Bob CollinsSoldier, firefighter, airline pilot, broadcaster.
The annual list of most stressful jobs in America is out and it’s pretty much unchanged from previous years.
The flaw in the survey is that people define what is stressful.
While soldiers and firefighters would pass muster by any standard — potentially dying on the job seems like a reasonable benchmark — and maybe airline pilots can claim stress from the perception of danger (although I tease my airline friends that an autopilot does most of their work), there’s no explaining why broadcasters and news reporters (No. 7 on the list) consistently make the list other than being notorious complainers.
Given that few reporters are in a position to die on the job, the most stressful part of being either a broadcaster or news reporter is someone hurts your feelings on Twitter. On the whole, it’s no more stressful than any other job.
It’s a great gig that has never paid that much and they knew that going in. The median salary for a broadcaster is $62,000 and that for a news reporter is $40,000 and there’s not much of a future for either of them and hasn’t been for years. And yet, people are still taking the jobs that haven’t been eliminated.
According to Career Cast, 78 percent of those surveyed feel “stressed” at their job, up from 69 percent a year ago.
But the report from the job-posting website provides no criteria that’s useful in actually evaluating jobs.
The least stressful job? Diagnostic medical sonographer, the median income for which is $71,400.
You know who you never hear say “I wish I was a diagnostic medical sonographer”? News reporters and broadcasters.
