years time, but now I'm almost wishing it would happen...

Sounds fabulous, minty. I'd love to write for a living, but don't think I'd be good enough. I do fantasise about living off the proceeds of a best-selling novel though.

My DH works in information management, he is reasonably well paid and the job is pretty low stress. It is quite niche though, in the sense that you have to be a certain type of person to enjoy working with databases!

Yes, I like the idea of being a librarian, but presumably you need qualifications of some sort? Imagine working with all those books.

Couldn't be a health care worker as I'm not very good around sickness or injuries, but have huge respect for those who do it.

I hope it's just one of those days, but I have felt like this so much since taking my current job a few years back. At least all the stress has made it an easy decision to know that I'm definitely not interested in my boss's job when he goes...

DH works as a freelance IT consultant. Pays very well and he has very little stress. The only stressful part is ensuring he always has work lined up.

Ah, quite like databases fluffy but wouldn't have enough technical knowledge. Definitely liking the idea of working with things more than people. Funny really, as I've always been a "people person" but I'm liking them less and less as time goes on!

If you are a people person, I think delivering training in whatever your specialust subject is - could be management? - could be a good option. If you can build up clients (the hard part) then you could command £500 per day.

Yeah, training would definitely be up my street ceeveebee, but not sure how people get into it. I'm not sure if I'd be very good at drumming up business.

If only, Nancy.

If dealing with irate customers, failing ancient IT systems, poor management and ever decreasing budgets for actually filling the library with books sounds like your thing, then go for it.

Did I mention the irate customers??

And I forgot the pay, but that's cos it's so small it's easy to overlook .

What ever you do, don't retrain to be a librarian. I am reaching the end of my career as one and, although I absolutely adore my job, I would not recommend it now. The pay is poor for a professional job, libraries are being closed all over the country, professional posts are being cut and replaced by volunteers. Sadly, I think the profession is dying and will have gone altogether in a few years.

I am passionate about my job and have been a librarian for over 30 years, but it is on the way out.

Cross-posted there, but agree totally with Annie above ^

...don't go shattering my image!

I hate managing people. Shelly has it spot on In all honesty, though, does anyone actually enjoy managing people? If you like telling people what to do, you won't be a good people manager. If you don't like telling people what to do, it's a stressful job. Basically, being a good people manager requires compassion and an understanding of what makes people tick. Unfortunately, having compassion and good intrapersonal understanding leaves you open to extra stress.

Nancy, if only!

People misunderstand what a librarian does, IMHO. We deal with people, helping them to find information or a great book to read, amongst loads of other things.

Some people think we sit in quiet spaces reading all day. As I said, if only

Check out the world of Higher Education administration. Seriously. Staff are pretty well paid - I knew lots of staff paid between 30-45k who didn't have a heavy workload nor much stress and not particularly challenging or taxing work

There are talented people there but it's also a great place to hide if you want to do a mediocre job and never get fired. Just try not to be the poor sod who has to manage these incompetents!!

Seriously there are lots of jobs in HE institutions around the country... Go for it.

I'm not the main wage earner in our house, but my wages from my previous job were practically all spent on cm fees (only kept about £100 of it ).

I've now dropped a grade and a few hours so that I can work around school hours. We no longer pay cm fees, and the money that I do earn can be enjoyed.

With the drop in grade has come less responsibility and less stress.

I am very lucky.

Massage therapist? Physiotherapist? The gel nail woman I know seems very chilled - £40 per hour, she only does gel nails and nothing else.

DH is a university researcher and absolutely loves it. It does have a measure of stress, but it's good stress IYSWIM - he thrives on it. There is a lot of paperwork and some politics but a large part of his job involves sitting around talking about ideas, which is very satisfying and interesting. I used to work as a research assistant (much lower level job and much less well paid) and I loved it too. There was a quite a slow pace of work, lots of variety, interesting people and a friendly relaxed working atmosphere. The thing that knocked me out of the game was having to do a PhD to progress - not my cup of tea!

I'm currently a freelance journalist doing very part time hours and it's brilliant - zero pressure and (mostly) interesting. I earn tuppence ha'penny but if I stepped up my hours I could earn a very decent wage. The only difficult bit would be securing the work. In between research and journalism I was a primary teacher - now that is definitely not the way to go if you're not a fan of stress!!

Oh and I agree with suzy about HE admin, although be careful about the area you get into. Stick to jobs that involve working with postgrads or staff rather than undergrads. All the lovely admin people I worked with when I was a uni staff member were fab and seemed to really enjoy their jobs. Very stable work with relatively low stress for a good wage.

It depends - what do you currently earn so that we can see what sort of salary you would be looking to earn? I work in admin and feel my role
is overpaid and has little to no stress...!

Hmm, lots of ideas here. Food for thought. I currently earn around £52k but could happily get by on much less. Need to do some sums though to figure how much less...

What do library customers get irate about IronyFreeAnnie?

Cuntstomers are cuntstomers no matter where they happen to be Quad. The lovely general public will find some way to be rude and obnoxious even in the calm atmosphere of the Book.

I liked managing people, hated managing money. I used to fret at night imagining a minor error in a spreadsheet meaning I'd suddenly overspent budget by £1,000s. And sometimes it happened in real life and not just my nightmares.

Give me people to manage any day over money!