Job dilemma for friend in late 40's. Reflexology?

[Farmer Geddon]

A friend of my wife and I is in a rubbish situation.

Since suffering a break down and stint in hospital around 5 years ago, she has been out of work and not really in a fit state to cope with working at all. Now though, she is under regular threat to have her benefits removed due to the way mental health benefits are assessed (I'll make it clear she is by no means comfortable as it is and under financial pressure which obviously makes health problems worse with the stress).

Please reserve any judgements about benefits and government help - all that aside (let's just focus on the job situation here), she would need a fairly stress free way, due to mental health problems, perhaps working alone with no 'boss' as such, of earning a minimum of £15,000 per year.

Previous work includes construction company director, beauty therapist and warehouse worker, so a varied skill set!

When visiting a chiropractor recently, the person giving the treatment told our friend that they often get asked about reflexology and suggested it would be a good thing to learn which she is actually very interested in.

Are there any more suggestions for a way back in to work which won't induce too much stress and would pay all the bills? A short and cheap-ish course or courses are possible with the help of friends and family. A reasonably steady income is needed as she is single and although her rent is cheap it all still needs paying every month! So casual suitable work like dog walking isn't really ideal..

Sadly the job centre and MH team have been useless and are next to no help in trying to get her fit for and back in to suitable employment unfortunately.

Any suggestions on avenues to pursue would be great as we're not great at this sort of thing but I'd love to be some help... in all our friend is a very bright and capable person but having been through the mill in life could do with a little hand up - and I'm sure getting back to work would give a needed sense of purpose and distract from other worries of every day life, I certainly know I worry about things a lot more when I have too much time on my hands!

Your replies and thoughts are appreciated.

Thanks

Edited by Farmer Geddon on Tuesday 25th July 16:48

[Hoofy]

I work in this industry in the broadest sense of the word and therefore know a lot of therapists who do stuff from counselling to massage. It's easy to train in (read: low entry costs), a dream job for too many; it's what women end up doing when they have their own midlife crises while we're busy buying a two seater convertible on HP, quitting their well-paid corporate job, sometimes having a child then trying to do something part-time. In the end, what happens to most is that they end up working very part-time doing the occasional client plus having to do shows at the weekend. It's great for extra cash but as a full-time gig paying £15k a year, I doubt it.

Her chiropractor would probably be happy to rent a room to her (£15 an hour?) and leave leaflets on the front desk but what is she going to do for the rest of the time to get clients? How is she on social media? Does she have a big social group (offline)? Plain old advertising (offline and online) will get her to a very part-time level (eg 2 clients a week).

Actually, you say she's been a beauty therapist - she should know how difficult it is to get regular paying clients.

Bearing in mind her mental health situation, she might be better off working as a receptionist in a chiropractor's or therapy centre as it will be low stress fixed hour work (ie once she's done for the day she doesn't have to think about it until the next shift).

[Taita]

What about sports massage? There's lots of entry level courses about and you take studies further if you want.

Hands and knuckles don't get buggered as much these days as they have tools to help.

[CX53]

I don't know how easy it is to train, but my hairdresser went mobile as a barber and has been flat out for the last year. I wonder why more don't do it really, blokes are lazy and I much prefer someone coming round at my convenience than having to book and inevitably wait for ages or walk in and wait. She's good, but still charges a hefty £18, and is still stacked with work.

[Hoofy]

CX53 said:

I don't know how easy it is to train, but my hairdresser went mobile as a barber and has been flat out for the last year. I wonder why more don't do it really, blokes are lazy and I much prefer someone coming round at my convenience than having to book and inevitably wait for ages or walk in and wait. She's good, but still charges a hefty £18, and is still stacked with work.

That's because £18 is cheap. Assuming you're not just having clippers run over your head for 5 minutes, she's go to drive over to you (assuming all local so up to 15 minutes depending on traffic), get out the kit, do the job (30 minutes?) then head to the next client. A decent cut at a barber's should be about that kind of price with you waiting.

[CX53]

Hoofy said:

That's because £18 is cheap. Assuming you're not just having clippers run over your head for 5 minutes, she's go to drive over to you (assuming all local so up to 15 minutes depending on traffic), get out the kit, do the job (30 minutes?) then head to the next client. A decent cut at a barber's should be about that kind of price with you waiting.

When she cut my hair at the barbers it was £19, she says she's working around 10 hours less per week now and making nearly twice as much money even with associated costs... obviously I can only go on what she says. I'm certainly happy to pay that for the convenience anyway.

[Hoofy]

CX53 said:

Hoofy said:

That's because £18 is cheap. Assuming you're not just having clippers run over your head for 5 minutes, she's go to drive over to you (assuming all local so up to 15 minutes depending on traffic), get out the kit, do the job (30 minutes?) then head to the next client. A decent cut at a barber's should be about that kind of price with you waiting.

When she cut my hair at the barbers it was £19, she says she's working around 10 hours less per week now and making nearly twice as much money even with associated costs... obviously I can only go on what she says. I'm certainly happy to pay that for the convenience anyway.

That is interesting. Maybe not having to rent a fixed position in a hairdresser's means she only has costs when someone is actually paying for her time, if you see what I mean. And also, presumably she is working more evenings when a normal hairdresser's is closed.

[CX53]

Yeah, that would make sense. I guess the only downside is being female and having to turn up to men's houses alone.

[rog007]

Farmer Geddon said:

Since suffering a break down and stint in hospital around 5 years ago, she has been out of work and not really in a fit state to cope with working at all.

Edited by Farmer Geddon on Tuesday 25th July 16:48

Whilst I appreciate you're not a healthcare professional; my assumption is that she will be passed fit to be employed by a MH professional from what you have said.

Assuming that to be the case, specifically what restrictions on the type of employment she could undertake are there and are they her own assessment or the MH professional's? Are you suggesting that she's more suited to working for herself rather than for someone? If so, why?

Once that is clear, then some fresh ideas may be forthcoming.

[Farmer Geddon]

Thank you for all your replies!

Fortunately, our friend has had a stroke of luck. Another friend of hers has put in a good word for her and she's now got a job learning phlebotomy and doing some tests in a lab or something or other.

Sounds pretty suitable and quite low stress so she's happy.

Cheers

[anonymous-user]

Cool! Phlebotomy is a real thing. Reflexology is New Age mumbo jumbo, and it is not good for a person with mental health problems to get involved in flaky hippy nonsense. One day all of the snake oil merchants and hucksters who sell all these BS alternative medicine cons will be thrown in jail for fraud, but we aren't there yet. At least the NHS has stopped wasting public money on the homeopathy racket.

[James_B]

Farmer Geddon said:

When visiting a chiropractor recently, the person giving the treatment told our friend that they often get asked about reflexology and suggested it would be a good thing to learn which she is actually very interested in.

Edited by Farmer Geddon on Tuesday 25th July 16:48

I suppose as witchcraft isn't illegal nowadays it's an option, but if you are going to scam people with bogus medical treatments why not go for the real whoppers? Have her buy a job lot of stickers, and sell them as chakra realignment dots, or get in some cheap little metal pendants and flog them off as God's own cancer cure?

[anonymous-user]

^^^^^^^ This.