Military personnel's job most stressful: Survey

Clinical psychologists and psychiatrists have stated that one of the major reasons why people suffer from severe stress nowadays is the erratic nature of their jobs and the kind of profession they are in. There are several reasons that can attribute to a particular job being stressful. The major ones being the incessant need of meeting deadlines and the cut-throat competition.

Talking about the stressful nature of jobs, author Laurence Shatkin in one of her earlier interviews had said, “It used to be common to hear about ‘mid-life career changers’, but today one also hears the phrase ‘quarter-life career changers’ because so many people in their 20s feel the need for a career change—most often because of stress.”

A survey conducted by CareerCast.com, a career guidance website, earlier this year stated the job of a military personnel to be the most stressful out of the lot owing to the life and death situation they have to face. They also have no family life as most of the time they are at war. Those who are in the lower cadre get paid very less for the everyday danger they have to encounter.

The second in the list is the job of a firefighter, whose job, needless to say, is equally dangerous to that of a military personnel. Closely following these professions is the job of a commercial air pilot, whose job is potentially life-threatening. Also, most go without getting salaries, owing to the financial slowdown that the sector is facing.

The next ones in the line are, surprisingly, that of a public relations (PR) executive and a senior corporate executive officer, whose job profiles are very different as compared to the previous professions.  

Prajakta Bhosale (name changed), who has been working in the PR industry for the past two years, said, “Nowadays every job is stressful. The job doesn’t need to be life-threatening to be stressful. Erratic work timings coupled with the challenge of playing the perfect balance between the client and the media, and ensuring that the work is completed within the stipulated time is quite stressful.”

Talking about the media, photojournalists and news reporters also feature in the list. In fact, so stressful is their job that they top the list of ten worst jobs in 2013. Their profession has always been ranked as the worst and one of the most stressful jobs in most of the surveys the website has conducted. Low salary, seven-day week (in most cases), poor hiring outlook, occasional risk involved, strict deadlines and erratic timings contribute to make it so.