The 10 Most Stressful Jobs of 2011

Now this is a stressful job I make calls everyday that can effect a man living or getting killed due to my faulty instruction my crew trust me to make my job safe to work electricity has no conscious

911 Dispatcher ... The forgotten multitasking of all tragic events.

Who feels more stress, the medical staff or the patient? The policeman or the person being handcuffed (i.e., while presumed innocent)? The fireman or the trapped person actually in the fire?

If you feel stress at work, then you probably don't know what your doing.

Sorry, why are Air Traffic Controllers not include in this list???

reading this is stressful

I feel like I am a miserable modern time slave....(RN BS degree) working 12 hours in a very stressful situation. 1.dirty( cleaning shit,bed pan,urinal) 2.dangerous(exposed super germs always)3.difficult(pysically to lift severely obese patients, emotionally frustrated bx pt demand unrealistic priority services)4.disrespectful(some patients treat us as if we are their personal medical maid & say"you get paid for that!) I get paid little more than regular job but the stress level is horrible!!!!! I regret a lot.... that's why most of young kids don't want to go to nursing school..............
have mercy on nurses!!!( I envy 7/11 or dunkin donut workers!)

Lower paying careers and MUCH MORE stressful because not only are you having a lower income that barely meets the minimum standards of living, but you must deal with the actual stress factors in the job. For example, I am a pastry chef who has just finished an apprenticeship and must work unsociable hours sometimes starting at 1am. There is a lot of abuse in the kitchens and have had a knife held at my neck by another chef and seen other staff members who've had boiling water thrown at them, and screamed at by the sous chefs. There is also the stress of meeting the order requirements in a fast manner, producing top quality dishes, and most importantly, avoiding any fatal accidents. Many chefs have been paralysed or have had an hand/fingers chopped off. There is hardly any job satisfaction

I love to have a high paying job from this list.....such as being an teacher, advertising accountant, architect....etc.... or a lawyer

Stress is a condition that anyone can experience for a variety of reasons. Individuals are "invested" in jobs or relationships and attempt to meet requirements (either self-imposed or corporately imposed) to be successful. The common factor in stress is dealing with situations beyond our control that threaten a good outcome for what ever we are attempting to do. From welfare mothers to CEOs, everyone experiences stress for one reason or another, as we attempt to make to best of our resources. Some jobs encounter events more frequently that threaten the outcomes we work towards. The more those events occur, the more stress the worker has.

The factor of personal danger is just ONE of the conditions that threaten desired outcomes. EMTs, Firefighters, Police, Combat soldiers, all face the certainty of personal danger during the course of their jobs. Most of these people enter their fields in part, because of the desire to work in stressful, dangerous situations. None of these workers went to work hoping to just write parking tickets, do nursing home transfers, respond to false alarms, or sit around waiting for a war. But they will ALL experience stress when they are engaged in what they wanted to do.

The stress in other jobs may be more unexpected. Employers often paint a rosy picture of teamwork and company success, but the reality is that in most cases the employee bears the strain of poor support, inadequate resources, and the company's desire to improve the bottom line. Many things can be beyond the worker's control, (weather, markets, clients) and these uncertainties make for stress.

It is called "work" for a reason, and not "vacation". I think that everyone who honestly puts in a days work and tries to create a successful environment for their customers and their employer by overcoming unforeseen obstacles, should be thanked.

Thanks to everyone who puts in an honest day's work to help their customers, improve their company's position, and increase their own assets.

I agree that jobs where you hold peoples lives in your hands are the most stressful...but the others?

You wanna talk stress. Try being a server in a busy restaurant! Some of the rudest and meanest people are dining customers! You meet hundreds of new people a week and have to adjust your personality, speed, manners and tone with every table...and unlike most other jobs...your income relies on this. Not a lot of other workers have to put up with being yelled at, insulted, demeaned and even being the stress relief target for others and still have to smile and apologize without having time to take a break and shake it off.

Don't believe me? I challenge anyone to try it for a week. My guess is, you will be happy as hell to get back to your camera or real estate office!

High burn out profession...need i say more.

I have actually been a real estate agent. I am now a health care administrator. My job is vastly more stressful than a real estate agent's job. I am on call 24/7. My job is much more complicated and entails much more responsibility and risk than a real estate agent could possibly imagine. What about police officers, firefighters,nurses, ER doctors,surgeons or soldiers. Sorry, but that list is a joke. Real estate agents don't deal with life and death situations. I think the real estate agent is probably the most ridiculous and inaccurate one on the list. There is nothing wrong with being a real estate agent and it is an honorable profession, but there are many many jobs that are much more stressful than being a real estate agent. That list actually offends me and it is insulting to many people who have truly stressful jobs. I think the President of the United States should be at the top of the list. Think of all the responsibility and the weight on the President's shoulders. It would be interesting the know what convoluted formula was used to create this list.

