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?

My job as a Support Worker was to take a lady either to a:
country park
cafe
restaurant
cinema
swimming
= no stress 😁

Self employed gardener. As long as your friendly, loyal,trustworthy and know a bit about gardening they'll always be plenty of work available.

Not necessarily easy though - through winter you will be out in all weathers and most people won't want you pottering about weeding; they will want heavy landscaping or putting in hedges or whatever. I also think some areas of the country are much better for this than others (my brother is a self-employed gardener; I'm not but work with people who are).

No sorry you couldn't be more wrong.Most people like lawns cut,shrubs cut back at the right time,obviously weeding and maybe some light planting.Hard landscaping is obviously best taken on by firms.The hardest task you'll be doing is climbing the occasional ladder to trim tall hedges and climbers and the like.

Well, it's just my experience of what my brother and my friends say.

You shouldn't be cutting lawns in winter.

Plenty of freelance gardeners round my way will do landscaping (I know, because I work for a plant nursery where we do landscaping, and we often work with freelancers here).

As I say, I suspect it depends where you are in the country. Perhaps richer urban/suburban areas are more likely to see a demand for people to weed or trim hedges, and rural areas more likely to have larger properties where you're going to be doing more heavy stuff?

(I don't understand what's meant by 'light planting' but all bare root planting will be done in winter, and planting a dozen mature trees, or a a hedge, in clay soil, in the rain, is not 'light'. If you mean bulbs, yes, light in a sense, but I still think after a couple of days it feels like quite hard work.)

Light planting would be say small perrenials, annuals,small shrubs and bulbs of course.It really isn't that stressful a career if you choose the right customers..work reasonably hard and turn up on time and biuld a good relationship with said customers.

If planting trees is your choice go ahead but it's rarely taken on by male and female self employed gardeners round my way that I know of.

Garden designers work all year employing contractors so planting in winter is not really the only time it is carried out.

Why are you making it out to be so difficult..it really isn't.....

I’m under the impression that most low paid jobs are not any less stressful or any less difficult than many high paid jobs. The hardest and most stressful job I ever had was in McDonald’s as a teenager. The amount of shit you get from managers and customers is insane .

I'm not 'making it difficult'. I'm just giving my opinion of the work. As I've already said, I'm sure it varies depending where you are in the country. Where I am, which is fairly rural, there is very little gardening work to be had over winter, that isn't liable to be heavy and hard - for example, the typical winter tasks like planting bare roots or mature trees. I think those are perfectly normal jobs for freelance gardeners to take on; certainly my brother and my friends would expect to do these things. I spent all day today potting up prunus lusitanica, which we'll expect to sell hundreds of over the next few months, and many of those will be to freelance gardeners putting them in for clients.

I expect if you are somewhere more urban, you may find you can build a portfolio of clients who want you to tidy up their gardens and do lighter work. I simply pointed out it might not be possible everywhere or for everyone.

FWIW I love my job; my brother loves his; there's nothing wrong with feeling satisfied you've worked hard (even if that involves getting thoroughly knackered!). But I wouldn't personally say being a self-employed gardener is an easy job year-round. Just my sense of it.

Ok it's tough up your way but not down mine..let's agree to differ.Glad you love your job.
I'm dropping off our kid tomorrow then off to tidy up a greenhouse, wash a roller(Rolls Royce),prune some roses because the customer insists on this,blowing some leaves about and drinking tea and cake whilst chatting to a few customers at the end....then picking up the kid again ,buying some chocolate buttons and playing chess..she loves to beat me.Gardening is great to fit around the kids..its worth trying if you like gardening.