The job site CareerCast has just published a list of the least stressful jobs based on measurements of 11 specific factors across 200 occupations. The factors it considered are whether the job requires travel (the more travel, the higher the stress), growth potential (dead-end jobs tend to create more stress), strict deadlines, working in the public eye, competitiveness within the organization, physical demands, environmental conditions, putting your life at risk, hazards encountered, meeting the public, and having someone else's life in your hands.
10. Drill press operatorMedian salary: $35,580
9. Multimedia artistMedian salary: $61,370
8. LibrarianMedian salary: $55,370
7. Medical records technicianMedian salary: $34,160
6. Dietitian Median salary:$55,240
5. Seamstress/Tailor Median salary: $26,280
4. University professorMedian salary: $64,290
3. JewelerMedian salary:$35,350
2. Hair stylistMedian salary: $22,700
1. AudiologistMedian salary: $69,720
(Via San Francisco Chronicle)
I can attest to #4. My brother is a University professor. He's been "Off" since December 11th. Class starts January 21st. Poor guy might have to do a little work then. I took off Christmas day and a half day New Years. Hope you read this, brother. Dont work too hard now!!!
ReplyDeleteSo can I. My cousin "teaches" (actually "indoctrinates" would be more appropriate) at the collegiate level. He is constantly whining about the "excessives" of capitalism and the evils of the "free-market". In his eyes "too big to fail" is simply a byproduct of capitalism, as is the FED. Talk about confused!
DeleteThat's because your cousin is a moron. You see, the dumb shits of the world watch the idiot box and then simply repeat it like a mindless drone. Maybe he'll graduate out of the 3rd grade one day.
DeleteI'm not a professor, but I don't agree with this. Professors still have to chase around grant money for their jobs and make sure they're publishing enough papers.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's different for liberal arts vs. the sciences. For the sciences, you can have years where you have tons of money and students and papers, but other years where you've got nothing. Add to that all of the petty bickering between professors (and petty bickering between their students) and you've got yourself some stress!
Obviously someone who's never got very far in the university system.
ReplyDeleteIf you want stress, try putting together a dissertation committee, while running out of funding; try switching fields, research topics and everything else to please whichever brand of Marxist or liberal ideology is calling the shots at the place where you want to work; try facing surly youngsters, each a "radical" ready to sue you, picket your class, or report you, if you dare make any statement not in full conformity with their particular dogma...
Plus camp-i (h/t Limbaugh) are notorious for traffic tickets, drunken groping, dope and booze, STDs, and bureaucrats so thick they make the government look like a German factory.
Wow, great news since I am enrolled in graduate school for Audiology. From my experiences thus far, it's getting through audiology school that's the stressful part!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm a professor and I have four months of vacation plus holidays plus random days off like school festivals and, believe it or not, field trips.
ReplyDeleteIn return for this I accept shitty pay. But if everything goes right, by 2015 the pay problem will be solved, my hours will get slashed, but then I'll have to be a little more involved in committees and bs.
Show me the money!!!
@Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteThat's after 5-7 years of grad work plus 7 years of tenure-track, and after years of spending your vacations writing research papers and attending conferences.
You are supposed to be prepping for classes, reading, mentoring and correcting papers on your own time too, so obviously you aren't doing what you're supposed to be doing during those "holidays" ! (LOL)
I call BS on the college professor thing, unless you mean tenured baby boomers who wrote one article in 1979 and have been comfortably ensconced ever since. For Gen X and younger, it is a lot of work. I teach a full load of classes, do committee work, and have to crank out a book. I work through all my "vacations." I also make about 20% less than the "average figure" listed. My guess is that the person making up this list cannot tell the difference between tenured baby boomers and the rest of us - and there is one hell of a difference.
ReplyDeleteStill and all, I am infinitely better off than my non-tenure track adjuncting peers, who very often work 60 hours a week and make around $20,000 a year with no benefits.
@Anonymous
ReplyDeleteExactly. The Ivy Leagues have a lot of nerve pointing fingers at corporations, since every one of them is run like a medieval fiefdom with slave labor, at which the "slave-wage nanny" would have turned up her nose. (no offense to hard-working maids of any kind, but really, answering phones, playing with kids, and cooking a meal once in a few days, is not slavery, even if you have to hang around in a house for a long time).
The average humanities PhD funding used to be about $7-8000 plus tuition (and that's a good fellowship), for 4 years. That's money meant for living, books, and everything else... and it's taxed.
Plus, most PhD's take about 6-7 years, during which you are responsible for your fees, which at a "good" school runs to about 12,000 bucks a year. So, even with a full scholarship, you can end up with debt of 40,000 or more, even if you're frugal.
Then, you scratch around in adjunct positions, while your eminent professors blow you away semester after semester, since they're busy writing the books they need to keep their jobs...You grow old and jaded...
You realize that Canadians are getting about as much $15000 for doing nothing (they have a dole, apparently)...you notice welfare recipients live in bigger apartments and spend more on food than you do and are apparently tolerated better in society than intellectuals..
You learn that Americans despise college professors anyway, unless they are glitzy big-name corporate apologists...
And you wonder, wouldn't it have been better to run a gas station?
To which the answer is an unequivocal YES.