A good job for not even that: in high school I worked summers as night-watch at a local suburban pool. 40 hours a week, $9.20/hr, or ~$4000 a summer. There was zero demand on my time during it since I worked overnight. I got a lot of reading done.
The only downside was that it was seasonal (so you couldn’t just do that job), and you could be profoundly mentally screwed by the sleep schedule.
I think I could do better now than I did before with melatonin, modafinil, blackout curtains, etc.
It doesn’t seem like the seasonal basis of the job is inherant in night-watchmen idea—there must be lots of warehouses, etc., that need nightwatchmen. I can imagine worse things than being paid to read.
Right. In my case, the seasonality came from it being a pool—it was only worthwhile to pay nightwatchmen when it was actually filled and multi-million dollar liability existed for accidental drowning (read: middle-class teens holding drugged parties).
In a more ‘real’ nightwatch job, seasonality might not be a problem. On the other hand, you might have more supervision than I did. (Which was none. I saw my nominal boss once at the beginning.)
In any event, the free time was what you made of it. Akrasia was a major issue.
A job in a similar vein which I know of but haven’t personally held: Night shift at a funeral home. Someone needs to do embalming prep for bodies that show up at 2:37 AM, and they’ll generally pay well for you being on-site and on-call.
A good job for not even that: in high school I worked summers as night-watch at a local suburban pool. 40 hours a week, $9.20/hr, or ~$4000 a summer. There was zero demand on my time during it since I worked overnight. I got a lot of reading done.
The only downside was that it was seasonal (so you couldn’t just do that job), and you could be profoundly mentally screwed by the sleep schedule.
I think I could do better now than I did before with melatonin, modafinil, blackout curtains, etc.
It doesn’t seem like the seasonal basis of the job is inherant in night-watchmen idea—there must be lots of warehouses, etc., that need nightwatchmen. I can imagine worse things than being paid to read.
Right. In my case, the seasonality came from it being a pool—it was only worthwhile to pay nightwatchmen when it was actually filled and multi-million dollar liability existed for accidental drowning (read: middle-class teens holding drugged parties).
In a more ‘real’ nightwatch job, seasonality might not be a problem. On the other hand, you might have more supervision than I did. (Which was none. I saw my nominal boss once at the beginning.)
In any event, the free time was what you made of it. Akrasia was a major issue.
A job in a similar vein which I know of but haven’t personally held: Night shift at a funeral home. Someone needs to do embalming prep for bodies that show up at 2:37 AM, and they’ll generally pay well for you being on-site and on-call.