To think we should have micro jobs?

[Alittlenonsensenowandthen]

Firstly this is not a benefit bashing post. However I was thinking of some lovely friend of mine who don't work due to ME/chronic fatigue. Something that lots more people are now experiencing due to COVID.
Part of the reason is not knowing whether they'll have a good/bad day/week etc. however they are definitely active in community and busy with hobbies. Which got me thinking...
We think of part time work as part time but often it's restrictive and still 16-20hrs minimum.

Would it be a good idea to have micro working where you give an hour/2hrs a week or whatever you can do that week without losing benefits.

Im less thinking of income/benefits but the well being of keeping a role in the workplace.

What do you think? Completely not viable?

I can't think of many employers who would want all the responsibility of e.ploying someone, to get 2 hours a week from them. This would be better suited to self employment, virtual pa etc surely?

I think it's an idea that's worth exploring; in some industries it's probably not viable, but it could be in others.

To give an example off the top of my head: in my job we have a stock room which needs to be tidied from time to time. It's one of those jobs that no one has time to do; if we had someone who came in once a month for a few weeks hours, that would be great. It wouldn't be the end of the world if it didn't get done, and it wouldn't really matter when it was done, as long as it was every few weeks or so.

I guess there would be issues around the details of employment etc, but I've sometimes thought it could be a way to get someone with, say, mental health issues back to work, by starting off very slowly and with no pressure, potentially building up to something more over time.

This would be great for me. I have 3 children with SEN and school attendance difficulties but I do usually have a few hours a week. I could earn up to £500 a month without losing carer's allowance.

I struggle in regular jobs due to adhd etc. I would live multiple small jobs. I’d never be bored. Tired in a good way and I’d still earn.

When I was a student I had a role in the nursery helping at dinner times. On the days it clashed with my lectures thry employed another student. It was a really short shift but also right next to where I needed to be for my lectures so no wasted travel time. It was time sensitive though, as in thry wanted me at dinner time, not a different time. There's loads of jobs that need doing whenever, I used to do odd bits for my business owner neighbour as a youngster, such as mailshots. They needed doing on a particular week but not a particular time.
Carers on carers allowance can earn a pittance without being penalised, they could roll that out to people on disability benefits.

There's a lot of litter near me. This could be picked up by a number of people each just working an hour or so here and there

Probably difficult to manage the logistics and check if people were doing the hours they claimed, but I think the idea has merit

I love this idea, especially the stock room cleaning idea.
Maybe it would be possible for employers to list micro jobs with an agency and then people from the agency could sign up for them. So people would be vetted and the agency could manage any issues. Jobs would have to be low skill or certainly things you could just run with.
Two hours of photocopying, clear out the stationery cupboard?
It would be great for teenagers as well.

Things like this do exist. Things like Prolific and Appen.

This is what zero hour contracts were for, no responsibility on either side, before employers started using it in place of permanent contracts!

@EarthlyNightshade I used to work in hospitality with shifts on an app, minimum 4 hours. Things like pot washing, leaflet handing out etc all also on there. It's definitely doable

This could definitely work in my field (accounting) but you need a committed and creative and forward thinking employer.

I suggested it umpteen times but the issues I ran into were : no budget for temp staff; having “an additional headcount” (two of my workplaces counted heads always as 1 regardless how many hours each headcount worked, and then went beserk if you had extra headcount eg due to covering a maternity or long term sick absence, or a job share). In one of my teams we had a spare laptop for disaster recovery but in other teams a lack of IT-approved kit would be an issue - but I had ideas how we could work around most of those issues.

It can be very hard to explain to employers why it would be worth the effort. But I wish I had been able to get someone to try it. I’m sure it could have worked and it would have been reasonable money for someone.

I also have ME/CFS and this would have been great for me when I was at my worst. Fortunately I was able to do some casual research work for my former uni from home, which was time sensitive in that there were certain deadlines (eg. Consent forms sent out by a particular date) but I could meet those deadlines at my own pace, so work 3 hours one day if I was feeling well and none the next