What sort of job should I get?

I want a new job. I have two part-time jobs currently. I want to leave one of them and stay at the other so I want one new part-time job. I would like a part-time job that pays $20 (I'll take less, but while we're brainstorming I thought I'll throw it out to the universe) and is about 20 hrs a week. I like working with people, particularly children. I've worked with children, disabled people, and seniors before and I'm generally pretty good at it. I don't want too much paperwork, anyone have any ideas? I'm open to out of the box suggestions.

What type of education/training/skills do you have? Would you consider becoming a PSW? Do you have the means to do an upgrading course if necessary? I have no idea what pay-scales are like in the US, I'm not even sure you live in the US, but I know most jobs in Ontario that pay 20$ require a diploma of some sort. Although there are some factory/manufacturing jobs that pay quite well. They tend to be very monotonous though.

I'm not sure what a PSW is. I don't want to go to be too specific about my education because it may impact how others interact with me, but I have a Master's degree but it is not in something that automatically is lucrative. There aren't many factory jobs around where I live, but I'd have to have coworkers I really loved to be able to find a factory job satisfying. I could do something that provides a service but I'm a little to reserved to be a big self promoter. I've thought of going back to school to get an RN but I'm intimidated about taking out more student loans.

PSW is a personal support worker. Helping people with the activities of daily living. I couldn't do the factory thing either. You could probably be come a practical nurse without too many student loans and then bridge to an RN after working a while. Just a thought.

Nurses make good money. I'd say a CNA, but the pay is not good and the work is very taxing and hard. I did that for 6 months and it killed my back lifting those patients up in the nursing home. I don't know what kinds of jobs pay $20, but healthcare is always a good route to go. What about a managerial job? If you have a masters, they might look at you. I'm not sure how much they pay, but places like restaurants are almost always looking for manager trainees and such. I'm not much help, but I thought I'd just throw those out there.

I appreciate all the ideas. I actually did a job very similiar to a PSW for adults with developmental disabilities but they called me a companion. I could go the LVN route for nursing. There is a program at one of the local JCs for people who already have a BA/BS but want to go into nursing. You take all the classes you need for nursing and transfer your other credits over and get your nursing degree. I've thought of a manager job. I'm pretty good at inspiring people to rise to their potential but I don't have a whole lot of experience. I was looking at maybe some HR jobs. Yesterday was a bit traumatic at work. I'll write about it later, but for now I'm just focusing on getting things done. When I stop and think about it I get a little teary.

I'm sorry you had a traumatic day at work. I hope things get better.

Bad work days suck. I have those anytime my manager is in spitting distance

I hope tomorrow is better for you.

Phlebotomy might be interesting, or, and I can't believe I didn't mention it before, radiologic technology. Here it's a three year program, but I believe in the States there are radiologic assistant or limited practice positions that might be easier to manage while still working. I love it.

You can go to a community college and get a radiologic tech, ultrasound tech, or phlebotomy degree in two years. Might be a little easier than nursing, and the pay isn't bad. Hospitals are almost always looking for those positions to fill.

Our phlebotomists at the hospital make between 17-21$/hr I think, as a rad tech I make 32$ (being part time I also get 12% in lieu of benefits, and 6% vacation so I actually make closer to 40$/hr) U/S techs make a bit more, but often suffer more shoulder and wrist injuries.

For us, phlebotomists only draw the blood so the course is only 16 weeks or something like that. The lab techs that run all the testing have longer at school and get paid what I do.

I've thought of being a phlebotomist. I like puncturing things. I'll look into it some more.

