People all across the world go to work every day and put their best foot forward. They work hard, they work efficiently, and they get paid what they’re due for said work. Most of the time, anyway.
But, is there an easier way to do it all and still get by?
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A Reddit post asked for low-effort jobs with high salaries, and the answers given might make you rethink whatever career path you’re on right now.
Just stopping by.
“Owning a parking lot.”
Another user elaborated on this answer, “Yeah my mom owned her work building with an empty side lot. Then a microbrewery opened across the street. She had a parking company install meters for after hours and she got a cut. Like $2k to $3k a month.”
The art of delegation.
“I.T. Manager at a university. The techs know their jobs, their users, and manage their own schedules and workloads among themselves. Managers basically just have to rubber-stamp timecards, confirm parts orders, and make sure the techs don’t all take vacations at the same time.”
The waiting game… er, job.
“My next door neighbour works in a power station. His job is to sit in front of a monitor and make sure everything is working well. If something goes wrong, he calls the appropriate work station and they fix the problem. Because an alarm sounds if something is out of sync (which rarely happens) he is able to play games or read a book 99% of the time. He is on $150 per hour to basically play games and chill at work.”
Closed captioning is brought to you by…
“As a closed captioner broadcaster for the News, I work from home. I set my own hours and earn anything from $50 to $70 per hour, depending on the assignment. It takes a lot of money to get started, but the payoff is well worth it.”
Move up in the ranks.
“Call Center management. Not even something high up like operations or quality assurance, even being middle management can be lucrative. […] Last call center job I worked, I got promoted to management just due to how long I had been there. After the promotion, I was paid 50K per year to sit at home, listen to people do their job, fill out paperwork and have the occasional web meeting. I spent more time playing video games and working out than anything else while on the clock.”
Sweeping spirits.
“Housekeeper for the dead. I cleaned mausoleums and was paid $200/day (in 2002 so good money) working about 2 1/2 hours a day on average; and some days as little as 45 minutes. […] This is how I worked my way through college.”
A job some people would outright refuse, that’s not an environment everyone can handle!
Loads of free time.
“I have some relatives that work for the (US) Federal Government that often talk about jobs where they work in areas like Accounting and Project Management that make over $100,000 and might on a busy day have as much as two hours of actual work. My Aunt was talking about this one older women near retirement that made over $120,000 a year and her only job was running some transactions every morning, which usually took no more than 20 minutes, then she would spend the rest of the day knitting at her desk.”
High risk…
“In Australia ‘lollipop ladies’ can earn up to $3k per week for flipping a slow/stop sign for traffic at road side construction site and just generally existing as eye candy. The boredom, overtime and risk of death/injury kind of makes up for it.”
A warning to heed.
“I got paid $28 an hour working as an administrative assistant in a high school. It takes like 15 minutes to input grades and send truancy letters. Answering phone calls always resorts to just transferring them to the Principal or school nurse. Literally nothing to do. […] honestly, the environment was toxic. When you have that much free time at work, people want to start talking about their personal lives and I don’t like to talk about mine to my toxic co-workers. So I left. This job was the definition of money doesn’t buy happiness.”
Finding the right people.
“Staffing and recruiting but SPECIFICALLY on the business development or sales side of things. […] They call me up and say hey we need a Quality Manager ASAP! I say cool! What does it pay and what are the top 3 things you need to see on a resume! I get that and then give it to recruiters who spend a week or two finding the right person and walking them through the hiring process. I spend 15 minutes on the phone and a month later I get a fat comission check.”
Some basic requirements.
“Business Intelligence/ Data analyst. Do you know how to use excel, can you write basically sql, are you able to express yourself clearly and deal with getting variations of the same 10 questions for the rest of your career? Congrats welcome to making 100k.”
Rinse and repeat.
“Driving the massive dump trucks that serve mines. Starting salary is like 70k and all you do is drive back and forth all day.”
Another tradeoff seeing as large trucks are dangerous to drive, but if you’re willing, the money’s there!
The price of little work.
“Fractionation Operator. Only HS degree. I have made over 6 figures the last 3 years. I have subscriptions to every streaming service bc basically all I do at work is watch series and movies. Especially on midnights. Sometimes we get busy but for the most part it’s super boring […] its just browsing the internet and watching Netflix.”
Few passengers.
“I work at a heliport where I just get a couple passengers bags, put them on the heli and then go and sit on my phone for however many hours until the heli gets back. Rinse and repeat. Roughly $70k.”
I forgot people genuinely travel by helicopter, so I never would have thought this role existed in the first place.
Just have to look nice.
“When I was backpacking I signed up to a temp agency in Sydney who would hire ‘well presented’ front of house staff for corporate firms who liked to have a pretty, young, well-dressed thing manning the reception desk whilst their clients came. I often got paid $30-40 an hour to welcome clients, show them to their meeting room, pour some water and order their catering. And that’s all I did. […] I made enough money doing this to backpack through the entire East Coast of Australia over 3 months.”
Lay back and relax.
“I worked as a massage ‘model’ at a massage school. My job was to lay there and be massaged for a few hours while the students did their lessons or took their exams. It was £30 an hour which isn’t loads, but better than the £10 an hour office job I had before.”
Though they did clarify this was casual and not full time, it still sounds pretty sweet.
Talk about iconic.
“Vanna White’s job on Wheel of Fortune. She gets paid $4 million a year walking back and forth in an area of 20 feet.”
As someone reminded the original commenter, “Hey she used to have to physically turn the tiles over… she paid her dues.”
Minor movements.
“My job. The bulk of my job is essentially helping ICU nurses get through annual basic life support. Now that it’s all on computerized dummies, I basically just click the link for them, adjust hand position now and then and sit back. I watched Jurassic Park today because everyone is up to date. I make $120k.”
Vacation pay.
“Tour guiding. I’m a water tour guide in Hawaii. I make 4 times what the average person my age makes. Half the time I’m chilling in the water or on the boat, the other half I’m a lifeguard, information dude, and boat flight attendant lol. Thank you tourists!!”
Sounds like a lot of jobs in one actually, but as long as you’re having fun!
Keeping an eye out.
“Overnight security. Just sit there for 8 hours watching cameras and calling the police if something happens.”
Sounds nice when you put it like that, but the thought of needing to call the police at all is nerve-wracking for some.
