That's a shocker!

As I was updating myself via my social networking sites today, I spotted a post on twitter by Mark Ragan, (Publisher of PR Daily and PR Daily Europe), titled "5 most-popular stories on PR Daily this week http://bit.ly/eykp2S". I had a look and found that the top article of the week was called "PR pro is the second-most stressful job". I thought what? Surely there are a good few number of jobs about that are more stressful than a PR officer, aren't there?

Well apparently, I'm wrong. According to CareerCast, Commercial Airline Pilot is the only profession that tops a PR officer on the stress front. I can't argue that giving presentations and making speeches to massive crowds of people on a weekly basis isn't daunting, but surely stress levels depend on the person as well, don't they? Maybe, on average, professionals feel high pressure to 'please the people', but I would have thought a Stockbroker (ranked at number eight) would have come up higher in the ranks. Even a job as an emergency medical technician was ranked at number nine - so, trying to save a person's life isn't as stressful? Grey hair and dark circles in my 20s as a PRP doesn't sound like a happy start to my career, but I suppose that's why some of the most stressful jobs are paid so well. I reckon stress counts for about a quarter of a decent corporate salary!

Stress, of course goes hand in hand with the quick paced business world. Deadlines, meetings, presentations... all hurry, hurry, hurry! As a society, we've done a great job at creating unbelievable amounts of stress for ourselves, not just within our careers but in everyday life, and what for? Big company bosses are pressuring employees too much, as we all know, and in this competitive climate it's twice as bad. Stress is physical ailment too ultimately. Check out this list of symptoms and effects the American Institute of Stress has on its website: http://www.stress.org/topic-effects.htm. They even give you a little diagram of the human body to show you just how many areas can be affected in a negative way directly linking to the trigger of stress.


So just a little word from me big boss people... stop stressing us out! We'll work a lot better if we are healthy, happy and stress free...


Find the full most stressful jobs list in the article at CareerCast: http://www.careercast.com/jobs-rated/10-most-stressful-jobs-2011