The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
Extremely Emotional Jobs
Jobs That Drain You
In a world, where there are hundreds of thousands of jobs, many of them will come with their stressors and even bring out your emotions. Many are pleasant without the need for much emotional consideration to be involved. Many people go to work everyday and then return home. Some will feel stressed, and then get over it, while others will feel just fine. Most people return home and they really do not have to think about what happened during the day. There are other professions, however, where the job is never over, despite returning home to live a normal life. Unfortunately, these jobs require the human being to sacrifice their attention and require dedication. Luckily, some people were naturally born to do some of these jobs. And there are others who do not mind doing these types of jobs at all. For them, making a paycheck is their goal and that is what they have done.
For most others, however, when you never really leave your job, the emotional toll it takes on you can impact your entire life and even be devastating, causing there to be issues in your relationship, or completely preventing you from having any type of normal life. For some of these jobs, they pay well, while others, are severely underpaid. It would be interested to learn why people take these types of jobs and do them knowing full well they are severely underpaid, underappreciated, and well overworked.
These jobs are not for the faint-hearted and are in no representative order.
Emergency Dispatcher
Salary: $36,000
There is no telling who is going to call. A prank call from a 4 year old who has nothing to report, as annoying as it may seem, is probably more pleasant than receiving the vast majority of calls that an emergency dispatcher receives. When someone calls 911, they are usually not calling “just to talk”. Nearly everyone who calls 911 has a serious emergency in which they need help.
The emergency dispatcher must be ready to collect as much information as possible to provide the police or fire department with. The emergency dispatcher’s actions in this job can mean a matter of life and death for the caller. Quick responders who know what to do and who to call can save a life, or they may be somewhat accountable as they were too slow to relay the information to the rightful authority.
When the emergency dispatcher leaves their job and returns home, they may not have to answer anymore emergency calls, but they live with those 911 calls and voices in their head for the rest of their lives. The phone call received may have been the person’s last phone call. Every call is random and there is no pattern or filter. An emergency dispatcher will hear everything, and sometimes, even things they probably never wanted to hear, making this an extremely emotional job to do.
Police Officer / Detective / Investigator
Salary: $60,000 / $77,000 / $45,000
In the world we live in today, being a police officer is not an easy job. It may even sometimes seem the world is out to get you and they do not trust you at all. It is like you are the only one who has your back and the only one you can trust. Being a police officer will change the way you view humanity. It is unfortunate, and as much of the good you see in the world, you know there is bad too. Police officers have an abundance of jobs, from enforcing the law, to securing crime scenes, and making detailed reports of whatever happened in their day. They are usually the public’s first line of defense against anything. While being a police officer can be rewarding, the job is never done, and most police officers are on call 24/7.
Being a detective or an investigator, as exciting as those titles may sound, is not all it is cracked up to be. Having to investigate the disappearance of a child or adult, or investigate the scene of a crime for clues, and piece it all together, sometimes in order to capture the one responsible for the crime, or to prove that person is guilty or innocent, is very stressful and emotional.
For all of these jobs, every single moment remains unpredictable. The entire environment is the actual job and all the people within it could potentially be “the job”. After the shift ends, the job is not over. How does one “turn off” being a police officer, an investigator, or a detective? One simply does not which means they are always working. Sleep patterns are disrupted, vacations are cut short, time with family is often a half-stay in which they have to run off and get into uniform and “get right into” the job. This is definitely not a job for most people. It is extremely emotional for anyone who does this type of job.
Firefighter
Salary: Volunteer / $48,000
The image of a firefighter on a calendar and women swooning over that calendar might come to mind, and for sure, there are some good looking firemen (and women), but unfortunately, being a firefighter is not all glamour. In fact, it probably hardly ever is. From sitting around, waiting for calls (and those moments are probably the best), but much of the job has a lot to do with either providing support to emergency services or the police department, or to put out a fire itself. Many times, the fire department will get involved in homicide cases, especially when arson is involved.
When things happen around town, even if it may not always include a fire, but may involve carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, or some other type of gas, the fire department is called. The fire department is expected to do quite more than just “fight fires”. Firefighters are usually adept to provide first aid to victims, inspection of buildings, parades, and other areas. Firefighters will see things they probably never wanted to see and deal with things that they cannot explain. If we take into consideration all the lives lost on 9/11, the entire New York City fire department along with surrounding states went in without question to help, knowing they had a job to do, and risked their lives doing it. A total of 343 firefighters died instantly when the Twin Towers collapsed on September 11, 2001, along with 60 police officers and eight paramedics. Furthermore, many who were involved who survived that day would mostly succumb to other illnesses caused by the remnants of the collapse of the towers, specifically cancer-causing agents.
