I'm autistic, have a chronic pain condition and have been dipping my toe in and out of burnout for over 8 years. I am very, very tired, sometimes to the point of tears.
Currently I work part time as an office manager for a tech company. I took the massive pay and hours cut to work more on my side business after years in publishing production when my pain condition made it harder to do anything but 9-5 then sleep. Unfortunately the people/office politics/fluorescent lights element has left me so exhausted that I've basically failed to do that and need to go back to full time work for financial reasons. Alas, I got Word Autism and not maths autism, and I never finished my humanities degree.
Here is what I think I need to stay sane.
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Enough money to live alone. I don't care if the place is a shithole. I love my housemates, but I need to be able to shut the door on the world when I get home. My area is pretty high COL, Lower COL areas in my country aren't much better and don't have any rentals, and I'm reluctant to leave the support network I've built here and start over because… Well, love and autism. I'll move within an hours commuting distance if I have to.
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Less people. Less face-to-face communications definitely, but after the 20th email of the day my brain starts to hurt, so less communications with people in general would be great.
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No manual labour. I can't lift things.
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Low retraining cost. I don't have the money or energy for college, but could handle a cert maybe.
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Progressive industry, the fact that I'm not gonna state the minority here will tell you why.
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Ideally WFH, hybrid, or flexible start/finish times, I have a delayed sleep/wake pattern and employers will laugh in your face when you ask for accommodations for it.
Here's what I have:
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Three years content writing experience, but out of the field for 3-4 years and little SEO or video knowledge, old clients have faded away.
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Some proofreading experience, ditto.
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Some grant writing experience for arts organisations but no qualification or real connections in the field
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Some policy writing experience, ditto.
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Five years experience in Making Sure Things and People Get to Where They're Meant to Be on Time.
Here is what I don't have:
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Money upfront
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A ton of debt
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A shred of dopamine or executive function (so no freelancing, I need to be accountable to someone cos task initiation is extremely difficult)
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A family, dependents or any desire for them.
Is such a thing possible? Is this a pipe dream? All I want is a studio/one bed up to an hour away from the people I love and a job that isn't actively killing me.