Whether you’re reading this on a Monday and desperately searching for the motivation to see the week out, or whether you’re procrastinating last thing on a Friday; it’s safe to say that there are some pretty stressful jobs out there. Whilst some of us fill our working week with repetitive and predictable tasks, there are those of us whose working weeks are far from monotonous and often, incredibly stressful.

So whether you think you’ve made the list – or whether you’re hoping you haven’t – let’s take a look at how they stack up, the ten professions rated most stressful in a 2019 survey:

It goes without saying that being on the front-line of combat is akin to hell on earth at the worst of times. It’s no wonder that working in the armed forces ranks atop of this list of the most stressful roles.

A number of UK studies have found links between active service and mental health problems in armed service personnel involved in recent conflicts. A very recent study of 10,000 serving personnel (83% regulars; 27% reservists) found lower than expected levels of PTSD. Common mental disorders and alcohol misuse were the most frequently reported mental health problems among UK armed forces personnel. In particular, levels of alcohol misuse overall were substantially higher than in the general population.

The main findings were:

• 4% reported probable post-traumatic stress disorder
• 19.7% reported other common mental disorders 
• 13% reported alcohol misuse 
• regulars deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan were significantly more likely to report alcohol misuse than those not deployed 
• reservists were more likely to report probable post-traumatic stress disorder than those not deployed 
• regular personnel in combat roles were more likely than were those in support roles to report probable post-traumatic stress disorder 
• experience of mental health problems was not linked with number of deployments. 

Firefighters are the people that run towards life threatening emergencies when the general public typically run in the other direction.

• 85% of fire and rescue staff and volunteers have experienced stress and poor mental health at work, but you are less likely to take time off work as a result compared to the general workforce.
• Firefighters are also twice as likely to identify problems at work as the main cause of their mental health problems compared to the general workplace.

Being a pilot for a commercial airline has its perks—travel to exotic places, a cool uniform and those breathtaking views of the sky. But that job can come with a side of something much more sobering: depression. The mental health of airline pilots is coming into sharp focus with the revelation that nearly 13 percent of them could be depressed.

Huge factors compound the physical and emotional constraints that come with the lifestyle

• Sleep Deprivation
• Cumulative Sleep Loss
• Hours of Continuous Wakefulness
• Familial Seperation
• Burden of Responsibility
• Technical & Operational Complexities

• Almost 9/10 (89.8%) officers say that there are not enough of them to manage the demands faced by their team or unit
• Almost every police officer has been exposed to at least one traumatic experience in their career, with 61.7% saying they had experienced at least one of these types of incident in the last 12 months
• 79% of officers say they have felt feelings of stress and anxiety within the previous 12 months with 94% of those saying these difficulties were caused or made worse by their job
• 43.9% of respondents reported that they viewed their job as very or extremely stressful. This is a larger proportion than reported in the results from the 2016 Demand, Capacity and Welfare Survey (38.6%) and almost three times that found in the general population by the HSE in 2010 (15%), and that found by the Scottish Health Survey in 2017 (16%)

Unlike other stressful jobs that involve tangible and visible stress factors, broadcaster’s stress is abstract. While a fireman has to deal with the fire in front of them, broadcaster’s have many smaller fires that they cannot see. The risk of failing

Broadcasters scored a stress score of 47.3, high enough to be the eight highest stress level among jobs. One major reason for its ranking, according to CareerCast, is the declining growth outlook, which currently sits at -11 percent, the worst among all jobs in the top 10.

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For the sixth year running, event planning has been ranked as one of the most stressful jobs on Earth. This year, CareerCast has pegged “event coordinator” at #5 on their list of stressful jobs—just slightly less stressful than running into burning buildings.

CareerCast uses an 11-point stress-factor methodology and ranks each factor on a scale to determine the amount of stress a worker can predict to experience in any given job. When you look at the categories (amount of travel, working in the public eye, meeting the public, and deadlines), it’s easy to see why event coordinators make the list.

Reporters can cover only a fraction of the information to which they are privy. Yet reporters are exposed to all of it.

Some reporters start to feel their daily stories are trivial, especially compared with coverage of atrocities and massacres. Some feel they have to remove themselves from the atmosphere to restore their emotional balance.

Journalists face countless stresses, such as the daily grind to get stories in by deadline, perfecting the craft, or dealing with sometimes rude, aggressive, even threatening people. Journalists often cover graphic or horrifying events and sometimes feel overworked and overstressed.

This also can take a toll on those they are close to — readers, co-workers, family members, friends or spouses.

PR is poorly understood, and this leaves a lot of room for confusion and miscommunication. Many people assume that public relations will generate something tangible just like advertising or that the results will be exact. This is not the case, and it creates a lot of stress.

To be a successful public relations professional, you have to be flexible and go with the flow. This is because the media is constantly changing. Technology always has something new that you can use to help a PR campaign, and this is one of the reasons working in public relations is so stressful. You are trying to create something that is constantly changing as you try to build it. In a sense, the job is never done because there is always some new to add.

Whilst the pay and allocated parking space might be great; the hours, the responsibility and the pressure to deliver to the shareholders, owners, staff and customers is sky-high.

Very often, the entire success or failure of a company falls to the responsibility of it’s most senior executives. The senior management team often take the brunt of the shame or glory of the success (or lack of) of the company as a whole.

Being a taxi driver can be incredibly stressful work. Long hours, lack of (bodily) motion, back problems, traffic, fare evasion, passenger threats, and appallingly small tips can take a toll on a person. Some taxi drivers work up to eighty hours a week to make ends meet—and eighty hours a week of those stressors is enough to drive a person crazy.

So there you have it, that’s the top ten as voted by the people themselves. As for our advice – we’d say that all jobs are unique in their own way and come with their own individual stresses and pressures. We’re all human so take time out of your working day to switch off, de-stress and focus on self care. Speak to others and make sure you don’t put yourself in a position detrimental to your health. We work to live, we don’t live to work!