TL;DR: Could people recommend some job ideas for a 50 year old with no college education, basic art design background, unemployed for a couple years, and limited physical abilities due to vertigo. Comcast help desk hires in the area. Costco checker is too difficult (!); my guess is Star Bucks is too much time on his feet.
Long Version: We have a friend who has some physical issues but needs a job. More accurately he needs to work and it doesn't really matter what.
The challenge is he has some physical issues and very limited skill set.
He has Meniere's disease and high blood pressure. He doesn't qualify for disability but the vertigo does impact his ability to do some jobs (exertion and long hours on his feet exasperate his issues). In general he is a sickly person (in 2016 he has had a couple kidney stones and C Diff. that relapsed) and while not overweight is excessively sedentary and lacks strength or stamina.
He lives 30 miles north of Seattle, is 52, doesn't have a college education, has a wife, a teenage son, his elderly/disabled mother lives with him, and has been unemployed for a couple years. He was previously employed for about 15 years as graphics design artist for a jacket company. My understanding is he allowed his skills to stagnate to a degree while doing stencil style logos and really cannot compete with younger, more talented, more "hungry" (i.e. driven) artists. I tried web design and that didn't go well--he is a person who needs direction and oversight as he isn't very organized or self motivated enough for independent work. He lacks self confidence and struggles with major depression.
He loses his house in June and will be on the street (literally) unless he finds work.
He has been looking and working with a recruiter as well as a state job counselor. He is in all the programs, even the one that offers to pay employers to take on employees who have been out of work for long periods.
He is not a desirable candidate for the jobs he wants or the pay range he feels entitled to.
As you can tell the frank reality is he needs to suck it up and get a job--or two.
I am understanding of his real physical challenges, like Meniere's which isn't fun (I had SCDS and can vouch vertigo and audio/balance disturbances are difficult to deal with), but the reality is he needs to work. Now. And stop making excuses. Because if he takes his present course of expecting others to
Just telling him that doesn't work -- maybe nothing will.
But a number of his friends, mainly out of concern for his wife/son/mother, want to present some job ideas he cannot dismiss out of hand due to health. He goes to our Church and while everyone is more than happy to help others out, and have helped him, the feeling is if he refuses to work he needs to deal with the consequences. But we want to ensure we are reaching out and helping him find work he can do.
We have done this before, but now that his house is in the final stages of foreclosure/getting kicked out this is "show time" and he needs to look at every option. Whether he has a job to get a basic apartment is on him. If he is refusing to chase work he can do it changes the dynamic of how we feel we should help him.
Long Version: We have a friend who has some physical issues but needs a job. More accurately he needs to work and it doesn't really matter what.
The challenge is he has some physical issues and very limited skill set.
He has Meniere's disease and high blood pressure. He doesn't qualify for disability but the vertigo does impact his ability to do some jobs (exertion and long hours on his feet exasperate his issues). In general he is a sickly person (in 2016 he has had a couple kidney stones and C Diff. that relapsed) and while not overweight is excessively sedentary and lacks strength or stamina.
He lives 30 miles north of Seattle, is 52, doesn't have a college education, has a wife, a teenage son, his elderly/disabled mother lives with him, and has been unemployed for a couple years. He was previously employed for about 15 years as graphics design artist for a jacket company. My understanding is he allowed his skills to stagnate to a degree while doing stencil style logos and really cannot compete with younger, more talented, more "hungry" (i.e. driven) artists. I tried web design and that didn't go well--he is a person who needs direction and oversight as he isn't very organized or self motivated enough for independent work. He lacks self confidence and struggles with major depression.
He loses his house in June and will be on the street (literally) unless he finds work.
He has been looking and working with a recruiter as well as a state job counselor. He is in all the programs, even the one that offers to pay employers to take on employees who have been out of work for long periods.
He is not a desirable candidate for the jobs he wants or the pay range he feels entitled to.
As you can tell the frank reality is he needs to suck it up and get a job--or two.
I am understanding of his real physical challenges, like Meniere's which isn't fun (I had SCDS and can vouch vertigo and audio/balance disturbances are difficult to deal with), but the reality is he needs to work. Now. And stop making excuses. Because if he takes his present course of expecting others to
Just telling him that doesn't work -- maybe nothing will.
But a number of his friends, mainly out of concern for his wife/son/mother, want to present some job ideas he cannot dismiss out of hand due to health. He goes to our Church and while everyone is more than happy to help others out, and have helped him, the feeling is if he refuses to work he needs to deal with the consequences. But we want to ensure we are reaching out and helping him find work he can do.
We have done this before, but now that his house is in the final stages of foreclosure/getting kicked out this is "show time" and he needs to look at every option. Whether he has a job to get a basic apartment is on him. If he is refusing to chase work he can do it changes the dynamic of how we feel we should help him.
