My father is 62 years old. He took early retirement. He has some health issues where he cant be on his feet for hours at a time. Is there any type job for a person to work a few hours a day at a computer or such? Data entry,customer service? He has an income and a home but has asked me if there is something he could do just to make a little extra money. Any ideas?
A friend had to limit activity during her pregnancy, but couldn’t afford to not work. She got a job transcribing medical dictation. The doctor’s office would drop off tapes, she would type and save (on floppies back then) and then trade her discs for new tapes the next day.
I wish I could remember the names of the companies to send you, but there are opportunities to score standardized tests from home.
Wow, that’s all “I’ll take ‘Legitimate Businesses that Look Like Scams’ for $200, Alex.”
He could try proof-reading / editing, especially if he has a particular area of expertise (engineering, medicine, IT etc).
My sister in law does customer phone support from home. She does it for a gas company in Chicago but she lives in Florida. The company she works for has people all over the US.
The best way to approach this while avoiding scams is from the perspective of the skills your dad has to offer, and (almost paradoxically) with less emphasis on working from home. Does he have a good phone manner with customers? Does he have fast, accurate keyboarding skills? Does he have knowledge of a particular industry that would make him good at tech support or generating sales? Look at what he could do well and working independently, consider what companies hire that skill, and then see what WAH arrangements might be available.
Another thing to keep in mind is that non-WAH jobs might be able and required to accommodate his need to take time off his feet due to the Americans with Disabilities Act. The definition of disability has recently been clarified and made in some ways more inclusive. This law applies to US companies with 15+ employees. Allowing an employee to work at home can be a reasonable accommoadation, but the employer may choose to offer other reasonable accommodations rather than WAH.
(Thanks for that, dalej42. I’ll bookmark these.)
If I were him, I’d look for work at home more like he’s probably looked for work in the past. Using Craig’s List as a possible source of work, he can look for jobs that permit telecommuting or for gigs or services wanted that fit something he knows how to do. He can also post his resume and services offered. Other websites can also enable him to post his skills. Guru.com and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk come to mind, but I don’t know what field he’s in.
Basically, he would operate more like a typical freelancer. There’s plenty of work out there and absolutely no reason to buy into work-at-home scams.