Slacker Jobs for Writers

Best job I ever had was as a tutor at my university. The university itself set up the tutoring program, and allocated a whole floor of the library for tutors to be available in all day long. So, you'd sign up to tutor for certain hours, and then you'd go there, pick out a table, and wait for a student who needed you. And while waiting, you could do whatever the hell you wanted--even go online. Math tutors got a lot of traffic, but other courses? I could go a week getting paid to just sit there without tutoring a single student. It was fantastic. Unfortunately, it's probably not the kind of job you can get if you're not currently a student, or perhaps if you were a prior student there, but still, if anyone ever gets an opportunity for a job like that, take it. Most amazing slacker job EVER.

Don't know what would be a good slacker job that's more widley available, though...cashiering can be good sometimes, but it's a bit hit or miss. I work in a Barnes & Noble, and if I'm at the front registers, there's a pretty steady stream of people once things get going. But if I'm at the back, then on a quiet day, I can go twenty minutes at a time without having to do anything. Alas, I don't control where I get placed. XD

How about a belly button delinter or sweater defuzzer? Sorry, just kidding.

I really liked temping because most often you were stuck in front of a computer all day long with not much to do. Great incentive to write, and not too horrible pay. Also you don't need to worry about office politics or making friends. It was in fact because I was temping and had all that free time that I wrote my novel. So I would highly recommend it.

My biggest slacker job was probably Weekday Fitting-Room Girl at a second-rate department store. Sometimes it would get kind of hectic, but mostly the clientele consisted of a few retirees and the occasional mother-with-toddler. I counted items and handed out tags with numbers on them. When people brought the clothes back out, I counted them again and put them on racks. It was kind of like that movie, Shopgirl, only far less glamorous. And without Steve Martin.

I had a fair amount of time to write. I would carry around a little notepad and a pen. It was nice, because most of the people who have those kinds of jobs don't care too much about them, so no one ever bothered me about it. Not very much was expected of me. If I got bored, sometimes I would organize shelves in the general vicinity of the fitting-rooms. For me, organizing things is very conducive to thinking. Mornings were best. Hardly anyone came in at all in the mornings. The pay was pretty bad, though. I know you said that wasn't an issue, but let me modify what I just said. The pay was terrible.

Night time security work is excellent. 12 straight hours of reading, writing and you have to keep alert and aware (the once hourly patrol is good for that). I wrote a fair chunk of my last novel on a building site, sitting in half finished luxury apartments, surrounded by coffee and sweets from the 7-11 over the road. One of the buildings was terrifying though - had to patrol the semi-finished underground parkade which went down about 6 floors and was seriously eerie. If you're writing a horror novel, that would be great...

Librarianship can be a bit of a doddle too at times.

May I suggest your local state government, preferably in one of those obscure departments that no one even knows exists.

i disliked temping immensely, but i always ended up doing light warehouse on account of my big, ugly maleness.

i never got into the security game because i never really lived in the kind of places where that gig is safe.

i also didn't much care for the bookstore thing when they told me if they caught me reading whilst waiting for a customer one more time, they'd fire me... imagine, working at a bookstore on a slow day and not being allowed to read the books!

Hm, cafes were fine, as long as one avoids Starbucks. All that canned cheerfulness in one place is not good for your writer angst.

I think the best slacker jobs require a bit of work in the beginning. You see, people with very specialized, but valuable skills only have to work a little bit to get paid lots of money. So, go to school, get that specialized certification and huddle in your cubicle with this position that's hard to replace on account of all the hoops involved.

Inbound call center work. And the pay's often decent, with good benefits. I actually wrote a novel on a PDA between calls. Sometimes you can also get graveyard positions, which are quite often VERY slow.

Just depends on what you were taking calls FOR. Certain types of call centers are better than others.

Note: your tolerance for both abuse from customers and for office politics/managerial nonsense has to be very, very high. Think Dilbert.

Inbound call center work. And the pay's often decent, with good benefits. I actually wrote a novel on a PDA between calls.

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Oh God, no. I worked in a call centre for a major taxi company for about 2 weeks and it was hell. I didn't have a moment to breath between calls, never mind write. We were based in Edinburgh, booking taxis for people in London too which didn't help - little old ladies would call up who'd get the same taxi driver every week, taking them to the same hairdressers and they could never understand that the person taking the call coudn't do anything with the hairdressers in Ilford, love, the one I go to every week...it's just round the corner from Sainbury's. Utterly frustrating for both parties.

Although not as bad as the rushed business customers who were frequently told Euston station didn't exist because the person taking the call was typing in Houston, and a million more daft things like that.

Utter, unmittigated, hell

try the post office

If you're young and want free time to write, I imagine you can pick a 20-hour shift somewhere. You can do that in the UK and make enough to live on, plus there's alway overtime if you need a little extra that week.

