America's Most Stressful Jobs 2011
 

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

most-stressful-jobs-cnbc: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

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.

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

But hey, enough about Mrs. Justanotherflyer.

My sides are hurting!
 

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.....

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.

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.)

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:

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.