To be baffled by how everyone on MN claims to have a really stressful job

[T1nah]

Or their DH does. Or they both do.
What exactly is so stressful about your jobs? Does everyone work in Intensive Care or are you being a bit dramatic about the pressures of your job?

I think that the OP is a professional GF, unfortunately she isn't very good at it and its making her feel all stressed out.

I’m single I don’t have a partner does that mean I qualify for a stressful job?
I am having to take a staff member to disciplinary and my manager has decided to leave. I was going to WFH tomorrow to catch up on admin but I can’t now as I need to cover someone’s work and have fallen even further behind in my own workload. I will probably work the BH to catch up

if I were a GF I'd be doing some actual goading. Instead I've read every post and, whilst I've never doubted some people have v stressful jobs, this thread have proven that most people don't really.

Interesting post about the pizza workers. I can imagine that makes for a stressful working life.

As for me, I became a primary school teacher in my 30s. The only stressful part of my job was my whinging colleagues. No profession complains more than teachers.

I'm self employed now and work part-time from home and do some supply when it suits.

Stress is the body’s response to perceived threats to life or safety.

When that threat came from a sabre-toothed tiger or a marauding band from the neighbouring tribe, adrenaline would be released, our heart would start pumping, and we would either run away or fight our way out.... or die. The rest of the time, our physiology was in a more relaxed state.

Now, the threat is the boss adding more demands, customers shouting at us, knowing that someone is for the chop and it might be us, being expected to respond to our phones 24/7, or a hundred other things which others have mentioned. Depending on the particular demands and our own capacities and what is going on in the rest of our lives, we may or may not have adequate time to recuperate before the next threat.

If we don’t, then we begin to exhibit symptoms of stress, such as difficulty sleeping, becoming tearful, irritable, digestive problems, substance abuse and so on.

If someone is experiencing these symptoms, and it is their work (or the thought of it) that mainly induces them, then they are experiencing work place stress. You can call them snowflakes all you like, their cortisol levels are probably through the roof.

T1nah
if I were a GF I'd be doing some actual goading.

Yet you have worded what could have been a truly brilliant thread in such a way that it is goady.

Your minimal responses add little to the thread and are there just to goad.

but you know this already.

Depends if you perceive problems as challenges you can cope with or overwhelming stress that you can't. 80% of people I work with are always huffing and puffing about how hard everything is, I work in mental health so yes dealing with suicide and self harm, overwhelming emotions, social services, etc is really stressful. But. There are policies and procedures, lots of people around to help, supportive management, the wider NHS etc. It's all a matter of perception. I quite enjoy helping people in crisis but other people hate it.

Yet you have worded what could have been a truly brilliant thread in such a way that it is goady

Don't see how it could have been "truly brilliant" but it has been interesting. Feel free to start your own though, Boney, you're clearly worked up.

The policies and procedures only work if there are enough people to carry them out!
When you take on a workload of a certain level, and then it continues to increase in size and complexity past what you are mentally and physically capable of managing it’s going to lead to stress. My Trust has been through a horrible 2 year restructure with demotions and moves, this has put a huge amount of pressure on staff and many have not been able to handle the stress of it. It’s not what they signed up for in reality and take on more and more until breaking point. People at the top of the org suffer different levels of stress to those Lower but it doesnt mean it isn’t stress and that people don’t experience it to some degree.

Everyone has different tolerance levels, so I think YABU to belittle their feelings, OP.

I used to spend tens of thousands of government cash every day, a responsibility that I took seriously and wanted very much to get right. In another job I dealt with people's wages; that weighed heavy on me as I'd never want to get that wrong. Of my own making to an extent, but I did find it stressful at times.

I’m a teacher. Adore my job, but I do genuinely think it’s stressful because there’s not a switch off period at the end of the day. 7.30-6 in school, then c three hours per evenings, more during assessment season/report times etc. It’s not the job itself, it’s the workload.

My OH was a firefighter before he gave it up. Now that’s stressful for a whole different reason imo.

My brother is an investment banker. He thinks this is stressful, then tells us all about the three hour lunches and company funded trips....

Interestingly psychopaths register very low stress levels in traditionally stressful situations. Empathy can be ruinous - you're always wanting others to be happy even if that means compromising yourself in some way. I'm in a leadership role and am having to learn not to occupy the space of empathy as often as a naturally would. Is this a good or bad thing I don't know.

T1nah

you're clearly worked up.

Nah, Just amused at your denial.

But your thread could have been about how it seems like a lot of people want to see themselves as victims.

Or how different people are effected by different levels of stress.
Or why people see certain jobs as piss easy when they can be quite stressful.
Or why people want to offload about their bad days at work.
Or even how companies could put in proper support mechanisms for their staff that are finding it difficult. Or how their employees don't use them

Any of these would have been better than OMG snowflakes. but each to their own.

Go on then, Boney, start some fascinating threads for us

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

You seem to be getting stressed.

What a pp said. Its the lack of recovery periods that intensify stress. For me coming home from work to have to deal with 2 demanding DCs as a LP. Thats the killer. Many of my colleagues have no children so at least they get to defrag in the evenings. Also IMHO the school run before work is the most stressful experience known to man or woman.

I’m watching the television programme about violence against NHS staff. Working in the NHS, especially with patients in stressful. Assaults on staff used to be rare but is now a constant challenge.

Revenue protection staff on trains wear body cameras and body armour.

Are the general public more stressed and take it out on staff?

The assaults have got worse. I've had my nose broken. I also had a patient call me a cunt, grab my scissors from my pocket and try to stab me with them because I wasn't making him a cup of coffee because I had an unwell patient I needed to attend to. Another one rammed a table into my stomach because he was financially abusing his mother and I wouldn't let him steal her house keys. Had shoes thrown at my head because i said we couldnt pay for a taxi. Had to press panic buttons a lot when I worked on a&e. It's disgusting.

OP, hard to find more sneering and unpleasant replies than yours.
Finding it difficult to understand what you wanted to achieve by posting.

So the conclusion of the OP, having read many people's heartfelt posts, is that whatever they might think, in her opinion they don't really have stressful jobs and/or they are just imagining their stressful situations

Riiiiight

As for me, I became a primary school teacher in my 30s. The only stressful part of my job was my whinging colleagues. No profession complains more than teachers.

Aha. I suspect the OP has been itching to deliver this punchline all along. There are few people who sound more smug than the very very few teachers who like to join the teacher-bashing masses.

Yes you're right, OP. All is well in the education system, the job is not at all stressful and teachers are leaving in their droves for no good reason and will no doubt find that a new job in the 'real world' will make them realise what a piece of piss teaching really was and that they must have been inadequate human beings for finding it stressful.

I am a GP and I find that my job has got significantly more stressful over the past 10 years. Many, many reasons. Minimum 10 hour days, no breaks, constant decision making, being the dumping ground for anything and everything, unrealistic patient expectation, trying to manage very complex patients with multiple problems in 10 mins and consequently never running on time, lots of mental health and inadequate support which is difficult to access for these patients. At the end of each day at work I feel completely sucked dry and no matter how hard I have worked I still don't feel I have done enough. Fortunately I don't have the stress of running a business as I am not a partner, plus I only work 2 days per week (for all the reasons above and my own mental health and wellbeing)