I wonder if the city has an openings for a bridge tender?

alleycat said:

May I suggest your local state government, preferably in one of those obscure departments that no one even knows exists.

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SSSShhhhhh!!!

Geez . . .word gets out, and people will talk !

Substitute teacher. Middle school, NOT elementary. I have five classes a day most days, all the same lesson over and over. Usually busy work. Then I have at least a lunch and a planning period (unless they need me to cover during that period, but doesn't happen that often) to myself. 84 minutes all for me. Plus many assignments have two planning period, or a duty period - hall or lav monitor is another 42 minutes to read or write.

Check around to the districts, the pay will vary. Advantage - if you don't want to work a day - you're unavailable.

It's kind of hit or miss though - not every day, and then sometimes many days. If you do more than one district you'll work more, obviously, but you can pick a day off if you want. No weekends, no holidays, and summers off, but you may want to find something for those three dry months. Also none of the 'extra' crap teachers have to deal with - no parents, no grading, no lesson plans.

Actually I know quite a few writers who are subs. Must be something to it.

When I was a college student, I had all manner of slacker jobs: writing tutor, research assistant, teaching assistant. Then when I graduated, I kept working at the university as an administrative assistant, which also was a big slacker job. I suggest trying to find office work at your local university. Things should be pretty slow. I stopped working there b/c although there wasn't a lot of work, I got very involved in gossip and socializing w/the other staff members, which led to trouble. Now I'm a desperate housewife.

britwrit said:

If you're young and want free time to write, I imagine you can pick a 20-hour shift somewhere. You can do that in the UK and make enough to live on, plus there's alway overtime if you need a little extra that week.

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This is something that a lot of folks in other companies don't realize about the US -- it's not possible to live on a part time job here in most communities. It's not even possible to have a decent standard of living with one full time average job (40 hours/week). It takes at least two people working average full time jobs, plus likely some overtime (which pays 1 1/2 times your regular pay) or maybe a side job to afford an okay one bedroom apartment. That's not a "nice" apartment -- that's an "okay" one -- the sort that isn't a crack house.

Most single people here in the US work either two jobs, one job with overtime, have help from their parents, live with their parents, or have multiple roommates and rent a house. Or they live in really crappy housing -- the sort where your roommates have six legs and you don't have to get out of bed to fix breakfast because you can reach the stove from the bed.

We also get less vacation -- average in the US is less than two weeks. I had one job where I had five days of time off allowed per year, including sick leave. If you used your time off because you were sick, you were allowed no vacation.

I own my own house and I have a decent job. However, after "buying" the house (with mortgage), in order to make ends meet, I had to work 70-80 hours a week for five years, sell stuff at a swap meet on weekends (live chickens, used books, etc.) for a small profit, buy no new clothes unless they were on sale, (Goodwill was my mall), and eat ramen noodles by the case. When a major appliance would break, I would buy a used replacement.

When I got pneumonia, even WITH insurance, my copays for doctor visits, x-rays, medication, etc., exceeded my mortgage for that month.

My house? Cost HALF the average for this state. It's a small mobile home on land fifteen miles from the nearest town. (Buying it also proved to be smart; I have friends who are trying to find a decent apartment right now and studio apartments now cost more than my mortgage per month.)

And my job is not a bad one at all -- I was making three times minimum wage per hour when I bought my house, and more, now.

(I do not know how people making minimum wage survive!)


Just thought I'd throw this out as a perspective from the other side of the pond ...

I work in a used bookstore, and it's not really a slacker job, but it's pounds of fun.

I've never had a 'slacker,' job, though I've wanted one on occasion. Even when I have jobs that I could get away with slacking in, I still work as hard as I can. I have too much work ethic to just schlep off.

(that said, I've always wanted one of those jobs where I can read, and write, and stuff on the clock. I do both at the bookstore, when I'm not otherwise busy having a work ethic. And I drink a silly amount of tea.)

My son is working the night shift for a security company. Not patrolling hallways, but manning their control centre. He has to be available when an alarm goes off in a business they service, to decide whether to phone the police, the fire department, the owner... Not much happens. He just has to be there. The absolute perfect job for reading and writing because it is his presence and availability that is required. He isn't expected to be doing anything most of the time. Of course, there is the nasty little inconvenience of being up all night. The day shifts are nowhere near as tranquil.

Leva said:

This is something that a lot of folks in other companies don't realize about the US -- it's not possible to live on a part time job here in most communities. It's not even possible to have a decent standard of living with one full time average job (40 hours/week).

