“Nine to five you know the drill, weekends are a short-lived thrill, sad to see the old slave mill, is grinding slow, but grinding still.” — Damien Marley
Dissatisfaction at work can lead to disconnectedness, disorientation, lack of motivation, and a whole lot of stress. If you’re one of those individuals who are not quite ready to join the rat race, this article will give you all the information you need about slow-paced low-stress jobs to pursue that work-life balance.
What Causes Stress in a Job?
Besides the fact that your heart is simply not in it, several variables make your daily work-life a mundane and dreadful affair. This, in turn, can create a lot of stress, anxiety, and even depression.
#1. Dipping Morale
When the general morale of the team or a company is stagnant or low, employees tend to feel unmotivated and uninspired. Deprived of energy and the willingness to push oneself to achieve targets, low morale can lead to a dip in productivity.
You end up feeling hopeless, helpless, and completely useless. When your boss or team lead reprimands you for being complacent, you are bound to feel stressed because you know that you’re doing your best, but the job is just not the right fit for you.
#2. Subpar Management
Understanding the significance of striking a healthy work-life balance is key, and if the company’s management style does not support this balance, it can cause a stressful work environment.
Regardless of their designation or position in an organization, every employee wants to feel supported by his or her colleagues, leads, and employers. Stress is inevitable if that sense of support, understanding, and compassion is missing.
#3. Overtime and Overload
It’s one thing to want to excel at work and give your 110%, but what if you don’t get rewarded and appreciated for your overtime and responsibilities?
The manners and attitude with which tasks are delegated at the workplace, the unfairness with which one is given more work than another, minimal to non-existent breaks, long hours of overtime, unrealistic expectations, and complete negligence of one’s skills and talent can cripple an employee’s zeal to work.
If employees feel like they have too much on their plates, leaving them no room to breathe or have a personal life outside of the workplace, then it’s clear that their jobs are causing them stress and unnecessary tension.
#4. Job Insecurity
Employees want to work with confidence, knowing that they will keep their job, get promoted, and grow in the company.
But if the company’s work environment is unstable and flaky, your incessant anxieties about losing your job or climbing up the corporate ladder can cause immense stress and make you doubt yourself, leading to some more paranoia, fear, and insecurity.
#5. Poor Working Conditions
Besides people at the workplace, the work environments and one’s daily surroundings also impact stress levels.
If your office is grim and dull, if the hygiene levels are inadequate, if you lack privacy and are cramped in a noisy atmosphere, you can automatically feel stressed.
Offices and work environments should be dynamic, energetic, positive, and inspiring.
Key Requirements for Low-Stress Jobs
An ideal career is one where you experience less stress and gets paid deservingly for your hard work. While every job can sooner or later create some amount of stress, however minimal, some other jobs are exceptionally stressful.
However, with some parameters in place, stress levels can be stabilized in any given work environment.
Here are some of the key requirements for low-stress jobs.
#1. Determine Your Stress Triggers
To ensure that your job does not cause you undue stress, first and foremost, you need to identify which aspects of work triggers stress for you. Is it the work pressure? The late hours? Perhaps it is the schedule of your work. Or is the work environment not the right fit for you? Or is the type of work you’re doing?
Knowing what leads to a stress response can help you considerably in deciding what kind of low-stress job will suit you best.
#2. Having the Right Qualifications
If you want to enjoy a low-stress job and get paid well while you’re at it, you need to pick a job that matches your educational background.
With the right merits, certificates, and qualifications, you can aim toward excellence and achieve great heights on the job front, without any stress. Irrespective of your educational qualifications, you can get yourself a slow-paced low-stress job that brings you peace.
#3. Having the Skill for It
Talent and a niche skillset will not only encourage you to perform better but also provide you with numerous opportunities to climb up the ladder and reach new heights. If you want to reduce your stress at work, hone the skills you know you must get the job done and your work life will be a breeze.
#4. Giving It Enough Thought
Ideally, a low-stress job must match your interests and the job description should be clear and stress-free enough for you to be convinced. If your duties and job roles are in place and you are certain of what is expected of you, stress levels can significantly reduce in any job.
#5. Having the Expertise
Experience is key when it comes to landing a low-stress job. If you have the required expertise and know-how to perform well in your field, nothing else can stop you from succeeding exponentially.
What Makes A Job Less Stressful Than Others?
From self-employment to freelance, the job market today has a plethora of stress-free job opportunities. It is not easy to completely remove stress from the equation.
Besides, some moderate-to-minimal level of stress is completely natural and healthy. It keeps you on your toes. But three main factors make some jobs less stressful than others.
#1. Flexible Work Hours
Be it in terms of timings, work ethic, or workload, if your daily routine allows you to be flexible with your work hours, if you’re free to decide when and where you’d like to work, if you’re not frowned upon when you voice an opinion, you can feel free and comfortable in your work environment. This makes your job an enjoyable experience.
#2. Personal Satisfaction
From your colleagues to the kind of tasks you take on, if your daily routine at work brings you satisfaction and appreciation, your job can be a walk in the park.
Some job environments make it a point to cultivate friendly relationships, value employees for their unique skills and capabilities, and foster compassionate relationships among staff members. Such jobs reduce stress and make employees want to come to work every day.
#3. Less Rigidity
In an easy-going job, employees feel like they have their own space to make decisions and work the way they want to. As an organization, if your company has simpler rules and encourages a non-hierarchical or low power-distance style of management, workers can feel less stressed while working.
