Eleven, Er, Ten Most Stressful Jobs in America

Nancy Anderson
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As much as I’m not a huge fan of ‘10 Most...’ lists (especially not the one-per-page layout), I did take time to read HowStuffWorks10 Most Stressful Jobs in America. Most ‘top ten’ style lists usually only have a few moments worth of entertainment in them, but reading through this article highlights some of the more important things about what makes a job stressful.

The list covers most of the jobs you’d expect to find, like emergency personnel, miners, and medical professionals. But here’s the spoiler: The number one slot is occupied by Working Parents. From the article:
 
The stress arises largely from being pulled in so many, often contradictory, directions. If parents deal with a child's problems -- illness, trouble at school, emotional problems, whatever -- at work, they may worry about neglecting deadlines. If they don't deal with the children's problems immediately, parents are going to feel guilty.

They make the excellent point that it’s difficult to balance the demands of both parenting and working; I’ve found this myself, from time to time And finding that balance can be exceptionally difficult. Lifehacker has a number of good articles in their archives dealing with work-life balance, and getting that in order can allow you get things together in order to succeed at the job you currently have, or to really buckle down and get the job you really want.

Some might feel that putting ‘Working Parent’ at the top of the list is a bit of a cop-out, though: It’s like writing, “The most stressful job is having two jobs.” That said, I couldn’t agree more.
 
 



Mike Wrightly is mostly diesel fumes and duct tape; he grew up around heavy equipment, and holds a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering.

 

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