When it comes to saving lives, firefighters, along with police officers, put their own lives on the line, attempting to save victims and risking their own lives. Fires themselves can be unpredictable and dangerously deadly. Firefighters tend to go above and beyond even what the job description calls for, and for this reason, the job of firefighter must be honored as well as taken into consideration for being an emotional job.
Paramedic
Salary: $32,000
With as much knowledge as a nurse, the EMS or Paramedics are usually the first to arrive on the scene of an incident. They will see everything with no filter. They will hear everything with no filter. They will experience everything without a filter. They will see things they wish they could unsee. They are the very first responding unit and could mean the difference between life and death. They are usually arriving at a scene with very little information known. The EMS or Paramedics must try and save a person’s life and sometimes they must do their work in a high-speed moving vehicle.
Adding to the emotional toll, the other part of the job is actually being the driver who has to get everyone in the vehicle safely to the hospital and in a timely manner. Since they are the driver, they probably did receive training in the field, but they are unable to provide their assistance because their eyes and attention must remain on the road.
No matter what job someone is doing as a Paramedic, the job can certainly take its toll on those who do it.
Death Row Executioner
Salary: Varies (Estimated: $30,000 – $150,000)
Death row executions happen less than you might think. With the Court of Appeals and many different laws, most people on death row usually die there without being executed by the state. When it does happen though, which may be less than 20 people a year, there is one person who must administer the needles that stop the heart and ultimately kill the person. Before 1970, however, they did not think about whether it was “humane” or not and there were a few options available as to how a person could die:
electrocution: 2 minutes to 20 minutes for death
firing squad: Less than 1 minute
gas chamber: 10 to 20 minutes
guillotine: less than 1 minute (France – last used September 10, 1977)
hanging: 4 to 12 minutes
lethal injection: 5 minutes to 2 hours
For any execution method, someone or several persons have to execute an action that is responsible for killing another human being. Nearly all of these methods are now obsolete with the most active and used one being lethal injection, as this is considered humane, though there is plenty of controversy surrounding the method, as the person who is lethally injected is paralyzed, but may still feel the effects of everything happening internally. Truthfully, there is no way to kill someone without having some form of pain involved, even if just for a few seconds. This is completely up for debate and for another confession.
Those for the death penalty would argue that someone who has murdered another human being does not deserve to be treated humanely and therefore lack of consideration for ending their life, even if a painful method is involved, is discredited. Those who are against the death penalty are the biggest proponents to point out that despite the method of lethal injection used, which often causes the body to go into cardiac arrest, usually causing irregular rhythm and likely heart attack, is inhumane, despite a person’s past history of murder.
As for those doing the killing, the pay for this was probably not much, though the executioner may not have had to or might not even have to look at the victim they are killing. Someone not doing the execution could insert the needle into the arm, and then from another room, injections could be made into a tube, where it would travel for a few seconds to a minute and enter the recipient’s bloodstream, and ultimately kill them. Afterwards, a doctor would be present to state the official time of death.
Would knowing what a person did make it easier to kill them? Who has the rightful judgement to actually kill someone? For more information about why people would do this, check out the Milgram Experiment. Killing someone illegally, for most of us, is hard, but killing someone legally, for most of us, would probably be just as hard. In a world where capital punishment and the death penalty exists, someone has to do it, and fortunately for “the system”, there is always someone willing to do it.
For the death row executioner, executing the convicted is a legal job and the only time they are able to kill someone without consequences, at least in their life. Can they go home and sleep at night knowing that they were the one who was paid to end the life of someone that day? As with many other jobs, there are some people who can and will do anything for money, and certainly do not mind being the one to do it.
Like lawyers, there are dozens of different types of doctors who specialize in different things. A doctor is one of the most trusted professionals in the work world. A doctor will see all walks of life, from infancy, until just before death. A doctor almost always sees people who have some type of disease or symptom. A doctor diagnoses problems and attempts to come up with solutions, usually prescribing medicines that are meant to help or cure patients. A doctor is on call nearly 24/7.
A doctor may get so busy that 4 hours of sleep is a dream come true. Like most emotional professions, doctors may return home at the end of the day, but their work is usually never over, with doctors needing to continually educate themselves and do constant research to know how to treat symptoms and solve issues that may change the world. They also must stay knowledge on new treatments and provide continued efforts to help alleviate or cure their patient’s pain.