I find it strange that teaching in a public school, especially a high school, is not included here. I have held a number of jobs over the years, including corporate marketing, and teaching is by far the most stressful.

WHAT ABOUT OUR MILITARY FIGHTING FOR THE USA TO KEEP HER FREEDOM??! THAT'S A JOB!

What about the military personnel who are deployed to combat zones, away from their families not sure when they will see their children again? Even regular day to day military life is more stressful than some of these jobs! Heck, even being a military SPOUSE involves more stress than these jobs. I guess people have forgotten the sacrifice the military make and what they go through to protect you.

you must be crazy to tell the software engineers/computer programmers are least stressed.

You do not know what they go th' - its the top-most stressful job

DO PROPER ANALYSIS BEFORE YOU POST!!! OTHERWISE QUIT THE JOB

Although stress can be found in many work environments, after 36 years of prison work I would place correctional staff high on your list. In the USA over 2.3 million adults are incarcerated (at a rate higher than any other country). Correctional staff place their life at risk each and every day doing a job most people would never want. With budget and staff reductions, staff work in settings that are often life threatening and highly stressful. Staff make it through the day because of their professionalism and dedication.

Bob Hood
Warden (Ret.)
United States Penitentiary "Supermax" - Colorado

Sorry, for a second there I could have sworn that you were describing being a bush piilot in Canada (i.e. the step one takes to become the "stressed-out airline pilot"). Sleeping on the ground/value village grape-juice-stained couch in a crew house (if you're lucky), while your buddy's sawing logs in the one "useable" room two feet away from your face. All this, for your piece of the 50 cents...living the dream ;) We all have choices here guys, if it isn't for you - teach gym.

You all do....While I agree that at some point every job has its stress...a United States Soldier has more stress than any of the jobs you have listed..the main reason is because every other job gets to go home and sleep in their bed at night, it might be late at night but at least you get to see your family..try being deployed in another country, sleeping on the ground at night and wishing you could just hear the voice of your child, spouse or any loved one and secretly hoping and praying that you made it back home to see the smile that you love so much..ya, go ahead and say whatever you want, i really dont give a f*ck..the United States Soldier has the worst job in the United States, underpaid and deals with more Bullsh*t that any job in the United States!!

A flight attendant is nowhere close to the stress level of a pilot or many other professional jobs.They do a 3 week course that could be done in a week, give me a break.

Flight attendants' absorb everyone's stress. They should be right up there with the pilots if not more so. I know I have been one. Lost baggage, incorrect meals for a diabetic, and late airplanes haves the FA's apologizing to everyone and trying to constantly calm people down. Not to mention erratic schedules, jet lag and in-flight medical emergencies. Try to calm irate and late passengers while sittng on the runway for hours!Whew! Talk about stess.

The most stress is not having a job!

First, it appalls me to see how much poor spelling and grammar are coming from the adults (in a professional position I might add!) posting on this thread, fighting over whose job is most stressful. Seriously?!
Secondly, I'm a college senior on the verge of graduation and it seems to me that most of you people in your respective occupations (regardless of whether or not you received an education), have lost sight of what really matters. As a fresh graduate, I am still DEPENDENT, and would be grateful to take a position that even pays minimum wage. Work sucks, hours are bad, people's lives are the line... blah blah blah...some of us come from less fortunate backgrounds and would do anything to receive the appropriate training for ANY of said careers mentioned on this thread. There are always going to be less fortunate people than you. It's already difficult enough finding a job and I consider myself lucky enough to receive a college education. You guys need to grow up and stop squabbling like kids comparing who gets the bigger cookie. Deal with your stress and problems like adults. You signed up for your job. You should know what you're getting yourself into.

Active duty military service is the most stressful job.

These comments look more like a contest to see who can rank in the most pity points then anything. "My job is the most stressful, no mine is blah blah." They pretty much scream "I want people to feel sorry for me" Stop complaining and realize that someone will always have it worse than you and EVERYONE goes through stress, its your body's natural response.

Total stress miserable job! lack of respect from the pilots and management low staffing levels high workload high responsibility high probability of errors with loss of rating or job no union back up low pay long hours. Miserable job. Alot of inexperience coming online in the cockpit and the dispatch desk. Look out below...

It’s very disheartening to her teachers complain about what they want out of their jobs (higher pay, better work hours, respectful students, etc.). It should be enough that you are making a difference in someone’s life, even if students don’t realize it now, they will somewhere down the road. Also, I hope that teachers realize that compared to most professions their hours are very appealing. I am a Registered Nurse and paramedic, I have gotten out of bed at all hours of the night to go on rescue calls as well as worked 12 hour shifts threw Christmas and various other holiday/family events. The reason I keep doing what I’m doing is because I love helping people and could never dream of doing something else. The same should be true of the teaching profession, and if you have to do extra work to get ahead, such as bringing your work home with you and putting time in on weekends, than do what you have to do. If you are dedicated to you’r profession, then there are very few jobs out there that don’t require putting in extra effort on your time off to make stand out.

