The 7 Most Stressful Jobs [2022]

Stress has become a familiar companion since the beginning of the pandemic. Between worrying about falling ill and being concerned that your once stable employment might fall through, people find themselves carrying more stress around than they can handle these days.

With all that extra anxiety floating around, the idea of an especially stressful job can be too much to bear.

Despite the trying circumstances of these high-pressure positions, thousands of employees take on the burden of a stressful job in the name of making a positive difference in the world, getting paid an enormous salary, or simply enjoying a work environment that’s on the challenging side.

1. Head Chef Jobs (Overview)

2. Paramedic Jobs (Overview)

3. Emergency Room Nurse Jobs (Overview)

4. Correction Officer Jobs (Overview)

5. Bartender Jobs (Overview)

6. Event Planner Jobs (Overview)

7. Logging Worker Jobs (Overview)

The 7 Most Stressful Jobs of 2022

While nearly every job entails a certain degree of stress, there are some professions that practically call for being stressed out most of the time. In 2021, the top seven most stressful jobs were as follows.

1. Head Chef

   Average Annual Salary: $44,000

   Why It’s Stressful: Long hours, lots of responsibility, fast-paced environment, low job security

   Most of us experience restaurants as the place to go when we want to treat ourselves. Birthdays, graduations, and anniversaries are all celebrated in the lively dining room of your favorite restaurant. However, for the head chef of that establishment, entering the restaurant space isn’t where they’re going to relax after a long day.

   There are many different employees who work cohesively to maintain the proper functioning of a dining establishment, but the head chef is the glue that holds the kitchen together. The kitchen’s success in preparing food beautifully and safely is a make-or-break factor to a customer’s dining experience.

   The head chef’s job responsibilities include:

   • Designing and upkeep a menu that fits the restaurant’s standards

   • Overseeing the food preparation process and adhering to food safety regulations

   • Polishing off dishes made by kitchen assistants and other cooks

   • Ensuring the kitchen is stocked with the necessary equipment, and it’s all in working order

   • Hiring, managing, and firing kitchen staff

   • Solving issues with food or in the kitchen when required

   • Communicating effectively with a wide variety of colleagues

   Ensuring that a restaurant’s kitchen runs smoothly and efficiently is a massive responsibility for the head chef. A head chef needs people skills to manage assistants, waitresses, restaurant owners, and patrons all at once.

   When a problem arises in the kitchen, it ultimately lands on the shoulders of the head chef to solve. In addition to worrying about all these logistics, head chefs also must put delicious food out on the tables.

   Despite all this responsibility, the role still has fairly low job security, a harsh reality that’s become especially apparent throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

   This is a lot to handle for most people, which is why being a head chef is considered one of the most stressful jobs of 2021.

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2. Paramedic

   Average Annual Salary: $41,000

   Why It’s Stressful: Life or death circumstances, long hours

   In the chaos and stress of a medical emergency, the work of a diligent paramedic can make the difference between life and death. A paramedic spends most of their workweek in an ambulance operating the machinery, evaluating the patient’s condition, and providing the necessary emergency attention in transport to a medical facility.

   The typical tasks of a paramedic include:

   • Responding to radio transmissions in the ambulance

   • Coordinating effectively with a team to properly respond to emergencies

   • Providing necessary medical care on the scene of emergency situations

   • Utilizing medical tools to keep patients stable on the way to medical facilities

   • Writing up proper medical reports on the incidents tended to

   Making sure a person stays alive en route to a hospital or medical facility is a task that’s emotionally and physically tolling. It’s extremely stressful to feel like an emergency patient’s fate rests in your hands during an ambulance ride.

   It’s a role that requires employees to keep their cool and still provide adequate medical attention in dire situations.

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3. Emergency Room Nurse

   Average Annual Salary: $69,000

   Why It’s Stressful: Demanding workload, 12+ hour shifts, high-pressure circumstances

   Suppose there’s one place that everyone dreads going; it’s the emergency room. It’s a place filled to the brim with scared patients who are relying on speedy medical care to ensure that they don’t succumb to illness or injury.

