What's the lowest stress / easiest minimum wage job?

[MegBusset]

If you were going to step down from a stressful professional career and could afford it, what would be an easy / low stress min wage role to fill a few years until retirement?

I've worked low pay jobs before and they've been tedious and / or hard work. Obviously there are many shockingly underpaid jobs that are really hard and stressful (carer, TA etc). But are there ones out there that are straightforward and don't take up much mental effort?

Bar work is nice. Or a bar/cafe in an independent theatre/cinema. Very low stress

Friend of mine works in sweaty Betty. Great clothes discount and easy work and most people are on an 8 hour contract, so you can usually do more if you want.

My nicest job was working in a theatre box office. I've worked in shops, bars, call centres and the best environment by far was the theatre.

Dinner Lady. Work 10 hours a week and have been at the same primary School for 10 years. One Lady has been there 35 years the others longer than me ( there's about 12 of us). No stress and fun chatting to the Children.

Clerk in a small office was my favorite minimum wage work. I did that in multiple places when I young and moving around. That would be my target if I was looking again.

Depends what you want. My job isn't minimum wage but it is quite low paid - I work in a plant nursery, and I absolutely love it. You can cancel your gym membership, and just do it for exercise. You need to be ok with getting messy, though!

Following with interest

Tourist Information Office
Walking Tour Guide
Tea/coffee person at local football/rugby club
Shop assistant in a nice shop that sells things you like (wine merchants/chocolate/toiletries/home)?
Ticket office for local attraction
Receptionist at hairdressers/beauty salon/spa/health clinic

I’m amused by the suggestions of Library Assistant being a nice easy job - I work 9 hour shifts and I literally don’t stop running around for one minute all day, and come home thinking of the 50 things that I didn’t have time for! Plus there’s always problems with anti social behaviour - relaxing it ain’t!

I also used to work in a bookshop and that was even worse - especially at Christmas! At least the library visitors are nice to you for the most part, not so in retail.

Primark, reasonably paid minimum wage, quite rigid but also very accepting of personal differences, for example, autistic, different needs, happy for you to work contracted hours, but overtime regularly available. Small discount, regularly sweets in the canteen. You have scope to make your role more interesting, or they are happy if you just turn up.

Also, no matter how busy it is, by the time I have got on the bus I have forgot it exists.

I think being a library assistant probably doesn't fit the bill for other reasons (I know it a very desirable job and not easy to walk into), but running around all day is often what people want, right? You are being gently active and getting paid for it! If that's a job to ease you into retirement, you just saved on gym membership there!

I used to work at B and Q in the garden centre bit when I was a student. It was fab, all I did was look after the plants and make the displays look nice!

This will work for extroverts. I personally would avoid all these jobs because I dislike dealing with the general public on a daily basis.

I'd like this

I'm a cannabis educator (retail) and I started at $20.00 an hour (roughly 13£).
Very low stress, never have to lift anything more than about 10 lbs, no take home work, and everyone is happy to see you!

I'm a support worker for people with lwarning disabilities/autism and it's low paid but it's so much fun.. I have to be organised, good sense of humour, kind, chatty, positive, caring but that's me so it's no effort. But basically I get paid to go to the cinema, airport, cool events, museums, adventures around cities, seaside etc.. very rewarding but I can switch off when my shift finishes.

It depends a lot on what you enjoy. I'd love to be a school receptionist, not because I think it's an easy job or stress free but I love the drama and the gossip on the phones, the angry parents etc. I really enjoy talking to people, helping them communicate and feel heard but then essentially passing the problem on to the member of staff it concerns 🤣 I've been SLT in a school where a lot of the issues were passed on to me to resolve or investigate and that's no where near as enjoyable. The idea of finding out all the drama but just emailing it off to someone else to deal with sounds wonderful 🤣

It has to be something you enjoy and are good at.

I can barely swim so I'd be no good as a life guard but I can imagine for some people it would be quite an easy job. Just count the number of people in the pool and watch out for anyone in trouble.

Someone mentioned B and Q, they have a reputation for taking on older workers so that might be an option.

When I was at uni I worked in a little boutique clothes shop. It was bliss! I would love to go back to it. I often fantasise about starting up my own.

That's funny, I always think lifeguard is a horrible job! So boring for 99% of the time, yet stressful as you need to be constantly vigilant.

In the US, substitute teaching, you go in wherever you want. And basically just sit at the teachers desk

Our local Iceland has the most chilled out vibe I've ever seen in a shop , in more ways than one.

@corlan "Library Assistant.Pay is terrible but it's generally low stress and you're providing a service people really value."

I was going to say that.
Those trolleys loaded with books can be quite heavy to push around though...

Good one. A family friend was a surgeon. She retired in her 50s and worked as an 'usherette' at a theatre. Saw loads of productions for free too.