Very stressful jobs

[ThirtyThrillionThreeTrees]

AIBU to think that a job of jobs being described as very stressful aren't really.

There's a hell of a lot of posters who use the phrase "my husband has a very stressful job".

Some of my colleagues describe our job as very stressful. Sure it's detailed and precise and there's a lot of things to know but it's not actually stressful if you are organised & good are time management.

Are people who find their jobs stressful actually in the right roles?

Or is it the environment that's stressful rather than the actual role. Poor management, bad culture etc.

I'm sure roles involving emergency services are stressful but surely most jobs shouldn't be stressful if you know what your doing?

Just curious.

I think when I first started out as a junior I found my job v stressful but despite having a lot more responsibility these days, and being a head of department, I think I just cope better and consequently find it less stressful. Does that happen with age / experience? Or is it because I have more autonomy now?

There have been studies on this, it’s increased autonomy/control over how you manage the workload.

Junior staff are generally more stressed than CEOs, despite having much less responsibility.

There have been studies on this, it’s increased autonomy/control over how you manage the workload.

I think it's also that you actually do less work the more senior you are because you know more and the work you are asked to do relates to that knowledge so is quicker and easier.

Say you work in a Growing Bonsai Trees Company*

when you are junior you will be running round planting bonsai trees, learning about them, trimming them, training them, watering them - it will be full on busy and mostly hard labour. This applies to most jobs if you are in an officey profession it will be doing the photocopying and research for the senior people.

when you are senior, someone will bring you a bonsai tree and ask you about a complicated bonsai tree problem, you will look at it contemplatively and say 'ah this reminds me of the problem I once saw in 1988 when I was a junior bonsai assistant and the bonsai guru solved it by doing X. Let's do X'. but you only know how to do X because of your years of hard labour.

*disclaimer: I know nothing about growing bonsai trees but its the first thing that came into my head!

additionally, weirdly the more senior you are the less your mistakes matter because the problems you face and are asked to deal with are so much more difficult - which in turn means it's probably all going to go wrong anyway when it won't be your fault. when you are junior, your mistakes tend to be basic idiotic mistakes that no one would make and cause huge losses beause it would never have gone wrong at that point.