My company is being audited. I was never trained on how to do some of the paperwork and was just told to copy some of the other paperwork. I transfered from another one of the companies offices that doesn't have to abide my the same standards. Turns out some of the stuff I was copying was wrong so I had to re-do lots. I got all caught up though, at least I thought. Our QI person went through some paperwork that I had approved and signed off on and decided she thought it should be done differently. Fine. Whatever. I'll do it. I come in on Wednesday. It's Halloween. We had a lunch time party. I didn't want to go. I had some work to do for my other job and thought I'd do that as well as re-do that other paperwork, but I didn't want to be rude. Our receptionist goes to lots of trouble for these things so I went. I won most clever costume (I wore a pumpkin colored shirt with the pi symbol, it was more lazy than clever, but whatever). Then the big boss (my bosses boss) says he's going to give out Target cards to everyone who has their paperwork perfect. I knew I wasn't going to get one. That's okay, I'm a big girl. He walks around the room and hands one out to everyone (I thought, oh, this is a little embarrassing, but oh well), then he comes to me, and he proceeded to shame me in front of the whole groups for 2 minutes. I should have known better, what have I been doing? Don't I take this seriously? He then says that there are 3 others who aren't caught up (lucky them they didn't come). It was awkward. I know my face was bright red from anger, but mostly embarrassment. The QI person ended up leaving because she was upset and felt it was inappropriate. 3 other people come up to me and tell me how inappropriate my boss was. I didn't want to cause more drama, so I just said it was an uncomfortable experience for me. I wanted to cry, but I had work to do so just did some deep breathing and tried to move on. My boss then comes to my door, says, something about how he didn't mean to be rude BUT... and then proceeds to tell me what a loser I am. That was enough. I was thinking of a million snarky things to say, but I kept thinking "I need this job," to get him to stop I finally said, "We have two very different communication styles." It was the only thing I could think to say that wasn't passive aggressive or just flat out aggressive.
If I didn't care, if I hadn't tried to fix things, then I wouldn't be too upset, but I've really worked very hard. Much of my time has been uncompensated. This is my sign to make an exit, but I can't go without another job. So I'll keep looking and try to keep my head down.
This summer I took a leave of absences for depression. I feel ever since that this supervisor has been treating me like I'm not really part of the work force. In terms of billing I'm one of the top nonsalaried employees. The client's like me. I've given my time to help new employees. I just think it's time to look for something else.

carebirdy,
I'm so sorry that happened. How inappropriate of the management at your company to act that way! It sounds like they were incredibly unprofessional and unkind as well. I wish you well in finding a more compassionate work environment. You obviously have some skills (i.e., being a good writer) that would serve you well in many different fields. With time, maybe you can find something that feels less stressful and like a better fit.

Take care,
garden gal

p.s. Your Halloween costume sounds fabulous!

Thanks for the words of encouragement. In many ways I very badly wanted this job to work. It's very close to my home and some of my coworkers are very nice. I've always been treated like I'm disposable, though. This is true for several of the employees. When I took leave another woman took leave for cancer. She also feels she hasn't been treated well since her return. The compensation and hours have always been an issue so it's time to see what else is around.

It really doesn't sound like they value you and that's a shame. Your description of what happened is atrocious. . . bad grammar sorry, the atrocity is not your description but the event. My brain is a bit scattered.

If you like people, and people like you, x-ray or u/s might be perfect for you. I don't spend all that long with most of my patients, but long enough that you get some really interesting life stories. Some patients become "regulars" which means you get to know them better. Phlebotomy doesn't always give you that time. It's perfect for me because I like technology (the x-ray machine) and people, so it's a balance of both. It also matches my attention span. I never know what's coming though that door other than I will be applying radiation to a body part. Techs are all a little twisted in that we really like it when the knee is pointing a different direction than the toes, unfortunately what we think is cool means someone is having a really bad day.

It sounds crazy, but the best part of my job is giving a patient a blanket out of the warmer. It's so simple, takes 10 seconds, and is so appreciated by the recipient. I've never not gotten a thank you for that simple act. I love it. Makes me and the other person feel good.

I hope you find something where they value your contribution more than your current situation does now.

Could you run a day care out of your home? That's the first thing that popped into my head based on your criteria.

That's an interesting idea. I'll have to think that one over. I did post a profile on a nanny website to see if anyone is interested in a live-out nanny.