Work from home without a phone?

[SolarPoweredNightOwl]

TL;DR: If you know of any work from home jobs that don't require a college degree or use of a phone, please reply. If you know a specific job opening or a specific company, I'm glad to listen, but I'm also fishing for ideas. (For example, I didn't know that a "virtual assistant" is an actual job until I stumbled across it looking for ideas on Fiverr.)

I'm getting autistic burnout to the point of having a hard time functioning, and my mental health isn't going to take much more. For my own good, I need to quit working a conventional in-person job. Unfortunately, I still need to pay bills, and it's unlikely I'd qualify for unemployment in my state (no formal autism diagnosis and I'm not physically disabled). So, I'm aiming for work from home gigs, as a compromise.

I have speech processing issues, so phone-based jobs are a no-go (customer service, call center, etc). I've done audio transcription before, but due to the speech processing issues I averaged about $2/hr because I was so slow. I may go for customer service via IM if the pay is high enough, but my mental state is pretty bad, so I'm trying to avoid anything to do with customer interaction. (Picky, picky, I know.)

I type quickly and accurately, so I've looked a lot at data entry. I had a line on a good data entry job here in town, but failed to secure it, so I probably can't reapply til August. (I say "probably" because they do medical records, and with the pandemic, they may need more help and be willing to give me another chance sooner. I'm going to check that tomorrow.)

I'm also a good writer, and found a couple of sites for freelance writing gigs online. I'm going to work on a piece to submit for evaluation. It didn't look sufficient to pay the bills, but still worthwhile, and a potential stepping stone.

I'm open to tech jobs if the barrier to entry isn't too high (my mental state won't last long enough to get a college degree, but a lower level certification may be doable). I dabbled in web design as a teenager, and understand some basics of coding, though I don't know any current programming language. (If any of you are programmers, please tell me what language(s) are the most widely used and sought after.)

I know that my criteria block out a lot of opportunities. I'm doing the best I can with what I've got, and thought it'd be smart to ask the community for ideas--there are probably jobs I don't even know are jobs. So if you know of any, or have any leads for specific jobs, I'm all ears. (And if you know good gigs that don't fully match my criteria, it wouldn't hurt to mention, in case it's useful to someone else.) Any help or advice is much appreciated.

 

[Raggamuffin]

Have you looked if there's any apprenticeships available in areas you're interested in? Such as web design or coding or some such? Whilst studying can be testing at times - if it's backed by passion, there's a lot less risk of burning out or wanting to give up.

I've been working in jobs I have no passion or interest in for all my adult life and it runs in parallel to my ongoing depression and anxiety. Yes, you can persevere, but I'm also looking to moving into a career I have a passion for.

Ed

 

[LucyPurrs]

In order to get more helpful replies it would be useful for you to say what state you live in, whether you have a driver's license and whether you are willing to do a job involving physical labor. Also useful would be to say what kind of job you currently have that's burning you out, and any more information re your special job needs like limitations besides the speech processing issue.

Found this on the web:

Employment categories currently seeing a surge in hiring include grocery stores, food delivery services, package delivery drivers, freight trucking, cleaning services, call centers, e-commerce warehouses and logistics, nursing homes, manufacturers of popular shelf-stable food products, pharmacies and security services.

 

[Mary Terry]

Law firms sometimes hire people to type legal briefs or to summarize deposition transcripts. The briefs have to be formatted in a particular manner, dictated by state or federal rules of court. Solo practitioners and small law firms are more likely to hire someone to do this than large firms with multiple on-site paralegals.

 

[SolarPoweredNightOwl]

In order to get more helpful replies it would be useful for you to say what state you live in, whether you have a driver's license and whether you are willing to do a job involving physical labor. Also useful would be to say what kind of job you currently have that's burning you out, and any more information re your special job needs like limitations besides the speech processing issue.

I'm in Missouri, working restaurant industry, no driver's license currently. Biggest contributors to burnout are masking, multi-tasking, irregular schedules and hours, chaotic and noisy environment, and sometimes being forced to work front of house (more intense masking, more intense multi-tasking). Steady schedule isn't viable at that job, and coronavirus has reduced us to skeleton crew, hence me being forced into front of house duty.

Side note--coronavirus has decimated restaurant industry, and it's questionable if my place of employment will survive. My city recently got its shutdown order, so I immediately applied to stock grocery shelves, to make sure I have at least some income. (Restaurants may get shut down altogether, but grocery will always stay classified as essential--too many people can't afford to buy a month's groceries for total lockdown, so they have to let stores stay open. Plus, as you said, grocery is hiring a lot, so I have a good chance.) I'm still waiting to hear back, but if/when I get a stocking job, I'll transition immediately, to secure my finances and to move to a (presumably) less stressful job. Stocking won't be adequate (everything's part time, too few hours, and many positions are temporary to boot), but it's better than being out of work.

Have you looked if there's any apprenticeships available in areas you're interested in? Such as web design or coding or some such? Whilst studying can be testing at times - if it's backed by passion, there's a lot less risk of burning out or wanting to give up.

I'm going to talk to a few programmer friends in Silicon Valley about tech jobs--it's not my passion, but it'd be an improvement. I'm not going to make it another year or two to try for a college degree before I have a mental breakdown, but studying to do web design or learning a simpler programming language may be viable, if they know of any lower skill coding jobs.

@MaryTerry Thanks for the heads up on legal briefs. I could certainly do a typist job. I might even manage transcribing dictation if the audio is clear and I have a list of jargon to reference. (I worked for Rev before, but the audio we processed there was a crapshoot--accents, bad quality, arcane jargon, sometimes foreign speakers would randomly mix languages mid-sentence.)

 

[Bolletje]

Data entry might be good

 

[Sfgirlred]

I worked for rev before. Would not recommend. Audio is TERRIBLE quality and they penalize the crap out of you right out of the gate, before you even know what you're doing.

 

[Crossbreed]

Delivering advertiser newspapers...? I did that for 13.5 years until they discontinued coverage in our area.

 

[Aspychata]

We have giant call centers but l don't want to do that. Hearing 5000 voices may not be a good thing for me especially if l start to focus on all the conversations.

 

[SolarPoweredNightOwl]

I worked for rev before. Would not recommend. Audio is TERRIBLE quality and they penalize the crap out of you right out of the gate, before you even know what you're doing.

Did it years ago when I was desperate, ditched it as soon as I landed a regular job. I'd recommend it, but only for people with no speech processing issues and no other income. The company itself isn't bad, but the audio sucks, and captioning small print on low-res videos ruins the eyes.

Data entry might be good

I've been mostly trying to find data entry. Unfortunately many of them also want audio transcription, or try to shoehorn customer service into the job, or both. I did recently try for a good data entry job in town, but I failed the assessment. (My regular typing is excellent, but they also require 10-key and I'd never done 10-key in my life.) I'm currently waiting out the 6 month period to reapply--in the meanwhile I practice 10-key daily, and can now exceed the minimum requirement. So, at least next time I'll land it, if it's still open.

 

[Aspychata]

10 key is pretty easy. It's just relaxing and you will get it fast.