Jobs for people with social anxiety?

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Do emu

I work in a customer service call center. I moved and signed a lease so I could be closer to this job - I don't have a car, so I bike to work.

The job itself is a nightmare for me. I don't know why I thought I would like customer service - people yelling at you all day for stuff that isn't your fault, you're not able to talk back or hang up, and are basically a punching bag for others. That's what I feel like, at least. I've had a few panic attacks, and this one crushed me before work today, so I had to call in. I don't know how long I can last there, but don't have many other options since the place I work is far from many other places I could find employment.

Enough ranting, what about you all? For those of you who suffer from SA, what kinds of jobs do you have/have you had in the past that don't make your SA seem so overwhelming?

Honestly my favorite job was custodial maintenance at my university a few years ago. It was mostly just cleaning, and the pay was low, but I rarely had to deal with people and I felt good about the work I was doing. I definitely had a sense of pride for all my hard work, and it was nice to always be moving around.

02/14/2013

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GONE!

I'm a writer now and it's the best I've done honestly. Also I do online work for side money. I'll do anything but retail now, gah! I hated having to be around people every day. It made me so panicky.

02/14/2013

Kitten has left the site

I used to love working in a home chocolate factory. I was in the basement so I didn't even see the customers that ate the bon bons I made. The worst was a waitress job. Tips were great but when we had a ton or a full house I would have to wait until we were nearly empty to break down crying.

02/14/2013

Chilipepper

Retail, food service, and customer service are the WORST jobs for those with social anxiety and being introverted.

Night jobs (I was an overnight baker some years back: great environment, but very fast-paced), small offices, data entry, mail rooms, home-based jobs, back office positions, research, cleaning - have you considered joining a cleaning service since you liked custodial?

I'm looking for a small office or back office position right now. My days of retail and food service are so over.

02/14/2013

Ansley

Night shifts in hotels are perfect for those with social anxiety. There are rarely any issues at the desk between 11 PM and 6 AM. You print a few reports, give the bills to the night "houseman" and he deposits them under the guests doors for express check out. Mark a few guest cards, file the next day's guest cards under their name for arrival and clock out. There's about six hours of straight dead time and your purpose is just to be a physical presence on the property in the event...

Janitorial services like Merry Maids and that kind of thing might be a really great place to start looking, especially if you have your own transportation and vacuum/cleaning supplies to start.

Unless you are goal-oriented, jobs like data entry can be just as anxiety-riddled as customer service positions. There's a deadline, a quota, and an expectation of perfection that will melt minds of steel. Not to mention, the work itself is excruciatingly boring. Like, you'll want to stab your eye out with the nearest paperclip just to have an excuse not to work anymore. It's THAT boring. Oh and the carpel tunnel syndrome...lorchild don't even get me started. (I did data entry for years, both alphanumeric and ten-key. My wrists have never been so tired and overused as they were back then.) Some of this is hyperbole, it just felt that way at the time.

Being an administrative is also rather daunting for those with social anxiety. It often involves cold calling vendors when the situation calls for it and an admin is generally pulled in any and all directions at once with deadlines on projects that overlap, causing even more anxiety.

I say this not to scare you off, but so you have a full scope to look through while applying for positions. "Behind the scenes" positions are often the most demanding and I think that's something that is often overlooked.

02/14/2013

Chilipepper

Quote:

Originally posted by Ansley

Night shifts in hotels are perfect for those with social anxiety. There are rarely any issues at the desk between 11 PM and 6 AM. You print a few reports, give the bills to the night "houseman" and he deposits them under the guests doors for express check out. Mark a few guest cards, file the next day's guest cards under their name for arrival and clock out. There's about six hours of straight dead time and your purpose is just to be a physical presence on the property in the event...

Janitorial services like Merry Maids and that kind of thing might be a really great place to start looking, especially if you have your own transportation and vacuum/cleaning supplies to start.

