The #7 most stressful job in the world, according to Forbes, is: Being an On-Scene News Broadcaster/News reporter.
I don’t know if the “what’s so hard” part is the daily make-up routine, and pasting on – of the hollow smile – or, the occasional foray into hurricane force winds…
Perhaps, the actual hardest job is being a…Neurosurgeon. Although, interestingly, I’ve heard that this one really isn’t all that hard. A lot of politicians are into this.
So – let’s get to sports. Clearly it’s tough to be playing for a new coach {Just ask J.T. Barrett of The Ohio State Buckeyes – while Urban Meyer, yes, is still the head coach at OSU, that Offensive Coordinator is not the same cat}, so also…
Learning a new offensive or defensive system (Hey, c’mon! On top of school work!?!) Yeah. And these days – the systems are getting so much more sophisticated!! So, yeah…could be.
Could this also be why Coach Dabo Sweeney installed an Indoor Slide at Clemson University’s new $55 million football facility?
Maybe, maybe! Surely being a kid these days is one of the hardest jobs in the world. I mean, there’s all that pressure not to fail!
Which raises the question – how are we teaching them to cope? As in, what are kids these days doing to cope with the stress of their fear of failure…
Hmmm, well…just ask, well, let’s check in with Mr. Sean White, backup quarterback at Auburn University – oh, no. Uh, oh. Wait. He’s gone. Dismissed from the team for – being arrested for public intoxication.
Aye, yi, yi! Review and discussion of choices like that are at least worthy of – a separate and dedicated Sport Digest posting! Perhaps we can take that on next week.
For now, back to our search for the hardest job in the world…how about… Being an airline pilot? Or, an Event Coordinator? Or, a Police Officer…? Hmmm – Not surprisingly, Forbes has those all listed as just about the same, in terms of stress level.
So, let’s think – unconventionally…
What about, Cosmetology? I have heard that this is much more stressful that one might at first think…having to spend all day listening to other people griping, at something somewhat less per hour than a shrink! Yeah. In terms of bang for your buck – this might be emmmmm…..the winner-winner, chicken dinner!?!
Nah. But maybe it depends on the day? Well, not really. All due respect, but what about…
Being a firefighter (according to Forbes, this is one of life’s most stressful jobs!!) – Understandable, right? I mean c’mon. Think about it. Water fights. Washing trucks. Running into burning buildings, all peppered with a huge bunch of false alarms. Atmospheric decompression {wait – that’s typical only for Space Station firefighters}; smoke breath; singed eyebrows; only the occasional cat-in-a-tree rescue, or please-help-me calls; and then there are all those slips and falls [some firefighters may have come to actually believe that the world is sitting on a gravity well].
What could be harder? Perhaps only…being an enlisted military soldier.
Wait. Perhaps, perhaps! Perhaps – I can think of three more jobs that are even harder than all that!!
- Being a mother…I know nothing about this, first hand, of course, but for all the grief I accidentally gave my dear mum. Still, it seems like a reasonable answer to the question – what’s the hardest job in the world? However, another strong candidate, to me, would seem to be…
- Teaching your children to tell the truth…this also seems like it would be a really hard job. I mean, given that – in this day and age, honesty is a consensual continuum – and everyone in modern society seems to have tacitly agreed to participate. So, maybe we might now need to lie to our kids (“aww, it’s not so bad”) in order to teach them to tell the truth – is this possible?
- But my personal favorite – for the hardest job in the world – is effortlessness.
Kinda self-explanatory and self-evident – but, not necessarily in a winner-winner, chicken dinner kind of way…
So – what do you think!?! Please do say…
Sources:
Forbes (2017). The 10 most stressful jobs in 2017. Forbes Media. Retrieved: September 20, 2017. Available: https://www.forbes.com/pictures/feki45eidhi/the-10-most-stressful-jo/#359d566a437f
McGranahan, F. (2017, January 28). It’s not Disney World, but Clemson’s new football complex is close in “Wow’ Factor. The State. Retrieved: September 20, 2017. Available: http://www.thestate.com/sports/college/acc/clemson-university/article129368289.html
By Dr. Rodney J. Blackman
Dr. Rodney J. Blackman is the Chair of Recreation Management at the United States Sports Academy, and can be reached at rblackman@ussa.edu.