Nurse
Salary: Varies (Range: $46,000 – $101,000)
Like a doctor and even more so, it seems, a nurse usually does not go to work and “have an easy day”. “Easy days” are not in their vocabulary. Patients range from infant to senior citizen and they may even see death plenty. While there is a huge and ever-constant demand for nurses in all fields, most positions remain open. For many hospitals, a nurse may have as many as six patients she must attend to, which may be cause extreme stress. A nurse can usually mean the difference between life and death. For many, the nurses is far more visible than the doctor.
Nurses may return home, but they too need constant education and learning. Everyday that a nurse goes into work starts off with mentally preparing for the day. There is nothing that can get a nurse “ready for work” as everything is random and can even be chaotic.
Social Media Moderator
Salary: Varies (Range: $27,000 – $42,000)
An article on what it was like to be a Facebook moderator is what actually inspired me to write this confession. For any college graduate, $15 or so an hour seems like a wonderful amount of money to make every hour. For most of us, it is a decent wage. For others, it is considered “minimum wage”. What happens when your job requires you to watch out for posts and videos that may contain extremely violent or very graphic content deemed unsuitable for Facebook and the Internet? In the case of a Facebook moderator, and living in a world full of terrorism and sadism and every possible unfortunate thing you can think of, combined with Facebook Live and the desperate need for attention to share anything and everything, there has to be people who must moderate that type of content.
Considering that Facebook has over a billion users, with over half of them being active, and most other social media has millions upon millions of users, content must be moderated. If people were posting grotesque horrible things that went un-moderated, than most people would probably leave those social networks. Thus, someone must get paid to do the job of personally removing and banning users who post unacceptable materials. When it comes to allowing people the freedom to upload anything, that is what they will do. Sometimes it is not pleasant.
Facebook and most social media networks are in complete cooperation with law enforcement and will do their best to report violence or illegal material to the authorities. Many times, the uploader can easily be tracked down, from discovering the location of friends and pinpointing exactly where the perpetrator lives. There is plenty of technology that assists the FBI, CIA, and local authorities to easily track people down.
Unfortunately, in this job, what has been seen can never be unseen, and those images and videos will never leave your mind. Facebook and hopefully other social media networks have a psychologist available on site for discussions, but as the article states above, many people fear going to them for fear of being sent home without pay or being known as someone who could not handle their jobs. Despite this, the job is extremely emotional and likely requires speaking with a psychologist about emotions.
Even “Google’s Internet Janitor” admits that he has seen the worst of human nature. As powerful, rich, and brilliant of a company that Google is, and the same for Facebook, and many other companies out there: A human is still required because a machine or an algorithm cannot “see” what is inside of a photograph or a video. This means that everything is on the Internet. EVERYTHING. You are literally watching events in real life happen all over the world. Suicides. Decapitations. Murder. Torture. Sadism. Masochism. Porn. Awkward sexual fantasies being acted out. Animal torture. Human torture. Racism. Hate speech. Anything that can be put online can and probably will. Everything on the Internet that Google or Facebook cannot “see” must be checked by someone. Unfortunately, we live in a world where everything and anything is possible and every foul upsetting unpleasant thing you could ever think of, from the deepest pit of your mind, is on the Internet.
The Internet and social media attention has even garnered up people to actually record themselves in devious or dangerous acts towards themselves or others. The only thing Google can really do is de-index it and remove it, but it may not mean it is off the Internet. Other search engines that pick up Google’s algorithm, and without an active team to remove it, have indexed and stored it, so it can be found somewhere and in some way.
Why is it important Google not index this information or Facebook censor it? Simple. Advertisers will never approve of being on such websites or pages with that kind of material, and will pull their money from these companies. Working at Google or Facebook might sound great but once the appeal wears off, you realize your job is to look at things you really never even imagined, dreamed of, or ever wanted to search for or see in your life. It might seem that the most valuable people in the company are the software engineers who are the brains of new things happening at Google, but without advertisers, Google would have almost no revenue. It is the social media moderators that “clean” the Google Internet or Facebook in order to keep the platform attractive to its real money makers.
Crime Scene Cleaner / Death Scene Cleaner
Salary: Varies ($35,000 – $80,000)
When people die, whether peacefully or violently, in their homes, or outside, there are other people who usually take care of the corpse and anything it leaves behind. For people that die in the comfort of their homes peacefully, it can be as easy as calling the mortician and informing him of the death, to which it could take a few hours just to come pick up the dead body. When things are more violent, it can sometimes be left up to the family themselves who clean up the mess, or a cleaning person or crew can or may come into clean all of the mess.
