How stressful/busy is your job?

I once had a horribly stressful job - 12 hours days, insomnia due to fretting about stuff I hadn't done, stupid workload and pressure, the whole shebang. I'd never do it again.

My current job is occasionally dull, usually v manageable, and sometimes a bit of a pain. But I switch off very easily and wouldn't have it any other way. (It also pays far better and is closer to home - it's a win-win, really.)

This sounds soooooooooooo familiar!!!!!!! My mind gets so fogged sometimes I don't know whether I'm coming or going. I also can't relax when I'm out of work as I start thinking about the heap of work I will be returning too.

On the other side I couldn't imagine doing a reception job or similar - at least my job is a little unusual/interesting.

I don't even do a job which is vital or life changing/threatening - I work in tourism!!!! We sometimes joke when the sh1t hits the fan that we're no saving lives here!!!!! What industry do you work in?

I work for an advertising agency, in HR. I really enjoy it and like being in a creative environment, but there's a real long-hours culture here - without the added benefit of being highly paid!

I'm a nurse in a busy recieving ward and it is MENTAL but i love it! Its 12 hours shifts but only 3-4 days per week. at least we have people to hand over the loose ends to. sometimes you cant help and it and when things happen you do end up taking it home with you (the feelings not the patients! hehehe!!) but usually after a few glasses of vino and a good rant im ok.

x

I don't work particularly long hours but while I'm actually at work I'm often stressed due to student behaviour, unreasonable tagrets (which don't take student behaviour into consideration) and other people not doing their job properly. It's a job where you can't help but be emotionally involved sometimes so I sometimes take the baggage of my day home even when I don't have actual work to do. That's what I find most stressful.

I work in HR although in systems, not operational/generalist. My job has peaks and troughs - at the moment there is too much to do but the need to get it all done. So that means longer working hours, although we get flexitime and occasionally overtime. Not that the flexitime is any good when it's busy as you don't have time to take any!

So when it gets very busy, similar to you I find myself thinking about work lots (out of hours) and putting some serious hours in at work. But I do try to cling onto the fact that I know it will calm down for a bit, or I prioritise as needed (and get back up from my managers if I need to postpone or delay a piece of work). I also find it can be useful sometimes to take a day working from home to regroup and reorganise and deal with some of my emails without being bombarded with people or more emails.

ETA: I'd hate to be bored at work though, and do thrive sometimes on this pressure, as it does motivate me to get things finished and organised. I think it's just when it's prolonged it becomes harder deal with.

I'm pretty much running on adrenaline at the moment and had forgotten how pants it could be - I was up until 4am drafting documents and then had to get up at 7am to sort out something else and have been on the go for nearly 12 hours and no end in sight! I am giving myself 5 minutes to ignore the phone and emails, otherwise I shall go mad. Hopefully it will be a little calmer tomorrow.

Crazily busy and quite stressful at times, I guess. I don't work the longest hours in the world, but I do work some late nights and the hours I am in work are all completely filled and demanding, physically and mentally. I am a chef.

My job isn't particularly busy, nor is the work itself stressful. The environment (unruly pupils, arseholder colleagues) makes it stressful. I cry most days, because I hate it so much.

I really hope something else comes up for you soon... are you looking for similar?

Thanks, Lumpy. I have 3 application forms in my grubby mitts as we type, 2 unis, 1 high school.

Oh, LTP, I know how bad that feels and I really do feel for you. I was like that when I worked for a call centre, and used to have a feeling of dread every morning when I woke up. I hope you get a better job soon.

To answer the OP - my job is usually busy and stressful. If it's not I enjoy the quiet time as I know it will be again soon! I do try not to work too long though as I find that's usually counter-productive - much better (for me) to go home and get rest so that I can tackle things fresh the next day.

I'm very lucky that mine strikes a happy balance. Busy and varied enough to be interesting but I can switch off at 4 and leave it all behind.
I do occasionally remember on a weekend that I need to buy lemons or something equally random, but that's about it ?
Only downside is, the pay definitely reflects this, but I'd rather that then be super stressed.

I am exactly the same, I am in a very stressful job, Head of Marketing in the Healthcare industry.

I find that I have to do long hours to get everything done, especially at the moment and I am totally and utterly useless at switching off. I check my email from home in the evenings and at weekends and worry about tasks and decisions that I have made ...but its 5 mins from my house and is decent money with company car ....

I would hate to be bored but I dont feel relaxed very often!

I'm a legal secretary, it can definitely be stressful and is nearly always busy, but I like it that way. We have Court deadlines and procedures that have to be met and when something needs to be done you stay until it's finished. That can be quite stressful but probably less so than dealing with clients. All our clients are totally wrapped up in what's going on in their lives and 90% of them seem to think that we have no other clinets and should be able to concentrate solely on them.......unfortunately it doesn't work that way and I get to deal with the fall out, which can be pretty difficult at times.

It's not exactly 'life or death' stuff but what we do will impact on our clients' lives in major ways and sometimes we can make a positive difference and that makes all the horrible stuff worthwhile in the end.

