Help with ideas for a job my husband could do....

dancingfairy

Can he do anything with the printing side of things? Could he set up his own business? Can you rent the equipment? Perhaps he could train an apprentice? I appreciate his shyness might be a problem but hopefully if it was a topic he had a lot of knowledge on the shyness would disapate and it would only be the 2 of them, so not a massive group and by having an apprentice he could pass on his knowledge without having to do too much of the lifting and shifting?
df

Parsimonia

mrsflinty wrote: »

What about a support worker for mental health?? Outreach worker, where there is minimal/no personal care, more supporting adults with cooking, light cleaning, community activities, managing medication etc... I would not go for Learning Disabilities as there would be a higher chance of personal care and use of movement aids such as hoist and if his arm is not so good would etc... but i would look into mental health community/outreach minimum wage for company i work for is £12k a year for support workers and they take lots of people with no experience and will train him up xx Good Look xx

dancingfairy wrote: »

Can he do anything with the printing side of things? Could he set up his own business? Can you rent the equipment? Perhaps he could train an apprentice? I appreciate his shyness might be a problem but hopefully if it was a topic he had a lot of knowledge on the shyness would disapate and it would only be the 2 of them, so not a massive group and by having an apprentice he could pass on his knowledge without having to do too much of the lifting and shifting?
df

These are both really good ideas - thank you! We're building up quite a good list of suggestions now and some of them are really thought-provoking.

Thank you all so much!

annie123

A friend of mine owns a cafe/deli, and 50% of the stuff is made by local people.
They have to have a food hygiene certificate, but other than that, she she sells what they bring in....Bread, jams, soup, cakes, pickles etc.
If there is something near you like that, why not take round some freshly baked bread to see what response you get. It's a way to get him back some confidence and a bit of pocket money.
Who knows it may grow into something big.

A friend of my sons supplies a local restaurant with his home made chilli sauce once a year when the home grown chillies ripen. It's so popular there he's now got friends growing chillies for him too.

Parsimonia

annie123 wrote: »

A friend of mine owns a cafe/deli, and 50% of the stuff is made by local people.
They have to have a food hygiene certificate, but other than that, she she sells what they bring in....Bread, jams, soup, cakes, pickles etc.
If there is something near you like that, why not take round some freshly baked bread to see what response you get. It's a way to get him back some confidence and a bit of pocket money.
Who knows it may grow into something big.

A friend of my sons supplies a local restaurant with his home made chilli sauce once a year when the home grown chillies ripen. It's so popular there he's now got friends growing chillies for him too.

Ooooh, I LOVE this idea! I thought you'd need far more than a food hygiene certificate to sell stuff to shops. He makes a wicked chilli jam and his bread is top knotch - we stopped buying £3.25 organic sourdough loaves from the organic bakery because hubby's was waaay better! His homemade pasta is also to-die-for, as are his homemade pasta sauces. He's a pretty nifty pickler too - his pickled onions are always in huge demand from friends and family at this time of the year!

Oooh, I'm excited by this idea....

tomterm8

I think that you probably need to get in touch with environmental health before you start selling, and they can (and probably will) inspect the premises you are using to produce the food at any time.

So... have you spoken to your husband yet? Is there any idea here that he likes the sound of?

thoughtfull_thatcherite

Perhapse a light duties security guard job might be ok. If he
did the night shift he would have fewer problems with sunlight
on his skin. I am a security guard and on many sites little lifting
is required, and not too much socialising needed. Best of luck

Parsimonia

tomterm8 wrote: »

So... have you spoken to your husband yet? Is there any idea here that he likes the sound of?

Yes, lots! He's very interested in the Hermes idea, and has sent off an enquiry...also he's offered to do voluntary work at an animal rescue place and at three coffee bars. He's also looking into the car and flower delivery options.

He likes the cooking ideas the best as he's passionate about food and loves to cook. Deep down he'd like to do something with music (DJing etc) but he recognises that he's probably too shy - he's letting the shyness hold him back unfortunately.

We are both so grateful to you for all your suggestions!

amiehall

I nearly posted this before and decided not to be too negative, however, I'm completely confused as to why this coffee shop idea keeps coming up!

Maybe your husband's arm isn't as bad as I'm thinking, but this job has 2 main parts:

Serving coffee at the counter which is a hugely social thing. Being successful at this relies on being open and friendly which sounds like something he would hate. In addition, using a professional coffee machine really takes its toll on your wrist! As well as yanking the handles around, large jugs of milk can be heavy and this needs to be held and controlled to froth nice milk. My wrist would ache when I returned to work after even a week off. A few of my colleagues needed to wear wrist supports permanently. For someone who feels that scanning items at a checkout is beyond their physical capabilities, I'd worry about hurting myself doing this!

The other part that's less social is clearing tables, carrying trays and washing dishes. Again, even small trays of dishes can be HEAVY! Using a professional dishwasher will likely involve filling a large tray and lifting it in and out of the dishwasher.

There are some great other suggestions here and I would so hate for your husband to try this, hate it and feel put off trying something else.

One of my friends has a job as a car park attendant. I guess it's similar to security work, and it's completely indoors. Maybe this is something to look into.

Parsimonia

amiehall wrote: »

I nearly posted this before and decided not to be too negative, however, I'm completely confused as to why this coffee shop idea keeps coming up!

Maybe your husband's arm isn't as bad as I'm thinking, but this job has 2 main parts:

Serving coffee at the counter which is a hugely social thing. Being successful at this relies on being open and friendly which sounds like something he would hate. In addition, using a professional coffee machine really takes its toll on your wrist! As well as yanking the handles around, large jugs of milk can be heavy and this needs to be held and controlled to froth nice milk. My wrist would ache when I returned to work after even a week off. A few of my colleagues needed to wear wrist supports permanently. For someone who feels that scanning items at a checkout is beyond their physical capabilities, I'd worry about hurting myself doing this!

The other part that's less social is clearing tables, carrying trays and washing dishes. Again, even small trays of dishes can be HEAVY! Using a professional dishwasher will likely involve filling a large tray and lifting it in and out of the dishwasher.

There are some great other suggestions here and I would so hate for your husband to try this, hate it and feel put off trying something else.

One of my friends has a job as a car park attendant. I guess it's similar to security work, and it's completely indoors. Maybe this is something to look into.

Oh dear - I don't think either of us realised that it would be physically onerous and hard on the arms to be a barista....we'd ruled out supermarket checkouts because of the accumulative effect of many small light repetitive movements, but hadn't realised the same applied to coffee shops. Time for a re-think then! :sad:

amiehall wrote: »

One of my friends has a job as a car park attendant. I guess it's similar to security work, and it's completely indoors. Maybe this is something to look into.

I read somewhere that all car-park attendant jobs are reserved for those in receipt of disability living allowance. If that's not true then it's definitely something to consider...thank you!

jjj1980

Have only scanned through the rest of thread so apologies if I duplicate a suggestion but with your OH's printing experience, what about customised stationary/invitations etc.

He could include producing business cards, photo reproduction.