Looks like Pilots are number one at least with one thing for the media:

most-stressful-jobs-cnbc: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance (http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/112571/most-stressful-jobs-cnbc?mod=career-worklife_balance)

1. Commercial Airline Pilot

Stress score: 47.60
Average annual salary: $117,060
Hours per day: 9

The most stressful job of 2011 is a commercial airline pilot, according to CareerCast.com. Tony Lee points out that several recent events demonstrate how a pilot's job can be stressful, as it depends on factors out of their control. For instance, a pilot must rely heavily on equipment: the incident with the damaged Southwest 737 earlier this year revealed how this reliance can cause tension during a pilot's normal working day. In addition, a pilot's reliance on control tower operators also increases stress, especially after the revelations that air traffic controllers are falling asleep on the job, requiring planes to land without help.

Pilots also experience big swings in stress, says Tony Lee, going from "periods of extremely low stress when they're not flying, followed by periods of extremely high stress. And these stressful swings are not the best thing for your health." The profession has also been affected by the economy, he says, with layoffs, high oil prices, and cost cutting in the airline industry threatening pay raises and employment levels. For these reasons, being a commercial airline pilot is the most stressful job in America this year.

What utter cobblers.

This same "analysis" put pilots at number six last year, behind firefighters, police, surgeons and, er, taxi drivers.

Suddenly those other jobs are remarkably less stressful?

They must be, they don't even make second place - that privilege goes to PR executives, who'd probably be less stressed if they stopped peddling this garbage. :suspect:

Personally I find it's a blessed relief to get airborne. My stressors are decidedly ground-based.

But hey, enough about Mrs. Justanotherflyer.

Gave me the best laugh I have had all week :)

If a CEO screws up, they walk away, possibly with a golden pay off and already lined up for the next job.
If those pilots screw up big style, they pay with their lives as well as many others behind them...
if they live to tell the tale, they are unlikely to ever get a flying job again.

As they say "Happiness is V1" :)

:mad:
fokker1000,

Trust me - 99.9% of pilots don't think like that at work.

No happiness is a few seconds later at "Rotate" :o)

It's the best job in the world, once you shut and lock the cockpit door.....

"periods of extremely low stress when they're not flying, followed by periods of extremely high stress
Most of the time it's the other way around :}

I recall a conversation i had a few years ago with a mate who had been made redundant and his house was on the line etc.

I suspect that it is a lot more stressful being in that situation, especially if you have a wife and young kids, ie unemployed, possibly nowhere to live, how to feed your family etc

What about the millions around the world who earn less than $1/day, ahve to trawl through garbage etc.

I think these things are much more stressful.

Don't get me wrong, after all I flew commercially for 20 years, ending up as a B747-400 Captain for a major carrier, and know the stresses involved, but believe it pales into insignificance compared to 'real' life.

Strikes me as the only time it gets really stressful is on that visit to the AME...

I chose to fly international to relieve the stress of KORD and KJFK, etc. and fly to nice unstressful airports like Tegucigalpa, Honduras, named the most dangerous commercial airline airport recently in the world. It was a daylight only operation and a lot of fun in a 757. Stress is usually caused by overloaded controllers that can't give you clearances putting you in a dilemma of getting an approach clearance or a clearance to land to make you legal. Down south, maybe three airplanes are on frequency. My final stress flying south was my retirement flight when approach forgot about us on our return flight with a very congested frequency and didn't clear us for the approach so we finally got it with a full down glide slope and the recovery after being finally cleared ended up in one of my worst landings with my friends on board.

Life is stress free now. I never felt flying was very stressful because I loved it. Some airports put a bit of stress into the job.

Mary, I wish you could go to mine because you wouldn't be stressed at all.

Good to know that after playing hunt the IED and dodging bullets in one of the sand boxes you will be tough enough to be a commercial pilot. If you survive, that is. What utter piffle these surveys are.