My job is very busy but managable, 2 of us in the office, about 250 patients a day to look at results of plus running and opd thrombus service and we are extending our roles as thrombophilia nurses as well. I love my job. My H works 8-7 at work and from 8-11 at home is constantly stressed and I think it will one day kill him.

Ooh, that sounds good and I'm intrigued by the lemons - what do you do?

My job is so hideously, unbelieveable stressful and sickeningly awful that it actually beggars belief.

At the moment, i am putting in 60 hour weeks and i am only scratching the surface.

I am head of drama and my massive school production opens in a fortnight. I also have gcse and a level practicals which desperately need my attention, not to mention coursework admin deadlines looming and exams, and actually teaching, marking, planning - all of which is just getting the most cursory attention.

I can't remember the last time i wasn't awake from 3-5 crapping kittens of worry and panic.

At work, i have just been spectacularly screwed over by the world's biggest twat. The design and tech teacher who has compltely fucked up the set, not done what he promised on time, and then chucked a completely uncalled for hissy fit at my colleague in order to deliberately engineer a falling out in order to flounce and let everyone down while attempting to claim the moral high ground. The headmaster is completely on my side, but it still took up 4 hours of my time to try to deal with it and cover my position with very carefully pointed emails. I am apoplectic actually, and may yet do something very vengeful.

Stress?? Fucking unbelievable. Busy? What? I have just got in from work 20 mins ago and my H is already asleep - we barely see each other these days. i worked all weekend as well.

I could vomit a poltergeist actually, i am beside myself keeping all the plates spinning and trying to stay positive for everyone.

I REFUSE to have the nervous breakdown that I am very long overdue and definitely deserve. That would be letting the mother fuckers win.

On top of it all i have a young toddler to manage, so when i get home (if that's at an hour before he's already gone down) then it's dinner, bath, bottle, bed, lucnboxes, our dinner, clearing up ....... hitch & facebook.

Problem is, i have the ONLY teaching job that i would even consider doing in this island, and have to teach as nothing else i am qualified to do would pay this sort of a salary (which i need to afford the house we just spent 2 yrs building) AND give me the shcool holidays off to be with my son.

Put it this way - when you actually fantasise about being struck down by a bus or a painless but desperately serious illness, in order to relieve the pressure, you know you're in the shitter of all stress holes.

Well I can't say I feel as bad as Hubble about my job but it does sometimes make me cry with exasperation.

I haven't had a lunch break for months and although supposedly 9-5 hours, I am always in before 8am and rarely leave before 7pm. Usually I don't mind being busy and I relish a challenge, and so don't actually begrudge the additional hours I put in as I find it interesting and exciting. However, in the current environemnt and when colleagues are facing redundancy, it is pretty horrid working so hard for very little reward.

Somne aspects of my job are great and these are often the busiest/most demanding parts that mean i take work home/can't switch off, but I can't help but get Monday morning blues, and at the moment, also dread Tuesday morning, Wednesday morning, Thursday morning and Friday morning!

Busy - Yes

Stressful - yes

My job has many aspects so I am never bored or quiet -ever. I did go through a time last year (and that seems to be happening again) that there was so much to do I felt that I had to go in early / leave late to get work done - this meant that when I got home i couldn't be bothered to cook so had loads of takeaways, missed luches. I would go home with my head buzzing and wouldn't be able to switch or - or sleep, I think I nearly had a breakdown and stopped the extra hours and tried to prioritise the workload. If it wasn't an emergency - it could wait until the next day.

I used to work for a very tough company, whose culture demanded long hours, large workloads and little life outside work (they moved you around nationally every year to ensure you didn't put down nay roots which may distract you from your 70 hour weeks) On top of that there was a huge bullying culture from senior managemnet, so yes that was very stressful.

Now I'm a part time SAHM, part time Clerk of Governors to a few schools. I love both roles and have zero stress in them.

The point I'm getting round to making is that until I moved jobs and the stress went away, I hadn't realsied just how much stress affected me physically. I used to have a cronic pelvis injury, which gave me constant pain. I always thought it was something I would have to live with for the rest of my life. But when I gave up work it went. My specialist thought it was because the stress I was under made me tense my core muscles ever-so slightly all the time, which xaused my pelvic injury to be constantly hurting.

Until it's gone, you have no idea how much stress can affect you.

Mine is either really busy or really slow it appears, and I've only been here 6 weeks - the first 5 were manic, now I'm on a go slow, and hating it. I prefer the 7-7s I was doing before. Still, I have work that I'm just strating so it should pick up again!

Janna, I think that's a really good point. I don't think I realised fully just how much of an impact my job was having on me until I left. I mean, I knew it wasn't right, but I didn't see just how wrong it was until I'd been in my new job a few months.

IMO, no job is worth what I went through, and I'm never, ever putting myself in that position again.

I work in Admin, a temporary position after having 2 redundancys. I've been here 16 months. I work less than 10 minutes from home and work 8-4pm.

Although the pay is rubbish it does pay a bit more than most admin jobs. Being home at 4.10pm everyday is brilliant as Hubby can sometimes work long hours (self employed)

I would hate a long, stressful job that pays well, doesnt float my boat at all.