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I think the job I have now is the easiest I've had, by far. I hoist very large pieces of raw metal stock with straps and a crane into a chuck and use a computer controlled machine to turn it down for grinding. I listen for sounds to determine proper speeds of operation, but the machine does the rest.
Most people don't feel comfortable running the equipment. If proper procedures aren't followed to a T, things can go from bad to worse before you could blink. But it's all second nature to an experienced hand. Listening and attention to detail are the most important and critical traits. If you do things properly and use common sense, there is very little to worry about at all.
While the machine runs, I have time to do CAM and CAD work on the side. I also design custom concepts and workplace solutions geared towards the "shop" environment. The only thing that is bothersome is the occasional smoke produced. Nothing I worry too much about, especially since jobs are not stable in this day and age.
I saw a job add for forklift drivers. $18/hr. I know skilled workers who would be all over that. If the job featured more free time, it wouldn't be a bad gig. Besides, driving forklifts is fun
I have a friend who sits in front of a laser all day for 19 bucks an hour. Upside is he has time to play around on his phone and computer all day. Downside is all the smoke.
Jobs of the future... Leave your work ethic at home. It is no longer necessary, and will not earn you a better standard of living.
i was once the lone security guard of a parking garage nobody used. I worked the overnight shift and slept in the janitors closet till my shift was up.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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In college I worked at a liquor store. Other than a rush as people came home from work, and on Saturday evenings, a lot of time to hang out and visit with customers, or work on my studies. Minimum wage was $1.60/hour back then (early 1970s), but I made $3 and was able to afford a 2 bedroom apartment on that.
1) I worked IT help desk, 2nd shift, for a national retailer. The reason that we HAD a second shift was because stores in Alaska and Hawaii were open until midnight my time. So a typical day was: work hard from 3-4:30pm, after which point everyone in the office leaves. We got scattered calls for the next hour or so, and then basically played computer games from 6pm-midnight because those alaska/hawaii stores were mostly autonomous and rarely required help. Paid 32k around 1997.
Even better was that I worked Sunday-Thursday, and almost no stores were open on Sunday, and nobody was in the office.
2) I worked at a GNC (the vitamin store) in a strip mall. I'm not familiar with their profit margins, but it wasn't uncommon to have 2-3 customers over a whole shift. I mostly played computer games in the back office. Paid minimum wage (I think 4.75 or 5.25 at the time) + commission, so it was more like 7/hour around 1995 ish.
I worked part time at a race track, there were 12 TV's showing horse races at different tracks from across the country and one main big screen TV that had sound. I would press one of the function keys on a keyboard to switch the video/sound feed from one of the twelve tracks to the main screen. Sometimes it be 20 minutes between races, other times several races would go off in a row. Basically I was paid $13 a hour to watch TV.
Admin Asst for an executive at a phone company. I was a temp. He traveled 4 days a week but needed someone to sit in the office in case he needed something when he traveled. After two weeks I told him I felt bad just SITTING THERE. He told the IT guys to load up the internet on my computer (this is back when it was new) and said, "Do whatever you want - your job is to be on call for me."
And so four out of five workdays I'd sit and surf the net all day, and on the fifth day I'd surf the net a few hours and do a few small tasks for him (making copies, typing letters - easy stuff). I did that gig for four months and enjoyed every easy hour of it. I ended up meeting my future husband (and current) online during this period of time in a chat room dedicated to movies, music and TV.
Once i worked for a government contractor that made software that calcuated whether or not people qualified for various social programs in the state of california. instead of the complicated math I was used to, it was basically just rules like "if lives in FREMONT and is age 55, person gets 76% SENIOR ASSISTANCE" over and over and over again 100000 times. There was very little one could do to make it automated or generalized. It paid $85 an hour but was so boring I only lasted 4 months. The office had no windows, nobody else was around and every day seemed like an eternity.
Growing something not necessarily legal everywhere, on the grove. Watching the transformation was AWESOME to say the least.
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