   An emergency room nurse is one of the medical professionals who work collectively towards the goal of quickly assessing patients in crucial need and acting fast to initiate a treatment program.

   In coordination with a doctor, emergency room nurses handle a wide variety of medical situations.

   One moment they could be assisting in fixing a small wound up with a few stitches, and the next, they’re handling a life-threatening allergic reaction. ER nurses never know what’s going to be thrown at them during a shift.

   The common duties of an emergency room nurse include:

   • Always being on their toes and ready to take on an emergency medical situation

   • Evaluating a patient’s condition with time efficiency in mind

   • Providing treatment for a variety of serious and minor ailments, illnesses, and injuries

   • Performing tests when needed and drawing blood

   • Sterilizing wounds and assisting in minor surgeries

   • Being confident and fast-thinking in hectic situations

   Emergency room nurses spend their careers in a place that seriously stresses out the average visitor. While they’re living out a fulfilling purpose and providing a much-needed service to the community, there’s no doubt that the role of an emergency room nurse is one of the most stressful jobs around.

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4. Correction Officer

   Average Annual Salary: $40,000

   Why It’s Stressful: Hectic and potentially dangerous environment, a great deal of responsibility

   The word “prison” alone is enough to make the body tense up. The notion of prison or jail is a nightmare for most people, but for correction officers, the facility is their everyday working environment.

   A correction officer patrols prisons by overseeing its inmates serving sentences or awaiting trial and upholding their location’s rules. The job involves a lot of in-depth observation to maintain a secure and problem-free prison.

   The role of a correction officer includes:

   • Learning thoroughly and enforcing the prison’s rules and regulations

   • Inspecting the living quarters of inmates to search for contraband

   • Overseeing various daily activities like meals and recreational times

   • Properly examining visitors and safely escorting them around the facilities

   • Being prepared for fights or disorder to break out at any moment

   • Providing counseling or advice to inmates when needed

   • Filing organized reports pertaining to inmate behavior

   Prison is one of the most wildly unstable work environments that exist.

   The job involves being around potentially hundreds of people who are locked up in a place that they don’t want to be, and tensions run high.

   Correction officers must be properly trained and prepared to handle dangerous and high-pressure situations in an effective manner. It’s a role that entails taking on more stress in daily life.

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5. Bartender

   Average Annual Salary: $22,000

   Why It’s Stressful: Chaotic environment, drunk patrons, low job security

   Most party-goers spend all week fantasizing about when they’ll finally be off the clock and free to live it up at the local bar with their friends. For bartenders, however, this time when patrons are letting loose after an intense workweek is when their stressful job gets started.

   The responsibilities of a bartender involve things like:

   • Communicating with customers to take their accurate order

   • Preparing a wide variety of drinks for multiple patrons

   • Making drink or food recommendations when asked

   • Explaining drink and food menu items

   • Checking identification to ensure that patrons are of legal drinking age

   • Restocking the bar supplies when needed

   • Adhering to standard food and drink safety regulations

   A bartender handles the rowdy crowds of people that flood an establishment by serving alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks speedily. While preparing drinks might sound simple enough, the role can get overwhelming very fast. Drunk people are quite demanding, and bar venues get pretty loud, making the job quickly overstimulating for many people.

   Additionally, bartenders are expected to have knowledge of making a wide variety of cocktails and recall this info every night. On top of all this on-shift pressure, bartending jobs also tend to have very low job security, and position availability can fluctuate quickly.

   All of these factors combined make for a highly stressful job.

   Find Bartender jobs near me

6. Event Planner

   Average Annual Salary: $44,000

   Why It’s Stressful: Difficult clients, heavy workload, unpredictable time requirements

   When someone is getting married, received the promotion they’ve been vying for, or throwing their child’s very first birthday party, they want the festivities to go off without a hitch.

   However, creating the perfect party is a lot easier said than done. That’s why many people and businesses enlist the services of a savvy event planner to help them get every detail of their gathering right.

