Employment

[ozikiwi]

Does anyone have any good ideas or experience re working from home? Thanks.

 

[minkeygirl]

I just heard about something called user testing dot com

It's not full time income but its money. I don't think I can do it because it requires too much talking which is a problem for me right now. But when that changes I will.

Google it though. It got some good reviews.

 

[SOC]

Does anyone have any good ideas or experience re working from home? Thanks.

One thing to think about is whether you feel you can meet the time requirements and responsibilities of the job. Just because it's at home doesn't mean it isn't demanding or stressful.

I have been tutoring for most of the time I've been ill. It's much less demanding than my profession (engineering research and teaching), but it was still difficult at times. There were days when I woke up in the morning feeling horrible -- barely able to sit upright or think straight. The last thing I wanted to do was get out of bed, get dressed, and tutor for a few hours. Occasionally I had to call my clients and cancel, which made me feel guilty even though I told them before we started that this could be an issue. Less understanding clients could have been a problem for my health.

If you feel that you have the physical and mental ability to work at home, and that job is flexible enough to accommodate your health issues, work can be a huge help in life. Earning money is always good, especially with this expensive illness. Having contact with the outside world and doing something productive can save your sanity (mine, anyway )

 

[ozikiwi]

Thank you both SOC and Minkey for your input.......most valuable!

 

[SickOfSickness]

It is hard to make much, unless you have some skill (and are cognitively able to do it for hours) or artistic talent, or have a healthy partner you work with. So first think of any possible skills or talents you can use, or maybe learn.

If you are ok with low paying (and able to), there are many companies with phone jobs, or maybe typing jobs.

There are writing jobs for every skill level, but the good money is for the ones with skill.

There is competition for the work at home jobs even the low paying ones, and competition for selling most arts and crafts

 

[ozikiwi]

Thanks SOS.......I hear ya!

 

[Iquitos]

I work online from home as a freelance proofreader for court reporters. I fell into it serendipitously after giving up trying to find any work from home that I could handle. The organization I work for occasionally needs more proofreaders and will train the right person. If you are very good with American English and don't have too much brain fog, pm me for more information.

 

[Artstu]

especially with this expensive illness.

In what way? my illness costs me nothing other than lost income and of course all the associated losses in life that have no monetary value.

 

[SOC]

In what way? my illness costs me nothing other than lost income and of course all the associated losses in life that have no monetary value.

Well, yeah, loss of income is a major financial issue for most of us. Those of us with recurrent infections need antivirals and antibiotics. Lots of testing is necessary to properly diagnose CCC- and ICC-defined ME/CFS. Then there's treament for low blood volume, hypothyroid, and other neuroendocrine symptoms. Most of us also have sleep dysfunction which requires medication. People with gut issues have a number of expensive treatments. Appropriate medical supervision for all these things also costs money.

This may not apply to you since you are in the UK which has national healthcare (unlike the US). Also, iirc, you have treated your ME/CFS with exercise, which is not an option for the vast majority of CCC- and ICC-defined ME/CFS patients, partly because exercise is not safe for people with PEM/PENE, and partly because exercise does not treat infections and neuroendocrine symptoms.

 

[SickOfSickness]

In what way? my illness costs me nothing other than lost income and of course all the associated losses in life that have no monetary value.

To add to what SOC said, many patients travel hundreds or thousands of miles for medical care.

Many also take at least 10 supplements. Some eat more expensive food such as all-organic.

Many need to hire cleaning help, pay for grocery delivery, etc.

Some of us have scooters, wheelchairs, IR saunas, oxygen concentrators, etc.

Not to mention the severely affected patients.

 

[Artstu]

I wonder if the difference in ability to exercise is related to the trigger of the illness,in my case stressful events made me ill. Whilst I still maintain that exercise is not a cure it has in my case had a very positive effect on my health.

OP sorry for being off topic, although if I were to have to use my limited energy working instead of exercising my health would suffer as a result.

 

[taniaaust1]

I was trying to look into things I could do from home not too long ago and came across working for the businesses who look after peoples dogs while they are on holiday etc (pet sitting agencies).

These people pay other people to take care of a dog or dogs in your own home for weekends or longer. The dogs food etc is supplied and you are paid just to have them in your home/backyard (many of the pet sitting businesses will tell you dont have to declare this and will say to count it as a "hobbie" to get away with that.

Im in Australia and people are being paid $80-90 a week to look after one dog (the dogs are brought to you and picked up too, depending on agency.. so no travelling required).. the price goes up with each other dog you have eg $130 per week to look after two dogs (as I said their food and equipement is supplied so you dont have to pay out a thing). They do like it thou if you can exercise them once a day thou if you like me and in a wheelchair at times this still can be done by throwing a ball and getting them to chase in a big backyard or by having your name down to only have elderly, small dogs who dont require being exercised (thou if you do that you probably wont get asked to host one often).

With this you get to choose which kind of dogs to take on and many agencies will have the owner go to your home and to do a meet and greet with you first to make sure you and the dog feel okay with each other.
.....

umm I wonder how the above would work with cats, thou with those I'd expect the only time one may be really called upon would be holiday periods (I get noise intollerence so dogs can be an issue for me). One would have to be super careful with that it didnt excape but I know some people may prefer placing their cat in someones private home to have a house to run around in when they go for holidays rather then sending it to a catery. Cats would be super easy to look after as long as they didnt get away.. one would need to shut them in a room before opening any outside doors to make sure..
.............