That's why I always took so much sick leave. :)

I do the surgeon thing to be able to afford the part 135 thing.

The latter is the stress wastegate.

Closing the doors and pushing back is a great stress reliever.
I would agree with "real life" being more stressful. My advice is try to become debt-free. That really reduces the stress, and also gives the added comfort of being able to tell your employer to take a hike if you want to.
Before I get shot down, yes I know most people, including pilots, have high debt burdens, but long term financial planning and a little frugality will go a long way to relieving the stress. Sticking to your first wife also helps.

Sticking to your first wife also helps.

There's an old saying: Why is divorce so expensive? Because it's worth it!

My stress level is much lower with wife number 2. (Who I have every reason to believe will be number last.)

In addition, a pilot's reliance on control tower operators also increases stress, especially after the revelations that air traffic controllers are falling asleep on the job, requiring planes to land without help.


Aha! Her genetically manadated need to inflict stress is all being expended on you guys. And she comes home happy and well rested too. I knew there had to be an explanation. Thanks, guys. :ok:

(But in a more serious tone, I don't have to read any more of the article than the line quoted above in order to regard the entire article as crap. Are you all feeling especially stressed this past month?) :rolleyes:

No happiness is a few seconds later at "Rotate" :o)

Not true, it entirely depends on just where one is taking off from.

I've taken off from places when I've tears in my eyes because I've had to leave.

I thought happiness was passing the last ETP.

yeah the article is crap... but doesnt hurt i think to get some public sympathy... too much of the public despise us pilots

yeah the article is crap... but doesnt hurt i think to get some public sympathy... too much of the public despise us pilots

Because of articles like this! :p

Stressfull sure , probably the most accountable definately. Would love to see the worlds Bankers , Airline managers etc enjoy the same level of accountability as pilots instead of aportioning blame to all thier subordinates for every bad decision they make.

Clearly nonsense.:yuk:
Now, Air Traffic Controllers, they have a far morse stressful job.:*

An ATP job could be defined as "hours of boredom followed by seconds of pure horror"...

Hogwash, all of it.

Most stressful job?

Home remodeling, with the wife anywhere in the vicinity.

Stress is usually self induced by the pilot. Sometimes the airport choice or controllers not being able to communicate because of congestion might cause some but most is caused by the pilot him or herself. Weather shouldn't, problems boarding shouldn't, delays for takeoff shouldn't and flight attendants shouldn't. Once you are a captain the other pilot shouldn't. Flying stress free is pretty easy if you don't try to do somebody elses job. A few times in your career something will happen to cause some stress but it is short term so do what you have to do and go back to low stress mode. Your choice.

Further stress reduction:

Having the trip I had originally scheduled for last night (which would have put me just about over STL at around 0100z) rescheduled for this am. (Beautiful, smooth, no unhappy pax)

Most guys ridiculing the article may have not had the misfortune of experiencing life and death situations.
Air France 447 flight crew and many others, sadly some not able to tell their stories, would not be so quick to judge.

Flying airplanes is the most relaxing thing I ever did. On rare occasions there were some hard decisions to make, but those times were short and didn't cause stress because they were over before you had time to be stressed.

Anyone that is routinely stressed in the cockpit should be looking for a different career.

If you take into account the financial uncertaintly that plagues the job than I guess it could be one fo the most stressful!!!

The only stressful think is getting to the airplane!

I started flying in my late 30's early 40's after a career as a middle level manager. The levels of stress as a pilot are far less than the constant stress of having to perform, be on time and budget. There are a few spikes of stress now and then but they're quick and you have a sense of achievement. Continuously having to worry about your performance as a manager is draining and soul destroying. Belief me, flying is a walk in the park compared to that.

The only stress I have: watching a once-great and once-honored profession be reduced, bit by bit, to the status of a bus driver.

I've got 20 years to go in this job. I do not think things will get better; indeed, I think they will get much worse.