Try being a court reporter - you're in a diffeent situation every day,
perhaps a chinese brain surgeon, an arab foot doctor, 5 attorneys, many talking over each other...fire trucks going by and the judge asking you to read what happened to the jurors because they couldn't hear. Or, reading back witnesses testimony to jurors...all from many, many, stressful situations. Then you have to type it up to the scrutiny of all the attorneys and judges...and it'd better be right or you're out on the street. Plus you have no control over how fast people talk or their accents, etc.

I HAVE A SON WHO IS A TEACHER IN THE MARYLAND SCHOOL SYSTEM AND HE HAS A TERRIBLE TIME TRYING TO TEACH HIS STUDENTS WHO DON'T PAY ATTENTION AND DO NOT HAVE RESPECT FOR HIM OR OTHERS.

I PERSONALLY THINK IF THEY BRING BACK THE DRESS CODE AND HAVE PARENTS COME INTO THE CLASSROOMS TO WATCH WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THE STUDENTS THAT MAYBE THEY MIGHT REALIZE WHAT A HARD TIME THESE TEACHERS ARE HAVING.

STUDENTS SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO HAVE CELL PHONES IN SCHOOL. THEY SHOULD ONLY TAKE THE NECESSARY BOOKS INTO CLASSROOMS AND NOT THESE BACK PACKS.

MY HUSBAND AND I WENT INTO MY SONS CLASSROOM TO WATCH WHAT WAS GOING ON AND IT SO HAPPENED THAT THE STUDENTS WERE ON GOOD BEHAVIOR THAT DAY, BUT THEY ARE NOT WHEN THERE ARE NO STRANGERS IN THE CLASSROOMS.

BEHAVIOR SHOULD START AT HOME AND PARENTS SHOULD BE AWARE OF WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE CLASSROOMS.

IF PARENTS ARE NOT ABLE TO COME TO THE SCHOOL TO SIT IN A CLASSROOM AND OBSERVE THEIR CHILDREN AND WHAT THE TEACHERS ARE DOING TO HELP THESE STUDENTS THEN MAYBE THESE STUDENTS SHOULD NOT COME TO SCHOOL.

SOME STUDENTS TRY TO DISTRACT OTHER STUDENTS WHO ARE INTERESTED IN LEARNING AND GETTING AHEAD WHERE OTHERS DON'T EVEN CARE ABOUT LEARNING.

TEACHERS DESERVE A METAL FOR PUTTING UP WITH STUDENTS WHO DOM'T WANT TO LEARN.

SOMETHING SHOULD BE DONE NOW AS THESE CHILDREN WILL SOON BE OUT IN THE REAL WORLD AND WHAT WILL THIS COUNTRY BE LIKE THEN???

I am a PR professional/spokesperson #2. And I can tell you that I would love to work 7:30 am to 3 every day at the same location w the same people. And have close to 3 months off total per year. Are you kidding me? I know your job is tough that is why I chose to get out of it and I so appreciate what you do for our children but let's live in reality a for a few minutes here.

Wouvv what a ridiculous survey is this.dear author have you ever heard about a job called Air Traffic Controller ? yes ok pilots are in stress but how about air traffic controllers? ıf you put photographer or news-caster or an architect in this list as stresfull jobs but not air traffic controller I really laugh this :))) in previous comments someone made a comparison between a doctor and pilot.yeah if a dr makes a mistake someone dies if pilot makes 400 people.but if an air traffic controller makes a mistake 400x2.A pilot conducts one plane but controller fifty at the same time.dou you think ıts not stressful that fifty airplanes going same track or reciprocal at the same time and same level to each other and seperate them.What was your criteria really to form this list?

The airline flying profession is being "walmarted" mostly because our unions are decimated.

Those of you that want a safe flight will need to be VERY careful in the next 5 years because those pilots with 20,000 hours or more and excellent backgrounds of solid training are going to be GONE.

What is in the pipeline of airline pilot training are people who will work for little or no pay, have low total aircraft flight time but are very good at simulator flying and 0 experience in critically difficult and challenging aerobatic type flying.

There is NO MORE military trained feed and the associated quality of training and weeding out process. Its being done now in simulators and in the cockpits with YOU the passenger playing a FREEMARKET crapshoot game.

Signed, 30 year, overworked, jet lagging, and paid 40% less than I was in 2003,...Experienced Military trained Airline Pilot.