19 Types of Slow-Paced Low-Stress Jobs
From introverts and full-time mothers to people with hypertension and post-traumatic stress disorders, the ability to cope with stress differs from person to person. Here is a list of slow-paced low-stress jobs the market has to offer.
-
Low-Stress Jobs for Moms
#1. Artistry
Stress Tolerance Score: 42
Average Salary: $56,268
Job Description: Be it as an interior designer or a hairstylist, working moms can take up some fun and low-stress jobs that can help them get creative and earn good money.
#2. Life Coaching
Stress Tolerance Score: 62
Average Salary: $59,630
Job Description: Being a life coach is a stress-free job that you can do from home or a private office to help people get their lives together and feel good about themselves.
#3. Photography
Stress Tolerance Score: 56
Average Salary: $44,362
Job Description: From wedding photography to newborn shoots, mommies from all walks of life indulge in photography as a part-time job. Besides being fun, being a photographer is can also be de-stressing.
#4. Tutoring
Stress Tolerance Score: 65
Average Salary: $48,877
Job Description: Tutoring is a low-stress job because you can teach the subjects you are comfortable with, pick the strength of your class, and choose your timings and days.
-
Low-Stress Jobs for Introverts and Sensitive People
#5. Become a Librarian
Stress Tolerance Score: 30–40
Average Salary: $50,726
Job Description: Working in a library is usually calm and quiet and has human interaction at an all-time low. For a sensitive person, working in a library is like therapy.
#6. Work with Nature
Stress Tolerance Score: 45
Average Salary: $29,501
Job Description: For peace and prosperity, there’s nothing like working in a greenhouse, or as a gardener or landscape artist if you have the green thumb.
#7. Become a Curator
Stress Tolerance Score: 30–42
Average Salary: $50,932
Job Description: Stress-free and immersed in a world of art giants, being a curator is the perfect slow-paced low-stress job.
-
Jobs for People with Anxiety
#8. Counseling
Stress Tolerance Score: 42
Average Salary: $75,368
Job Description: The job allows you to determine your schedule and be flexible with your work style to keep the stress at bay.
#9. Work with Animals
Stress Tolerance Score: 58–65
Average Salary: $34,246
Job Description: Working with animals can be fun to downright therapeutic. Dog walking and pet grooming can help you keep away from stress and control your anxiety.
#10. Write as a Freelancer
Stress Tolerance Score: 69
Average Salary: $48,061
Job Description: From blogging to copywriting, freelance writing is a great idea for those with stress and anxiety. It will allow you to work from the comfort of your home, have the freedom and space to be who you are, and be creative.
#11. Start Something of Your Own
Stress Tolerance Score: 60–65
Average Salary: $56,446
Job Description: Self-employment allows you to choose your hurdles and stresses. Become an entrepreneur and work on your terms with minimal interference from other people.
-
Low-Stress Jobs for Those Without a Degree
#12. Be a Social Media Expert
Stress Tolerance Score: 27–40
Average Salary: $45,405
Job Description: If you’re good at posting, writing captions, clicking, and editing photos, and building a social network, working in social media is the slow-paced low-stress job for you.
#13. Social Work
Stress Tolerance Score: 27–40
Average Salary: $45,405
Job Description: Stress-free and self-actualizing, the life of a social worker is satisfying, fulfilling, rewarding, and creative.
#14. Become a Graphic Designer
Stress Tolerance Score: 35–60
Average Salary: $48,500
Job Description: This job will help you stay focused, curb anxiety, and bring you joy, money, and success.
#15. Be a Salesperson
Stress Tolerance Score: 60–75
Average Salary: $60,777
Job Description: To do well in sales, all you need is a passion for sales and pitching. You can freelance or work part-time and control the amount of stress you take on.
-
Full-Time and Part-time Low-Stress Jobs According to Work Time
#16. Software Development
Stress Tolerance level: 61
Average Salary: $99,000 PA
Work Time: 40 Hours per week
Job Description: You can work as a software developer from home or anywhere else with minimal human interaction and a customized work environment.
#17. Farm Management
Stress Tolerance Level: 58
Average Salary: $19,770
Work Time: 45 Hours per week
Job Description: Full-time yet peaceful and rewarding, this job requires you to be on the field for the most part, but you have the freedom to work as per your clock and have your routine.
For those who are looking for low-stress jobs on a part-time or remote basis, here are a couple of jobs you might find interesting:
#18. Teaching
Stress Tolerance Score: 63
Average Salary: $105,250 PA
Work Time: 20 Hours per week
Job Description: Teaching can be a part-time or full-time job depending on what you prefer. You can also teach online and choose to work as a professor remotely.
#19. Travel Agent
Stress Tolerance Score: 57
Average Salary: $23,000–$105,000 PA
Work Time: 20 Hours per week
Job Description: Stress-free and interesting, being a travel agent is fun, easy, and slow-paced. Having a passion for travel and a way with people is a bonus.
A Few Parting Words
The process of finding a job and keeping one is a stressful situation. However, with the evolving nature of the job industry, one can easily find a job to suit their personality, interests, passions, and work ethic. You can complete an OPQ assessment to help you get the best job suitable for your traits and personality.
If you’re seeking a stress-free professional life, pick slow-paced low-stress jobs that bring positivity and joy into your life.