Seven Stressful Occupations
#1 Job Stress: Fast Food
Possibly the granddaddy of them all, fast food is one of the most difficult jobs to ever deal with. You’re around food for so many hours of the day you begin to smell like it. 50% of customers are rude, impatient, lousy and have high expectations of you. They consider you scum and treat you with less respect because of your job status. Not to mention, the pay isn’t all that great-just barely above the line of minimum wage. Advancements are frequent, but don’t offer many benefits.
#2 Job Stress: Retail/Sales
In this modern day and time of higher gas prices and cost of living, Americans need more steady and solid income. There isn’t much stability in this field, and many things are not guaranteed. No guaranteed income, no guarantee that the product will sell and no guarantee that although cheap customers will be interested. Advancements aren’t as frequent, but termination and resigning are.
#3 Job Stress: Telemarketing
Quite similar to #2 Job Stress, the difference is doing it over the phone. If you have a great telephone voice and appreciate the essence of the being on the phone, this may be the occupation for you. However, many find it difficult to succeed in this field because of the many number of hang-ups they receive.
#4 Job Stress: Customer Service
The middleman of the company, the seeds that sprout out and blossom a company to the finest and colorful petals. Customer service requires a combination of patience, understanding, flexibility, and boundless willing attitude. In many cases, this can be a deadly combination for that “perfect” customer who cannot cooperate with you. Customers often get frustrated and want to speak with a manager, when the same problem management fixes could’ve been dealt with by you if only they would’ve listened. Be weary and stay on your toes in the battlefield, solider.
#5 Job Stress: Celebrity/Movie Star
Many of us have fantasized and dreamed of being celebrities and movie stars but have no idea of how stressful it is. We see the glitter, the limo rides, the interviews, the rolling of the red carpet, the emmys, the remy, the billboards on highways and think this is the life for us. The world has its eye on you! Who would ever think that a simple trip to a nearby grocery store would draw a huge mob outside surrounding your vehicle. They wait patiently for you to return just so they can touch you and tell you how great they think you are. In the beginning it’s all magnificent, but once you reach veteran status you tend to want that much less of a mob around you. Relationships don’t get any easier, either. At one point in life you could get away with smoking a cigarette and cutting the grass. But you’ll notice the difference that next day in the newspaper when your face is shown, “LOCAL CELEBRITY ENJOYS SMOKING AND GRASS CUTTING, TURN TO B11 FOR MORE DETAILS OF THIS STORY.”
#6 Job Stress: Professional Sports
Your favorite song on the radio station plays. You envision this song as the theme of your championship victory. The crowd snaps unbelievable volumes of photographs as you smile away and wave with roses piling up at your feet. The trophy is all yours, and that entire flock of green presidents waiting in your (3) bank accounts. It’s a job well done, and a storybook ending right? WRONG! You think it’s that easy!? You must be insane to believe that the drama and passion of sports entertainment is easy to muscle. The whole world looks on as you stare across the ring at “Iron” Mike Tyson awaiting the opening bell. The whole world looks on as you approach the basket to make the game winning shot. You miss, you get knocked out and so does your popularity. To compete in professional sports takes breath taking talent and skill. Even with those two attributes under your belt, whose to say you won’t lose or get seriously, permanently hurt or die. These are the factors you have to remember when you become involved in such high-energy activities.
#7 Job Stress: Manager
Picture running a fortune 500 company, you have the greatest employees and a team of astonishing effort and success. The weekend vacation was peaceful knowing your squadron of 10 has everything under control while you were away. You now feel proud to return to work the following day and resume.
That Monday morning you find out that your top 3 elite employees have resigned and another 2 are out sick. The other 5 have lost interest in their work and are deciding to plan a strike for higher income. Your company falls to the ground from which is was built as endlessly you desperately search through resumes trying to find the proper candidate for hire. The strike still continues, and the strikers have even scared away potential good employees to ensure that your business never rises again. Now president and CEO wants to meet with you all of a sudden. Will you have an answer for them?
When you really look at it, any occupation can be stressful. Whether it’s just a job, career, part-time or fulltime isn’t the point. The point, however, comes down to how miserable one may actually be, despite the salary earnings. Theoretically, many of us have learned that no matter which job we apply to, stress will be there and we must learn to deal with it in order to succeed. Partially true, the other half that isn’t spoken about is that we must find something that fits who we are. The money will be there, if the willingness is there right alongside it. In other words, it’s no point to continually scrape and struggle for a place that causes tremendous stress and nervous breakdowns. But, if in your heart, it is tremendous stress and nervous breakdowns that you want, than God bless you in your journey. “Rhyme” Jerrell Ellerbe.
