How to get stressed out

A little stress at work is okay - but what about careers with constantly high stress levels? Who soldiers on in these positions - and why? Here, we speak with some of those who work in some of the most stressful jobs and ask why they do it.

Highway patrol police
Sergeant John Robinson of Christchurch Highway Patrol says driving doesn't bring the best out in people, especially if they are running late.

"But it's so simple: if people are more tolerant on the road, lots more people live," says Robinson.

He says the highway patrol Police is under-resourced like teachers and nurses, but also like those professions, Police believe the work they do helps people.

"When I read the road toll for Labour Weekend [2 fatalities] was the lowest in 27 years I thought 'that's 11 families who are better off'," says Robinson.

Robinson says highway patrol Police are not indifferent to verbal abuse or to getting the 'silent treatment' from disgruntled speedsters and find it stressful when people 'have a go' at them.

Family lawyer
In addition to dealing with the emotional fallout from family break ups, family lawyers work long hours, have to be in court when their client's cases come up no matter what their agendas, and may even have their homes picketed by disgruntled former spouses.

Auckland family lawyer Kristina Andersen says the rewarding aspects of being a family lawyer include helping people move through the process of separation and divorce.

"A family lawyer can help to make the process less stressful and easier than it would otherwise have been. Another rewarding aspect is [when] a new client comes to see you who have already resolved everything amicably and they just want the lawyer to record their agreement in a legally binding way," says Andersen

CYF social worker
Making state-controlled decisions about how and where at-risk children will live and how their lives might be improved is stressful, potentially depressing and personally risky.

The department of Child, Youth and Family, which employs more than 1300 social workers in New Zealand, acknowledges this, saying the nature of CYF social work is to "ensure the safety of children and young people, help families with strategies to meet their care and control responsibilities [and] help young people to change their behaviour."

The CYF web site suggests the rewards of the job include "the opportunity to make a positive difference to children's lives; recognition, reward and the opportunity to excel on the job ... ongoing opportunities for training and development; [and] plenty of daily challenges."

Public sector nurse
Understaffed wards, tired doctors and difficult and sometimes dangerous patients all add to the stress of public sector nursing - and the money isn't great either.

We spoke to two public sector nurses with different views of the rewards of the job.

The first, a nurse of 27 years, said she can't comment because she has "nothing positive at all to say". However, the second was more upbeat.

"The patients need you. And without you, you know they're going to struggle more. Ultimately, nursing is about caring," says the nurse.

Bus driver
According to Sergeant John Robinson of the NZ Police, inner city bus drivers probably have the most stressful driving job.

"They're under pressure to get through traffic and meet schedule deadlines, they're responsible for public safety, people are rude to them, and car drivers don't let them pull out. More people should spare a thought for them," says Robinson.

Nor is the pay much - Auckland city bus drivers working for StageCoach went on strike earlier this year in an attempt to raise their hourly rate to around $16. However, as one bus driver says, bus driving is a job that's "easy to get, is not boring, and you meet people."

News journalist
As any news journalist will tell you, broadcasting and print deadlines don't move. If interviewees pull out of a story at the last minute, a journalist covering a live event ends up stranded at the airport, or it's just a slow news day, journalists and their editors still have to put the news together.

Add to this the ever-present fear of getting something wrong; being inadvertently pulled into a political or criminal issue, or being kidnapped and killed, and it's easy to see how news journalism could get stressful. However, it remains a popular career choice. According to the NZ Journalists Training Organisation web site, journalism is "exciting, challenging and among the most rewarding and most demanding of occupations."

Contact centre
Never been verbally abused? Try a stint handling incoming calls at a contact centre. Sachin Jain, team leader for Telecom's broadband help desk, says it takes "a certain person" to work in a contact centre.

"[Call conditions] are fluid; it might be quiet and then the network might go down and you get 100 people in the queue," says Jain. He says while agents are coached on how to deal with abusive callers, it can all get too much on a bad day which is one reason the contact centre industry has a high attrition rate.

Others include the nature of the shift work, and the fact some contact centres (not Telecom's, assures Jain) pay poorly.

CEO
Think Theresa Gattung of Telecom or Fonterra's Andrew Ferrier have time for long holidays, restful walks and regular "me time". Think again.

In addition to schedules that leave little time for family, CEOs are accountable to business boards, shareholders and staff. They may also be accountable to the wider public and the Government. Apparently, the stress of the job is balanced by the personal satisfaction of seeing a company grow and prosper under their leadership; international experience - and high remuneration.

Prime Minister
Far from being all free travel and tea breaks, most Prime Ministers work long hours and sacrifice personal life and sometimes health for "the job".

According to the Prime Minister's web site, in one day Helen Clark left her Auckland home for the airport, flew to Christchurch, conducted a radio interview, made a Tourism conference speech, toured an exhibition, opened a rest home and had lunch with the residents, opened a school hall and library in Rangiora, had a launch at St Thomas of Canterbury College, returned to Auckland; made a speech, went back to Auckland Airport to welcome the President of Pakistan and was home by 9.30pm to review papers and prepare speeches. Enough said.

Wedding photographer
For wedding photographers there's generally just one day to get it right; getting it wrong means crushed hopes and dreams and probably no payment.

Photographers we spoke to say the advent of digital photography has lessened the 'do or die' nature of wedding photography but there's still plenty of stress thanks to the weather, lack of props, unruly children and animals - and the mood of the bride or groom, which, surprisingly, is not always happy.