Only now, am I starting to think I should have listened more to what people said to me when I was at school. I was told to work in computing.
My health is OK at the moment, I'm 42 and have a few aches and pains but I can't complain too much.
I'm worried about the possibility of osteoarthritis. It's a lottery as to who will be affected and to what degree.
People might say "Have a career change". But it's easier said than done.

1. I only have qualifications and experience to do what I do.

2. If I gain qualifications in something else, and I apply for jobs, I will have qualifications but no experience. So I will lose out.

3. If I do get a job, salary wise I will be starting at the bottom.

4. There isnt any job that I could parachute into and be on the same money I am on now. I have bills to pay.

I briefly tried working as a maintenance engineer in a food factory but I just couldn't do it.
Firstly, all the experience I have in refrigeration was of no use to me.
In a factory you either have to be a fully qualified, time served electrician with experience. Or a fully qualified, time served fitter with experience.
I was neither.

All the know how I have about refrigeration built up over years is what I would have had to have on packaging machines and conveyer systems. Plus you had to do traditional sparky type things. The fitters could all do TIG welding.......

Lastly, the culture is totally different. I meet other fridge and AC guys and we always get on well. An AC guy once asked for a loan of a bottle adapter. I helped him out.
In a factory, everyone is at each others throats. Nobody shares tools. Nobody will help anyone else. It's very adversarial.

Any body have any experiences which relate to this?

At the moment I'm just glad I have a job😃