Twenty years ago my pilot father made twice what I do, in real dollars, with a full pension and a union with some power. And I've got the best contract there is.....

Stress is usually self induced by the pilot. Sometimes the airport choice or controllers not being able to communicate because of congestion might cause some but most is caused by the pilot him or herself. Weather shouldn't, problems boarding shouldn't, delays for takeoff shouldn't and flight attendants shouldn't. Once you are a captain the other pilot shouldn't. Flying stress free is pretty easy if you don't try to do somebody elses job. A few times in your career something will happen to cause some stress but it is short term so do what you have to do and go back to low stress mode. Your choice.

On spot BB44!;)

Thanks for the back up. I watched so many of my captains try to control other people so when I became a captain I just did my captain stuff and only when it was necessary to intervene did so. It made life easy. Sometimes getting nonrev pax on when the agents wanted to shut the door you had to intervene but that was rare. I loved my flying career and the stress level was very low. You make it what you want.

Once at Anchorage six Flying Tigers Flight Attendants came out on the ramp we were pushed back at waving wanting to non rev on our flight so I shut down the left engine, waved them over, and everybody was happy. That is how it should be done.

Me = Pilot, two crew, aircraft>12500lbs, aerial work.

Um... lifting... bubbers44 & of course con-pilot ;)
You definitely brought valid points.

But I have to break the party here, besides a few posts I think there is two pages of bullsh!tting in a way of:
"Look at me, I'm cool, I'm a pilot and will never stress for anything"
441A might have agreed but look where he is now.

While that is certainly the image I too want to project, I'm not flying to go up and relax.
But to do my job!
I know, you too! Well guess what, when nothing goes according to plan it brought stress. Saying otherwise would be lying unless you are a First Officer sitting on his/her both hands completely relying to your Captain.

And before N1EPR or anyone else jump on me, I am certainly not routinely stressed in a cockpit.



Now to say that is the most stressful job, that is a bit over the top too...






whoaa, I darned post something on Rumours & News, let see if I will come back... Or leave the "expertise" to Shell Management :}

ehwatsitdoing, I think you make a valid point.
What seat you're in, what Co. you fly for and where you operate in and out of makes just an ever-so-slight difference on your view on it.. As any pilot reading this will agree.
Fourgolds makes a balanced comment in my opinion too.
As for the majority of the macho BS on this thread (mainly I'd bet from none pilots or from raw FOs), well, are you surprised airline bosses don't want to give you a pay raise, if not a pay cut as the job is so easy, and so non stressed, and basically any one could do it, which is what you imply.
You guys are talking yourselves out of the pay you deserve.... If you do deserve it that is?

Stress has little or nothing to do with your pay. If you like to believe it go ahead. Once you have the experience to confidently fly your airplane and don't have to deal with the a** hole in the left seat you can usually make it pretty stress free. We are not pounding our chests saying we have everything mastered, we are just saying why put your own stress into the job trying to make the job harder than it is. When I was a copilot the stress of the day was dictated by how stressed the captain was and made me stressed. I have been told by check airmen giving me a line check, I run a very relaxed cockpit. I considered that a compliment.

One of my favorite captains had me laughing most of the sequence with his humor. His PA's were hysterical. No stress. The next guy, micro managing everything, including me and causing stress with everybody he dealt with made it a long day. I wasn't as funny as the first captain but tried to make the cockpit stress free. Leave the stress for when something bad happens.
Maybe it never will, but when it does you will still make it to retirement.

Actually flying the a/c is pretty stress free for those who know what they are doing. The received stress is a byproduct of other factors, ie staggeringly long or multiple sectors at appalling times after little rest in a noisy hotel, constant disruptive roster changes, concern over whether you will pass your next medical, hassles with security, the precarious financial state of the company, etc, etc.

I’m sure many actual pilots here can add to that list.

These are not transient problems. These are stress factors not common to all jobs.

Perhaps this is what influenced this survey, not that I agree with it.