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This is absolutely true. I work two part-time jobs right now, and the only way I can manage it is by living with my mom. And even then, I'm only just holding my ground--my bills and my earnings just about break even. A friend of mine is splitting an apartment with someone, and he's got three part-time jobs and is looking for another one. In the US, you generally just can't live on that kind of money. It's why so many fresh college graduates find themselves moving back into their parents houses--it's nigh impossible to get a foothold in the real world with the kind of wages you start out with.

Also, one of the delightful things about working part-time jobs is even if you're working more than 40 hours a week, you're not working that much per job, so no benefits for you!

I do that too.

Tallymark said:

This is absolutely true. I work two part-time jobs right now, and the only way I can manage it is by living with my mom. And even then, I'm only just holding my ground--my bills and my earnings just about break even. A friend of mine is splitting an apartment with someone, and he's got three part-time jobs and is looking for another one. In the US, you generally just can't live on that kind of money. It's why so many fresh college graduates find themselves moving back into their parents houses--it's nigh impossible to get a foothold in the real world with the kind of wages you start out with.

Also, one of the delightful things about working part-time jobs is even if you're working more than 40 hours a week, you're not working that much per job, so no benefits for you!

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Quoted for truthness. It's why I tell kids to A) Stay in damn college! and B) Don't expect a wheelbarrow of money when you get out of college.

I know a girl who has her Masters in Cultural Anthropology. I know her because we both worked at a Wal-Mart. She ws confused and perplexed when she started, because she'd put in a lot of years at school to wind up lugging boxes at Wal-Mart. I felt bad for her. There is truth in the adage "A college degree and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee."

The first thing my wife and I did when we were married was to backslide uncontrollably into debt, debt, debt. We weren't blowing money everywhere, we don't live wild lives (I mostly sit at home and write, when I have the time) and yet, there are more bills than money. And god forbid you should have to go to the doctor. (I'm still paying for one measley visit to get Pluresey, however it's spelled, treated almost five months ago. It's starting to reappear, and I have no idew what I'll do about it.)

So the long point of it is, get a job, get a job you can stand...but make sure you get a job that nets some money, because even if you don't need it now, you're going to need it eventually. And if the money isn't there, the bill still is. Make sure you're ready to meet it. Otherwise, your writing time will vanish faster than if you hadn't gotten a slacker job in the first place.

I used to work in the word processing department of a law firm, preparing court pleadings and correspondence. It sounds intense but after I knew what I was doing it was easy. On slow days, I'd have hours and hours to write. And since my job was word processing, no one thought it was unusual that I typed a lot and printed hundreds of pages and mailed large documents.

PeeDee said:

So the long point of it is, get a job, get a job you can stand...but make sure you get a job that nets some money, because even if you don't need it now, you're going to need it eventually. And if the money isn't there, the bill still is.

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Which is why (and it pains me to say this) my parents were probably right when they told me "Forget about studying what you love in college. Go for the money. You can always do what you love on the side."

Yeah, I know that's not a popular viewpoint, and yes it does cost something in terms of inner happiness (I guess). But it's much easier to write what you want if you're not worrying about whether you can pay the light bill, even if getting there requires working more hours than you want or doing a job that falls short of your ideal. If you're going to work tons of hours anyway, you might as well make it pay.

MeowGirl said:

Which is why (and it pains me to say this) my parents were probably right when they told me "Forget about studying what you love in college. Go for the money. You can always do what you love on the side."
Yeah, I know that's not a popular viewpoint, and yes it does cost something in terms of inner happiness (I guess). But it's much easier to write what you want if you're not worrying about whether you can pay the light bill, even if getting there requires working more hours than you want or doing a job that falls short of your ideal. If you're going to work tons of hours anyway, you might as well make it pay.

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Oddly enough, my parents never told me this. They told me to study what I enjoy. Darn you, O Supportive Parents! Gah!

But I agree with the viewpoint, unpopular though it may be. If you go to college for a useful skill and get a high-paying job, then you have money to fall back on (which can eliminate a lot of financial stress that clogs up those writing bits in your head) and you may wind up doing something fun...and what the hell, you'll be able to take time off and vacations withoutgoing bankrupt, and then you can get your writing done.

And even if you don't, you're going to be working a crapload of jobs anyway to make ends meet and your writing is STILL going to be shunted to a few hours here and there, so why not get paid for your lost time?

PeeDee said:

And even if you don't, you're going to be working a crapload of jobs anyway to make ends meet and your writing is STILL going to be shunted to a few hours here and there, so why not get paid for your lost time?

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Yep yep yep. It didn't take much encouragement from my parents, though. They know that I really like and appreciate money (I know, people say "who doesn't?" but then their choices seem to reflect otherwise) and am willing to put up with a lot to get it, invest it, and ultimately use it for other life goals. Money's the most versatile tool on the planet, IMO.