I currently have a future idea in mind for myself .. I got to experiement with this to see how they would work but I want to make pond gardens in a nice buckets and sell them as a garden display thing (thou that would be more just a xmas time thing, I could maybe even throw in a couple of tabpoles or frogs if they wanted to put it into the ground and make sure it was topped up).
......

One thing I used to do, not very seriously but enough to get me some pocket money was I used to grow herbs and veg and sell them to neighbours etc (the neighbours would actually come over and ask if I had stuff so I didnt have to go around the neighbourhood). Ive thought about doing that where I are now but I cant currently keep up with my garden which is a shockening mess. But growing veg can be easy to do if you set up automatic watering, if you can keep up with the weeding (and of cause it can save a lot of money on the grocery bill too).

 

[Seven7]

Just An Idea, My sister pays in a group to learn english some lady in Canada.

Maybe you can set up something where you go to sites people wanting to learn english and offer class per the hour! Or any other (legal) ability you have that you can offer.

 

[*GG*]

Just An Idea, My sister pays in a group to learn english some lady in Canada.
.

Ah, what are you saying here?

GG

 

[Seven7]

@ggingues That we think we do not have skills but even English could be your skill (It comes easy and brain fog will not kill you). Teaching beginning English is not hard, or offer conversation classes. You set up a site or do it via a place that offers that service and you can market yourself in groups that are trying to learn English, Just an idea of something u can do with a computer from your house.

 

[SOC]

@ggingues That we think we do not have skills but even English could be your skill (It comes easy and brain fog will not kill you). Teaching beginning English is not hard, or offer conversation classes. You set up a site or do it via a place that offers that service and you can market yourself in groups that are trying to learn English, Just an idea of something u can do with a computer from your house.

I see where you're going with this, but I have to say that not everyone is capable of being a decent teacher. Knowing something doesn't make you good at teaching it.

 

[*GG*]

Ah, what are you saying here?

GG

Does your sister pay or get paid to teach?

GG

 

[Mya Symons]

I work online from home as a freelance proofreader for court reporters. I fell into it serendipitously after giving up trying to find any work from home that I could handle. The organization I work for occasionally needs more proofreaders and will train the right person. If you are very good with American English and don't have too much brain fog, pm me for more information.

Iquitos, I used to be a paralegal. May I ask, how much money do you usually make a month doing this?

 

[taniaaust1]

@ggingues That we think we do not have skills but even English could be your skill (It comes easy and brain fog will not kill you). Teaching beginning English is not hard, or offer conversation classes. You set up a site or do it via a place that offers that service and you can market yourself in groups that are trying to learn English, Just an idea of something u can do with a computer from your house.

That's a great idea. I used to do volunteering with several others, we'd go out to a home where there was a group of newish migrants (from irac or iran) and give them one to one english reading lessons once per week. They often had important letters or documents and just daily mail stuff too eg just every day mail stuff which they wanted someone to read to them, say the english words of the objects in the catalogue or make sure they understood right as they had extremely basic reading skills (like year one level if that, some we were teaching letters still). I guess some would be wanting English teachers for a very basic level and one could advertise basic english lessons and have a small group or do one to one lesson and have them come to ones home for an hour for an English lesson (we used to have them read childrens books but would try to pick ones in which werent too childish sounding).

Things like helping them read words on maps (pick the easy words at first) eg street directory if they wanted to go somewhere is good ..enables them to be able to follow and ask directions for places. I personally think anyone can do this as long as they have patience with someone who is struggling with language (never forgot yourself that it isnt easy to learn a new language, if you keep that in mind you should be fine).

The hardest problem I had with doing that was I myself couldnt understand them when they spoke to me due to the strong accents of their other country so that did make things awkward at times (and sometimes or for me nearly always involved guessing what they wanted.. at times instead they wanted me to help them to pronouce a word and I'd have to guess at the word they were attempting to say and multilating..sometimes they'd use hand signals to try to describe the word.. like umm what's that game..charades? When I'd come up with the right word they were wanting, they'd smile or nod and try to say it after me).

Sometimes they had to show me what they wanted help reading or point to the section they wanted me to read if they couldnt themselves.. so I'd then read it normally (so they could understand the document or whatever)..and then slowly individual word by word.. pointing to the words as I read and getting the person I was trying to teach to read.. read an easy word here and there. I guess we their untrained English teachers did okay as they used to get excited about seeing us when they were about to have their lesson.

Non English speaking/reading in an english culture face many different issues in daily life eg not knowing how to count our money is another big issue they can have and can appreciate being shown how to accurately get right amounts for things. One thing I saw which horrified me one time when I was in an aborignal community and went to one of their craft groups..was when getting ready for lunch.. they sprayed the table down with fly spray instead of spray and wipe cleaner.. obviously not being able to read it was fly spray!! Then had their sandwiches sitting on this table newly cleaned with fly spray.

I failed french at school two years straight (did it a second year as I loved trying to learn it) so I guess that added to my understanding of how hard a new language is to learn.

 

[ozikiwi]

Thank you all for your interesting input!
I have had a bit to do with ESOL pre CFS and would love to set up some kind of on-line business......just not sure where or how to start.
Again, any pearls of wisdom most graciously accepted!