July 10, 2007
The stress of the stacks
Fighting fires may sound taxing, chasing criminals demanding, but a new study says that working in a library is the most stressful job of all.From the BBC.Librarians are the most unhappy with their workplace, often finding their job repetitive and unchallenging, according to psychologist Saqib Saddiq.
He will tell the British Psychological Society that one in three workers suffer from poor psychological health.
The study surveyed nearly 300 people drawn from five occupations.
They were firefighters, police officers, train operators, teachers and librarians and were intended to cover the spectrum, with the librarians first-thought to be the least stressful occupation.
ADDENDUM: Dr. Weevil rightly points out that it isn't necessarily the job, noting "the possibility that unhappy people might be more drawn to library science in the first place".
Or maybe it's just a British thing. This bunch doesn't seem so glum.
Posted by David on July 10, 2007 10:52 PM
Since when did boredom equal stress? A reader at BBC further adds: Stress is about control. The less control you have over your workload the more stressed you will become.
By that definition factory workers should be dropping off like flies.
Posted by: Charles on July 11, 2007 3:34 AM
For maximum stress, I would suggest looking at jobs that require the incumbent to be an intermediary between two entities that they have little control over. Example - restaurant wait staff where the worker has to please both the diner and the kitchen. Irritating either will result in disaster. Another example is commissioned sales where both the customer and company management have to be kept happy.
Posted by: stuka on July 12, 2007 12:41 PM
If it's so stressful, why don't Librarians routinely go postal and give lethal papercuts to large numbers of patrons??
Where is Conan the Librarian when you need him?
Posted by: on July 13, 2007 4:45 PM
cronaca.com