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8 Most Stressful Careers

By September 24, 2009Business, Culture

iStock_000000053566XSmallI love Southwest’s magazine.  I always find interesting articles to kill time during flights.  This month was no exception.  I am glad that let you bring these magazines home. (They do, don’t they?)

Do you feel like you have a stressful career?

According to a survey by careercast.com highlighted in Spirit Magazine, here are the jobs that send workers home most exhausted:

  1. Firefighter
  2. Surgeon
  3. Senior corporate executive
  4. Police officer
  5. Roustabout
  6. Sailor
  7. General practice physician
  8. Psychiatrist

I don’t know that I qualify, but if I can be considered a “Senior Corporate Executive” with our church, then the article helps explain why I seem to have so much stress in my work these days.  I realize I am a pastor, but lately, with the growth of our church, I seem to do play administrative roles than spiritual roles.  Read posts about that change in my role HERE and HERE.

I know a few careers I was surprised were not on the list.  These jobs would stress me:

  • Homemaker
  • School teacher
  • Lion trainer
  • Daycare worker
  • Soldier
  • Small business owner
  • Professional chess (or poker) player
  • Santa Claus

Is your career on the list?  If not, do you think it should be?  I guess at any given time it could be our career on the list.   What do you think?

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Ron Edmondson

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Join the discussion 7 Comments

  • KRISTIN PEARSON says:

    Nursing is very stressful. I am an ER nurse. We are on our feet for 12 hrs/day, and have to be prepared to deal with whatever comes in. Saving lives, dealing with death….and dealing with patients and families who are not always very polite. Of course, patients and their families are under stress, so usually bad behavior is overlooked…..to a certain extent. However, at times I feel unsafe in my job. Dealing with homicidal patients, etc. People can be very verbally abusive to their caregivers as well.

  • susan says:

    I’m a hairstylist and let me tell you about stress I deal with all sorts of personalities clients and co workers and by the end of the day I don’t want to talk to another soul. When it gets busy in the salon you are running from the time you get in til you leave, trying to make time for each person, listening to thier life stories, their complaints about thier hair, time is of the essence in this field. And if the head you are working on goes a wry… well lets not even go there. bottom line anyone who deals with the public can tell you its not easy

    • Ron says:

      Susan, I worked in the public for many years in retail. I agree. Anyone who deals with people often will be subject to stress. (I’m actually writing my own blog about stress next week…basically it’s all relative to context.

  • Ben Reed
    Twitter:
    says:

    Tony, Ron does ALMOST each one. But, thankfully, I’ll not go to him when I need surgery.
    .-= Ben Reed´s last blog ..The Changing Landscape of Technology and Social Media =-.

  • Tony says:

    If you think about it… you probably do almost all of them.. it just looks a little different within a church. If you look at the duties/responsibilities for each job and then look at all of yours… you can probably find a parallel for each one.