Unless you are goal-oriented, jobs like data entry can be just as anxiety-riddled as customer service positions. There's a deadline, a quota, and an expectation of perfection that will melt minds of steel. Not to mention, the work itself is excruciatingly boring. Like, you'll want to stab your eye out with the nearest paperclip just to have an excuse not to work anymore. It's THAT boring. Oh and the carpel tunnel syndrome...lorchild don't even get me started. (I did data entry for years, both alphanumeric and ten-key. My wrists have never been so tired and overused as they were back then.) Some of this is hyperbole, it just felt that way at the time.

Being an administrative is also rather daunting for those with social anxiety. It often involves cold calling vendors when the situation calls for it and an admin is generally pulled in any and all directions at once with deadlines on projects that overlap, causing even more anxiety.

I say this not to scare you off, but so you have a full scope to look through while applying for positions. "Behind the scenes" positions are often the most demanding and I think that's something that is often overlooked. less

It's true, I should have mentioned that - I never minded it, as it gave me something to do that didn't involve people. Definitely take that into consideration!

02/14/2013

Girly Juice

I'm a journalist and it's really not the best job for someone with social anxiety, especially since I often have to do school assignments that involve talking to random strangers on the street.

However, when I'm working on a story that's NOT for school, I get to set it up on my own terms - which, for me, means setting up phone interviews in advance via e-mail. This really takes a lot of the pressure off, IMO. And once the interviews are done, the rest of the work just involves sitting in front of my computer, writing, and corresponding with my editor via e-mail.

02/14/2013

Loriandhubby

I am a house keeper at a local hotel and i love it. I only see the people i work with when i go in and stock my cart. then i'm alone cleaning until i'm done. I rarely ever see the guests. it is perfect for me. i'm alone doing my job and there is no one at all to deal with. as long as i do my job well in each room, the boss doesn't even talk to me.

02/14/2013

tami

Quote:

Originally posted by Do emu

I work in customer service and I HATE every minute of it. People are so rude and ill mannered it is crazy. I have people throwing things at me calling me names and so on. I work at my local wal-mart and we are not allowed to say anything back to these fools that treat us like a door mat. It is un-nerving to stand and take the abuse that ignorant people shower upon people who work in customer service. They do not care if they are having a bad day they just take it out on the poor employee that is standing there. It is bull shit that we have to take the kind of crap that we do simply because we work retail and customer service
I FEEL YOUR PAIN!

02/14/2013

The Vixen

I did customer service in a call center so I feel your pain. I only lasted a few months because it was so stressful and I had bad anxiety.. so I feel your pain. I was in the billing dept for a large cable provider so I got all the angry people calling wanting to know why their bills were higher than they expected.

If you don't mind early mornings and talking to the occasional store manager you might be interested in being a merchandiser. I did that for a few years and I really enjoyed the work itself. As a merchandiser you go into stores and reorganize products on the store shelves, or place little coupons on products or put up other promotional material. You don't usually have to interact with too many people. It seems like the national companies I've worked for are ALWAYS hiring.

I also did work as a page at a library, so I'd sit in the back and check in returned books and then take a cart and put them back on the shelves. Only problem is that it was usually kinda dull.

I have thought about working at a hotel, that might also be another good one to look into.

02/15/2013

Cosmonaut

Belly dancing actually pulled me out of my social anxiety fears. When I started dancing, I just never even thought about my fear.

I am also big into scientific research (not on animals though). Coroner would be good too. You just do your thing without too much interaction.

Programmer. You can code all day. Most of it just being able to google.

02/15/2013

KyotoAngel

Oddly enough, babysitting or petsitting...but those hardly pay enough to live off of unless you really work to fill up any time you can spare to it just like you would any other job.

I find that dealing with children and animals was a lot less stressful for me than dealing with adults at a typical job would be considering the time spent talking to the parents is fairly minimal.

02/15/2013

LoveDrunk

Try being a stock man over nights at walmart or a company like that

02/15/2013

Do emu

Thank you, all of you, for sharing your experiences and advice! I have started my job hunt and I've taken all of these things into consideration. Hopefully something works out and I can stop living in fear of people, or at least not have to deal with mean people.

02/16/2013

Total posts: 14 Unique posters: 12

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