   The professional duties of an event planner include:

   • Discussing the goals for the event in-depth with clients

   • Understanding the gathering’s budget and working within those guidelines

   • Finding a suitable venue, transportation, entertainment, and catering for the event

   • Sourcing decorations according to the client’s taste

   • Overseeing the success of the event until it’s over

   • Fixing any issues that arise during the event

   The job of an event planner may initially sound like a blast. Although there are many fun aspects to the position, it can also be highly stressful. When people hire a professional to help them make their dream event come true, they have a tendency to get especially picky.

   A lot of the pressure that clients feel about their party often ends up being the burden of the event planner.

   Dealing with tense clients throughout their event planning process is definitely a position that’s often very stressful on its easiest days.

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7. Logging Worker

   Average Annual Salary: $23,000

   Why It’s Stressful: Extremely dangerous, heavy workload, physically demanding

   Trees are used for an abundance of paper products like cardboard and cereal boxes. While many people use paper products like these to accomplish big and small tasks throughout their life, they rarely stop to think about where the materials came from. Sourcing these materials is what logging workers build their careers on.

   A logging worker’s job involves:

   • Setting up trees to be cut down safely

   • Cutting down the trees

   • Preparing fallen trees to be dragged away by tractors

   • Operating the machinery that brings logs to the landing area

   • Cutting up logs into desired lengths using heavy machinery

   • Grading the logs they cut according to various qualities

   • Evaluating equipment before use to ensure that its safe and in working order

   The responsibilities of a logging worker likely don’t sound too bad at first glance, but the job is actually incredibly stressful. Yes, it’s a physically demanding position, but it’s also one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.

   The field has a disturbingly high injury and fatality rate due to the unpredictable nature of falling trees and potentially hazardous machinery that’s used on a daily basis in the industry.

   The reality of the many potential dangers associated with this position can make this job much more stressful than a typical profession.

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4 Qualities That Make a Job Stressful

Just as there is a wide range of different professional positions out there in the world, there are various qualities that can make jobs stressful in their own unique way. Some of the most common reasons people find their employment stressful are as follows.

1. Long hours. Even if you absolutely love your job down to the minuscule task, it can still become draining and stressful when working long shifts or many hours per week.

   Working long hours takes valuable time away from your personal life with friends and family. Even if you’re making a lot of money or advancing quickly in your career, long hours can be a damper and make the days more stressful in general.

2. Difficult circumstances or environment. Another quality that drags a lot of employees down into feelings of distress is a challenging environment or working circumstance.

   For example, an emergency surgeon is working under enormous pressure to perform medical tasks and save people’s lives on a daily basis. That’s a highly stressful environment and difficult for most people to thrive in.

   Alternatively, working as a professional fisherman is stressful because they’re thrown into a dangerous environment and must succeed while navigating rough waters.

   There are many different ways that the circumstances or environment of a job can elicit stress in its workers.

3. Heavy workload. Similarly to enduring long hours, a heavy workload can take a toll on the most driven employees. Many jobs do not only require their employee’s time when they’re on the clock, but they also expect them to put in the extra effort when they’re home too.

   While certain occupations are expected to have a heavier than average workload, this reality can put a considerable strain on many professionals.

4. Low Job Security. It’s bad enough to have stress bubble up from a demanding work environment or lengthy hours, but it might be even worse to be under pressure due to low job security. Working in a position with low job security means that you never know when you’ll be let go, either by being fired or laid off.

   The constant fear of wondering if you’ll have a job tomorrow is a huge stressor and enough to negatively impact a lot of employees’ lives.

4 Tips for Dealing with a Stressful Job

Even if you’re not employed in one of the most stressful jobs of 2021, it’s still common to be stressed out by your professional life. If you’re working in a role that makes you feel burnt-out, consider the following five tips for handling a stressful job.

1. Keep yourself highly organized. When you work in a fast-paced work environment or have a lot of responsibility riding on your shoulders, it’s crucial to keep yourself organized. The pressure of a stressful job tends to feel a lot less heavy when you have all your ducks in a row, and you’re ready to take them on one by one.

