If you fear of premature wrinkles and gray hair, PR is not the right job for you. Professionals from most of the industries and fields claim to be as stressed out but CareerCast report released recently confirms that PR is the sixth most stressful job in 2016. The profession has been in top ten for last couple of years and there is no sign of PR moving out of list this anytime soon. What makes PR so stressing a job? Let’s find out!
“Stress is unavoidable, no matter your line of work,” says Kyle Kensing, Online Content Editor, CareerCast. Their finding says that a public relations executive’s stress comes from tight deadlines and sometimes working to handle communications in a crisis situation. Event coordinators must achieve a client’s vision for occasions such as a wedding or national conference with a successful end-result. Broadcasters and newspapers reporters also face stressful deadlines and declining job growth – which means the potential for layoffs and poor opportunities for advancement.
“Life is filled with stressors – from worrying you’re going to lose your job because the company lost a big account to having a sick child at home,” adds Kyle. “Much of the pressure we feel occurs in the eight or so hours we spend at work and we asked our readers to sound off on their stress factors.”
The online opinion poll had 834 respondents and is a new supplement to CareerCast’s annual Jobs Rated Most and Least Stressful Jobs report, which has been published annually since 2009.
What makes PR, event planning, and journalism so hard to handle? Here’s CareerCast’s explanation: “Jobs such as public relations executive, newspaper reporter and event coordinator are among the most stressful because of tight deadlines and scrutiny in the public eye.”
The top factors that make jobs including that of PR so stressful are following.
Unpredictability
As per the findings, the most common factor influencing job stress is unpredictability. Well if it causes stress, so be it. Public relation is all about unpredictability and uncertainty. If you are looking for certainty, go to advertising. Influenced space always comes with uncertainty. You don’t know whether your pitch will be entertained, if at all, then how much space will it get, what kind of words and communication will come out, you have no control over any of it.
Another kind of unpredictability is the one concerning job security. Being under a continuous scrutiny by clients and bosses and limited number of good consultancies to work for, a young PR professional has to deal with considerable amount of uncertainty.
Workplace Environment
Workplace environment tops the list of stress factors because of the jobs that come above PR in the most stressful jobs. And those jobs include military, fire fighters, etc. Of course, a PR professionals’ workplace environment is not as difficult but then most of the times it’s no less than a war place as well. Then they are supposed to visit media, clients, government offices, event venues, etc. which may not all be very conducive places to work from. You always miss a cozy corner cubicle to work from comfortably and get to concentrate better at all times while the job demands change of spot all the time. You are to adjust and live with it.
Public relations executives and event coordinators, which were also among the top 10 most stressful professions of 2016, face a difficult workplace environment.
Deadlines
Well that’s the killing or may be the most killing part for that matter. Deadline may not top CareerCast’ list of stress factors but am sure, it’s on top of the list for many PR professionals that we know of. Bet it NBD, presentation, meeting, pitch, media rounds, results, and regular reviews, the entire work cycle of a PR professional is laden with deadlines. And the worst part is that they have to deal with on all sides – client, boss as well as journalists. Everybody’s deadline is PR professional’s deadline.
Some people thrive on unpredictability and deadlines and perform well only under stressful conditions. They are the best suited people for a PR job and not the opposites.
Here’s the list of top 10 most stressful jobs:
- Enlisted military personnel (84.72 stress score)
- Military general (65.54)
- Firefighter (60.45)
- Airline pilot (60.28)
- Event coordinator (49.93)
- Public relations executive (48.52)
- Corporate executive (47.46)
- Newspaper reporter (46.75)
- Police officer (46.66)
- 10. Taxi driver (46.18)
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