Stressful Jobs
Jobs have become synonymous with stress these days as companies demand more and more out of their employees. Moreover, the lurking danger of a job loss due to a bunch of potential candidates out there eyeing your post does compound the stress-related issues that one finds with his or her job. Though everyone would agree that every job has some degree of stress associated with it but there are some in particular which have somewhat greater presence of stress at the work place. Needless to say that these would surely qualify as the most stressful jobs one would come across in his or her career. Let us have a close look at some of these jobs and find out the tasks that make them to be counted amongst the dreaded list of most stressful jobs.
• Customer service personnel/ Complaints handling: This would surely count as one of the most stressful jobs. With angry customers in no mood to listen and putting a blame on you for each and every thing that’s messed up in their lives, a customer care job can really pose serious stress issues. Add to it the pressures of targets and deadlines; this job profile has the potential of turning even the most mentally resilient of workers into wimps pleading for mercy. A cool head on the shoulders with good listening skills can certainly help you face stressful situations and scrape past them with relative ease.
• Air Traffic Controller: One of the many thankless jobs in the world where a single mistake on your part is enough to ruin your reputation and career while you hardly get recognition or appreciation for the exemplary work that you put in over the years. This highly demanding job requires execution of a string of complex tasks that need to be performed with utmost precision as the slightest of errors could lead to loss of numerous innocent lives. The ever increasing complexity of air traffic due to sharp rise in the number of flights coupled with long working hours without breaks lead to enormous stress among the individuals carrying out their duties in this job field.
• Police Officer: You will not find too many police officials with smiles on their faces and who would blame them for that. Maintaining a happy facial expression is hard for these people who have to deal with notorious criminals day in and day out. Witnessing gruesome scenes of brutal crimes and tasks that are energy sapping make matters worse. It is no surprise that statistics reveal that a number of cops take up to alcoholism as an escape route to suppress the symptoms of stress. The high suicide and divorce cases in case of police officials is also conclusive evidence to the fact that stress due to work has begun to take a toll on their personal lives.
• Sales Executive: A job where you find your boss breathing down your neck and constantly inquiring about the sales targets achieved is ought to be stressing indeed. In addition to this, what adds to the stress factor in this job is the relentless race to keep yourself ahead of your competitors in order to reach out to the customers before anyone else does. With its performance expectations and deadlines, a job of being a sales executive makes its way to the list of most stressful jobs.
• Waiter: A job that requires a lot of multitasking is bound to be stressful and this one is no exception either. Stress is arguably the most pernicious of side effects that waiters face at their work place. One has to work under a lot of pressure during busy hours and cater to different needs of the customers. What makes the job even more hectic is that waiters need to be quick when it comes to taking down orders and making bills as any sort of delay is enough to irk the customers and put them in trouble. Dealing politely with angry and rude customers is another task worth mentioning that tends to take their job-induced stress levels to a new high.
• Medical Intern: Insecurity regarding future career prospects, long working hours, frequent duties, lack of encouragement and literally no spare time to be with family and friends are some of the key factors that lead to stress-related issues among medical interns. Absence or poor access to support groups and counselors results in aggravating the stress problems which, if not addressed in time, can manifest into serious ailments such as depression and anxiety. Studies suggest that of the above mentioned factors the one which happens to be prime cause for stress is the inability of medical interns to fulfill their social and family obligations due to busy schedules.
• Miner: This job demands a high degree of physical labor and comes with its own share of life threatening risks of working in a dangerous mining environment. With the possibilities of a disaster not being far away, this job is meant for only those who can compliment there immense physique with nerves of steel.
• Stockbroker: It might not be as physically taxing as the one mentioned above but the job of a stock broker does come with its share of concerns and worries that are potent enough to cause a lot of stress. A stockbroker needs to keep himself calm at all times even when the markets are not responding to his moves. This is not something that comes naturally to humans and thus an effort to suppress emotions and move on in pursuit of goals for respective clients leads to development of stress in this profession which looks very exciting from the outside but is marked with moments of anxiety and uncertainty over the anticipation regarding the future trends of the stock market.
• Surgeons: A lot is at stake when a surgeon operates upon his patient. There is nothing as precious in the world as someone’s life, and being aware of the fact that it’s in your hands can certainly be a reason to get stressed. The high degree of expectations and the gravity of the work they are performing always keep playing on their mind. The hands would tremble but they can’t afford to let them do so as accuracy is what matters in this complicated task and decides upon as to how successful the surgery would be. Whenever a surgeon takes up to his surgical instruments to perform a surgery, a fair amount of stress is guaranteed.