2. Make time for activities you enjoy in your spare time. A big mistake that people with stressful jobs often make is spending all their free time still thinking about work. If you never take the time to unwind from your job, it becomes much more difficult to manage mounting stress.

   Figure out an activity that makes you more energized after you’ve completed it. This could be something like fishing, reading, cooking, or even watching sappy romantic comedies. Find the thing that works for you and take the time to do it. You may be surprised to find how much better you feel at your stressful job.

3. If you have to be stressed, find a stressor you can tolerate. As stated earlier, there are many different types of stress. Some jobs are considered high pressure because you’re literally holding someone’s life in your hands; others are stressful because you’re expected to work from 7 PM to 5 AM with overtime hours at a hectic venue.

   Every job has some form of stress that comes along with it, so it’s important that you decide the type of stressor you can tolerate.

   For people who love it when the hours go by fast because of how busy their shift is and don’t mind the chaotic nature of customer service, a job as a bartender might be a good choice.

   On the other hand, people who thrive when they are expected to take on a lot of responsibilities, even if it means making a positive difference, might be better suited to a career as an emergency room nurse.

4. Keep your perspective in check. A stressful job doesn’t have to translate into a stressful life. Your job may be incredibly intense or even scary, but succeeding in a stressful industry is all about compartmentalization.

   When you have a particularly stressful afternoon, it doesn’t have to ruin the entire night. Keep your perspective in check and try to keep the stress of work from bleeding into the solace of your home life.

Most Stressful Jobs FAQ

1. What jobs are the hardest on the body?

   The jobs that are the hardest on the body are being a:

   • Farmer

   • Stonemason

   • Boxer

   • Chef

   • Dancer

   • Logger

   While these jobs are all unique from one another, they share one thing in common – they’re exceptionally physically strenuous. These jobs are hard on the body to the point where an average person probably couldn’t take on the career.

   Dancers practice their moves for over 50 hours a week during the off-season. Farmers wake up before sunrise and do physical labor all day until it sets again. A chef must work long and late hours, constantly standing on their feet while rushing around to prepare beautiful meals.

   Any way you toss it, these professions are highly stressful because they’re tough on the body.

2. What is the most underpaid profession?

   The most underpaid profession is being an Army Private First Class, a job that earns an average salary of $20,000 to $25,000 depending on experience. The most that an army private fIrst class can earn in their position, even after 40 years of loyal service, is $29,228.40. That’s an hourly pay of $13.53 per hour.

   Furthermore, this incredibly low salary is given to soldiers that have been promoted. They are the heart of the army. Privates often wear many hats like desk duty, being sent abroad, and guarding the United States. For this service, privates earn one of the lowest salaries around.

3. What jobs work the most hours?

   The jobs that work the most hours are hospital staff, long-haul truck drivers, company executives, and mining workers. Individuals who work in these types of jobs can usually expect to be committing way more than the typical 40-hour workweek for their career.

   Top surgeons at hospitals usually work a standard of 50-60 hours on a good week, in addition to the hours that they’re on call. Miners take on 12-hour shifts regularly, and long-haul truck drivers can spend several days on the road.

   The reality of a job that requires a lot of hours is that it will be inevitably stressful because it takes away from having a work-life balance. For some people, that’s a sacrifice they’re willing to make.

4. What jobs keep you away from home?

   The jobs that keep you away from home the most are being a cruise ship worker, travel nurse, pilot, truck driver, or anything related to the military. These jobs require that the employees spend a lot of their time away from home and instead be out in the world providing their services.

   Many of these jobs that require being away from home offer fulfillment in knowing that you’re seriously helping people, like the role of a travel nurse or military personnel. Other positions that keep you away from home provide comfort in knowing that you’re making enough money to fully support your family, like that of a pilot or truck driver.

   For these employees, the stress of being away from home is worth it in one way or another.

Author

Sky Ariella

Sky Ariella is a professional freelance writer, originally from New York. She has been featured on websites and online magazines covering topics in career, travel, and lifestyle. She received her BA in psychology from Hunter College.