Balance work, home, and self by accepting a career in secret shopping. A secret shopper is a paid shopper, someone who goes to their favorite shopping store, restaurant, and self storage facility and gets paid to tell about their experience. As a quality assurance tactic, companies hire a quality assurance service to send out a paid shopper to see if their salespeople and property managers are following the companys customer service expectations. Otherwise, what other way could a company get a proper assessment? Sales reports just show revenue. Though companies enjoy and praise salespeople for high revenue, they do not know by what means. A salesperson or property manager could use unethical tactics that could come back to haunt the company. That high revenue will hurt them in the long run. And an employee will act different when their superior is present. This is a chance for them to impress so you cannot evaluate performance based on your own observations. A paid shopper evaluates a salesperson or property manager from the customers point of view. Since the employee is unaware he is helping is a paid shopper, the employee carries on with his normal approach. Now a true and honest evaluation takes place.

Paid shopper or secret shopper is a perfect career for someone who needs to balance their work, home, and self. A paid shopper works on their own schedule and for as many hours as they like. So a stay at home parent can start work after the kids go to school and stop when the kids return back home. A paid shopper has time to enjoy a cup of warm coffee while reading the morning paper at the kitchen table. Then they can take a long hot shower or bath without anyone knocking on the door. They put on comfortable clothes and shoes. Before they head out the door, a paid shopper has time for another cup of warm coffee and a phone call to a friend.

By the time the paid shopper gets on the road, normal people are just getting over the morning commute. They drive to a location within their hometown and have breakfast at a well-known restaurant. Bad food and poor customer service are the only job hazards for a paid shopper. They do not have a boss hounding them to get something done or a customer who needs some fixing. The pressure to purchase something is nonexistent since their assignment is to buy something anyway or it is to simply evaluate. Then the paid shopper heads home before normal workers eat their lunch and prepares a report about the secret shopping experience. The paid shopper has time to take an afternoon nap before the kids return home from school. They might prepare a snack for their kids to feed those hungry bellies.

Now it is time to take the kids to their afternoon activities. While the kids are at band practice, the paid shopper can drop in at another location. This time it could be a retail clothing store. While on the job they find a nice sweater and decide to buy it. Then the secret shopper picks up the kids from band practice and goes home before the second rush hour. While the kids do their homework, the secret shopper calls a self storage facility and evaluates the property manager. By the time the paid shopper is finished signing the report, their spouse comes home from work and fixes the family dinner. And that is all in a days work.