What's your job and is it stressful?

[FlippertyFlopperty]

I am stressed to high heaven with mine. I think it might be time for a change. What is your role and how stressful is it?

Doctor
Very stressful but I absolutely love it, most of the time

You are amazing. Thank you.

@Rosecoffeecup same, so many unnecessary fire drills which could easily have been averted....

I have met many people in my 30 year career in early years that do your job. It’s tough beyond what many could even imagine. You do an amazing job and make a difference every day. Never under estimate what you do and unfortunately society does not value you enough. Thank you for supporting those children who need you❤️

I’m a specialist management consultant of sorts. Three years ago I was working around the clock and subject to inordinate pressure plus ongoing bullying. It got worse during the lockdowns and eventually I quit at the height of Covid to move to my current firm. Here, I am less senior, less lauded as a ‘star’ and frankly less interested in the work, but it’s ostensibly the same role for a fraction of the stress and about 30% more money. Plus I wfh instead of commuting 5 days a week. It’s amazing the difference that leaving a toxic company culture can make.

Thank you to all the public sector workers on here doing amazing work for us all

I work as a fundraiser for a national charity but one with quite a small fundraising team. My role is to put appeals together and support individuals eg people who create a direct debit, make one off donations, take part in our lottery etc. I fell into the career quite accidentally but love it 😁 Raising funds can be quite stressful, particularly in the current climate with more people asking for support but donations fairly stagnant as people have struggled with cost of living. It’s also frustrating when you see on social media people’s perceptions of charities and what happens to donations (believe me it doesn’t all go in the ceo pockets). As stressful as it can be, it’s rewarding in equal measure as you know you are making a difference and you are also helping people to be part of that difference in changing lives - a lot of my role is not just asking for donations but thanking and appreciation too - I love to be able to tell people how their gift has made a difference. I genuinely believe in the cause I work for which helps. Plus no two days are ever the same! Because we are a small team we do muck in together so I have manned cheer stations, attended balls and meals etc.

So sorry to hear this - no one should feel that about work. I am a vet too and have had spells like this but in an ok place currently. PM me if you need to chat

Can I ask what qualifications you have please. This is what my son is interested in, he has just started his A-levels

I work with older people in advice work, so mostly benefits advice, some social care advice, a bit of housing advice etc. very stressful at the moment as they are all moaning about the winter fuel payment fiasco and wanting to put in applications for every benefit going even when they don't qualify ! It's mostly ok though although we do get some tricky customers. We try to do our best with massively lacking funding and constantly have to put help on hold until our waiting list has come down. It's worthwhile when people get the help they need though.

NHS Mental Health Service - with people with severe mental illnesses. Risk assessing, triaging, solo decision-making, delivering clinical input, managing a caseload…. Most patients I assess or treat are victims of torture or have experienced severe child abuse / trauma / rape / drug abuse / poverty.

I have to decide (sometimes over the phone) if someone is at risk of taking their own life and what to do about that.

I did a degree and 2 x Masters degrees, and various previous roles in order to get to this role… However:

I’m a single parent of 2 children, and can barely cover my mortgage.

Ex vet nurse here, left the profession 5 years ago and have never looked back. It's nice to wake up in the morning and not cry at the thought of going to work. I hope things get better for you 💐

University admin-stressful. The systems and processes are shit- endless red tape, duplication of work for no fucking reason and how anything gets done is beyond me and the claim they make of being a family friendly employer are absolute bollocks.
Some students and academics speak to us like shit when we are trying our best to help and action things for their benefit. It’s a thankless job.

I am sorry you feel like this . I’m have read recently aboit a lot of vets feeling suicidal and taking their lives.

Can you go elsewhere to do your job.
i have just found an amazing vets for my animals , and the pace is so different to what I’ve seen in other places. .
They seem to have a great team ans not over booked .

I now work on the Information and Support Line for a well known End of Life Charity. It can be stressful...never know what to expect when I answer the phone. I just do my absolute best and extremely fortunate to work with a fantastic team and manager is brilliant.

Software developer. Pay is great, I work from home all the time and it isn't stressful.

I'd still rather not work, but this is a pretty relaxing job in general. Management would have been more stress but you get paid pretty well here to be on the bottom rung, so I haven't bothered.

What was your route into this?

Primary school teacher of nearly 20 years. Not SLT. Definitely stressful at times, lots of SEN needs, mixed abilities, results pressures (y6) etc but I love working with the children. I'm lucky enough to be able to work part time and in a lovely school with supportive management which means I can be around a bit more for my kids. Husband works 12 hours days every day - I don't think I'd cope full time with young kids. I know I'm very fortunate.

I’m an IFA and the practice owner. It’s occasionally stressful if we’re working to a deadline but incredibly rewarding when clients thank us for what we do. We don’t do mortgage work and pass that to other independent advisers.

I have two Paraplanners supporting me in the practice and we’ll soon be recruiting another administrator who we can train up. I encourage the staff to reach their full potential and allow them to progress to whatever level they wish to reach.

We’re very busy and get several new clients referred to us every week, mainly by other clients, so we must be doing something right.

The regulation can be onerous but the introduction of Consumer Duty last year has made our lives simpler and given us more structure.

Specialist nurse (tissue viability) it has its stressful moments but overall it's not too bad. Better than when I was a community nurse anyway!!

I work in comms for a university. There are busy periods but I never feel overwhelmed. The pay is rubbish though, not massively over minimum wage, but it is a good place to work with generous annual leave.

Secondary school teacher. Was v stressful when I was management but have stepped away to be "just" a teacher and it is lots better. I'm very experienced and that helps - seen it all before!

I support autistic adults. It's very stressful but to be fair it's the parents that are the cause of that. Obviously I understand that they want their adult children to have the same experiences as the rest of us but one set of parents in particular are next level. We can never do enough and what we do do is always wrong. They took a notion that they want their son to learn to surf and its up to us to organise this and take him yet the same man was never taught by them to wipe his own bum. Staff have actually left recently over how his parents have spoken to them. We have such high turn over of staff due to this and rely solely on agency to keep us afloat. Only 3 staff out of 14, myself included, are there from I started 3 years ago. The only reason I'm still there is I do night shift so don't have to directly deal with the parents

Nursing Associate Student. NHS employee - full time (study and placements). I've got a two and a three year old at home. So yes while all the assignments, arranging childcare, covering holidays, working on an elderly care ward is stressful - I love it. I've found the right job for me and am in my mid 30s. Really happy where I am in life.

Inherently it's stressful because you're expected to perform highly precise procedures inside live people's mouths, with literally no margin for error. You're holding a drill spinning thousands of revolutions per minute next to people's tongues. And the tongues don't sit still.

The public have also gotten noticeably harder to deal with, especially since covid.
It's also very litigious. I'm constantly worried I'm going to be sued / I've missed something (especially in higher-needs patients who have 20 things wrong with their mouths, and I have less than a minute to fully report their X rays and plan their treatment).

I am looking to move into a hospital role soon where some of these factors, hopefully, are negated a bit.