The 10 Most Stressful Jobs (+ Their Less-Stressful Alternatives)

Feel like your job is stressful? Stress can make you lose sleep and motivation. It might get progressively harder to get to work each day. And harder to enjoy your life, both while you’re at work and in your downtime. When you’ve been feeling high levels of stress for a while, you may burn out completely.

Many factors make your career stressful, but there are alternatives. Discover the most stressful jobs in Australia, and explore some less stressful (but related) career options.

According to CareerCast, what makes a stressful occupation is when the demands it makes on workers’ lives are high, and the rewards are limited.

Some stressors include:

Based on these factors, the ten most high-stress jobs in the world, according to research from the US News Best Jobs database, are:

A financial analyst works at an investment bank. They spend their workdays exploring financial data, which they then use to make investment recommendations. It’s a mentally stimulating role that involves identifying new opportunities.

Investment banking is a highly competitive industry, with never-ending deadlines, long hours, and a high chance of burnout.

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Other roles in an investment bank can also be highly paid without the long hours. Corporate communications or risk analysis are some less stressful alternatives. Outside of investment banking, you could put your skills to use as a financial advisor or planner.

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Sales managers are involved with selling a company’s products to clients. It’s a senior role that also requires managing people, setting performance goals for sales teams, and being responsible for meeting those goals.

Sales is highly competitive. And you always need to follow leads, no matter what time of day. Being always ‘on’ can be a recipe for burnout. Your pay might be commission-based, which makes your income unreliable, even though sales managers earn a high median salary.

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As a people-person, you might find work as a customer happiness manager more fulfilling and less stressful. Your role would be to listen to and pre-empt the needs of existing tech company clients to strengthen the relationship and ensure repeat business.

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Mental health counsellors assess and support people with various mental health issues.

You may constantly be working with people in crisis. Because they’re at risk, you might be answering client calls at literally all hours of the day to ensure their safety. Other people’s trauma may put you at risk of experiencing vicarious trauma.

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Often, people burnt out in helping professions find satisfaction in working in upstream crisis prevention. You could find a role in early intervention services, educating children or community groups about mental health, or in a public policy role designed to prevent crises before they start.

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Anesthesiologists (or Anaesthetists) are medical doctors who manage patient medications during surgical procedures. You ensure that patients don’t feel pain or are safely unconscious during their operation.

You can be on-call day and night. When working as part of a surgical team, your day won’t end until the patient is in recovery – no matter how long it takes. Errors in this role are deadly, so while you might be exhausted, you always need to bring your skills and concentration to work.

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You could remain an anesthesiologist but in a position where you can work with less high-risk patients. Or with patients scheduled for routine, elective surgery rather than emergency patients. Alternatively, your skills and experience would be valuable in public health policy, anesthesiology research, or training new doctors.

Patrol officers are responsible for public safety and security. You ensure the law is upheld, investigate crimes, monitor traffic, and attend emergencies.

You’re a first-responder to varied stressful situations where you’ll always need to act quickly and carefully at the same time. The work may be physically intense, and you’ll be scheduled on shifts at any time of day.

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You could use your skills in your own practice as a private investigator or a security consultant. Or you could get involved in less hazardous, more typically 9-to-5 police specialisations like detective work.

IT managers look after the IT resources of an organisation. You make sure that networks are working securely, that computers and other IT equipment are maintained, and troubleshoot any possible issues.

IT jobs can be repetitive, and you typically work with customers who aren’t in a great mood. This is a role with constant deadlines – users always need help. It can feel like you haven’t progressed much on your to-do list, even if you’ve put in a hard day’s work. Making a mistake can also mean that an organisation’s IT systems are down or people lose important data.

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Your technological skills would be valuable in the tech industry, which has many career options. You could explore your creative side as a web developer; hone your coding skills to become a software engineer; use your IT security knowledge to become an ethical hacker, or expand on your user empathy skills to work in UX design.

Construction managers are in charge of construction sites. You need to keep track of a complex project where many people are doing different things. You also need to make sure that everyone is safe at all times.

One of the plus sides of a career as a construction manager is that it boasts a relatively high median salary; no degree needed.

Mistakes in construction are, at best costly — and at worst, can even be deadly. It can be hard to meet the constant deadlines you face to complete construction work on time. Construction work can also be physically demanding, even if you aren’t doing the construction yourself. You’ll often be on your feet all day long.

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Your skills make you a perfect project manager. This role is needed in almost any industry and every sector. Or, you could use your construction knowledge as a draftsperson in designing and planning a new build without the stress of having to execute the plan.

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Physicians are also known as medical doctors. You may specialise in a specific area of medicine (such as emergency medicine, cardiology, or neurology) or work as a general practitioner.

Healthcare work ticks many of the boxes of a typically stressful job. It can involve physically demanding shift work where your tasks constantly pile up. You may be a first responder to life-or-death situations, and small mistakes can be lethal.

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Although this is a generally stressful career, you can find ways of making it less stressful. Being in private practice may allow you to choose less stressful hours and work with patients you find most rewarding to treat. Physicians may also enjoy a career change in medical research, education, and policy.

Lawyers represent and advise clients in various legal situations: from negotiating contracts, overseeing mergers and acquisitions, defending or prosecuting crimes, settling disputes, buying and selling property, and more.

Law is a highly competitive career. Long hours are expected for anyone looking to progress in the corporate hierarchy. It’s a role where there’s seemingly always more to do, and it can be hard to switch off.

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Going into private practice could be a way to choose the hours and clients you want to work with, making law a less demanding, more rewarding profession.

Lawyers also have great skill sets to bring into any role, particularly their strong written communication skills and legal knowledge. Possible career changes include working as a technical writer or grant writer, a project manager, or a management consultant.

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Financial managers have a lot of responsibility: they’re responsible for the overall financial health of the organisation, making sure that the organisation is meeting its financial obligations, devising a financial strategy, and producing financial reports.

Working in the financial industry is highly competitive. There are long hours and always more work to be done. If you work for a large organisation, you may have to travel a lot for meetings, without the benefit of seeing much of your destinations beyond your hotel room.

Financial managers also carry high levels of responsibility. Penalties for not getting it right could result in fines or even risk the existence of the entire organisation.

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Your experience in finance could work well in a suite of financial careers, like being a financial planner. Your high-level managerial experience would be helpful as a consultant or in starting your own business — where you can choose your hours and the kind of work you do.

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Factors that make for a stressful job can apply to many other roles. According to 2018 analysis from CareerCast, the most stressful jobs also included:

Are you experiencing workplace stress? Contemplating a white-collar career change? Read up on the most fun jobs and some of the least stressful jobs. Or browse TAFE courses today to explore less stressful career paths.