In the case of murder or suicides outside of the home, specifically on public property, and after the police and detectives are finished investigating and gathering evidence, there must be a crew that comes to clean up the mess. The cleaner will be exposed to a scene that they know nothing about, but their mind will try to understand what happened, and whatever was seen or smelled from that scene can never be unseen or unsmelled. The graphic images will remain in mind for the rest of their life.
When it comes to the media, there is an insane amount of things going on in the background. From finding news to declaring it actually newsworthy, to reporting on breaking news, to constantly dealing with the rejection of certain news or newsworthy material, as the higher ups in media declare what their audience should read or see and what they shouldn’t read or see.
Regardless, a news reporter deals with a lot during the day. They must continually look good, learn how to talk on a video camera and be comfortable with it, and do it with clear speech. A news reporter will learn a lot of news, much of it before it is even public, and some of it may be bothersome and devastating. The job of the news reporter is to actually report it and sometimes, they may have to put their own emotions aside in order to speak. They may not always agree with what they are reporting on, but they must keep their opinions to themselves.
Parking Enforcement Officer
Salary: $33,000 – $44,000
There might be some people out there who don’t mind doing it, but for many others, writing someone a ticket because it is their job might seem depressing. Having people run up to you just as you started writing the ticket and then having to face them and tell them you have a quota (though you wouldn’t tell them that) to reach and that if you do not, they will find someone else that does would mean losing your job.
You know you have to enforce the law and you are paid to ensure others are doing just that. Others do not get that you are are just doing your job and enforcing the law to follow parking guidelines for the city or town. At the end of the day, it might not seem that they did anything that helped people, but they did technically keep people from breaking the law or from feeling that it is okay for them to break it without consequences.
Social Worker
Salary: $45,000
The field of the social worker is vast, ranging from helping younger children all the way to helping senior citizens, and all walks of life from drug addicts, abusers, the abused, etc. From the stories you will hear to the things you will see, to the things you cannot help, to the things you will do, the social worker attempts to help everyone and tries to help them live their life, no matter what they have faced.
No matter how much training a social worker receives, no matter how much they have prepared for to deal with certain situations, no matter what how many professionals they have spoken with, or cases they have studied, there is always gong to be that next thing that you never thought could happen, that you had never seen, or expected to deal with, or that you never even read about. You are the forefront of some of the most concerning social issues in the world and you must be ready for anything, everyday.
Going home does not end your day and you will find yourself wondering about cases and trying to understand what your next move will be.
Clinical or Counseling Therapist / Psychologist / Psychiatrist
Salary: Varies (Range: $35,000 – $265,000)
For most psychologists or psychotherapists, listening to someone’s problems and helping them to understand themselves is not the easiest job in the world. For many days, it is trying to help someone resolve childhood issues that have affected their lives, or current issues that are causing the problem. This profession may sit one-on-one with you while you sit in a chair and they sit in a chair and may spend months or years analyzing your situation and writing notes about your case.
For psychiatrists, which is like a psychologist and a doctor combined, they can assign established medications or experimental medications to try and correct a psychological and neurological issue they feel is in your brain. While becoming good in this field requires years and years of endless study, it is the issues your patients face that helps you solve problems with the world.
The problem is that sometimes, no matter how many years of experience that someone in this field has acquired, there is always the chance of a misdiagnosis. Misdiagnosis can lead to an assortment of additional problems, especially with prescription medications. For psychologists, they may not always come to a conclusion with their patients, resulting in frustration and anger.
There is also the case of people who have psychologists and psychiatrists and trust them to the end of the world. For most of the time, confidentiality is the key. In fact, most people who work in this profession must keep the secrets they know with them, even from their own friends and family. It is very hard to know something about someone and you cannot go to the authorities, though in some cases, an attorney may issue a subpoena, at which point, you may have legal issues on both ends: not giving up the records of a client and giving them up.
For everything a psychologist or psychiatrist does, there is a lot of communication that goes into every patient, making this job not just stressful, but extremely emotional.
Lawyer
Salary: Varies (Range: $45,000 – $120,000)
The wide-range of lawyer specialties is so vast that I could never list them all here, but if you have an issue, there is a lawyer who can help you. If you are dealing with a situation, there is a lawyer who specializes in cases like yours. From a defense lawyer to an attorney to lawyers who specialize in malpractice, drunk driving cases, criminal, etc. There are both good and bad lawyers. There are honest lawyers and corrupt lawyers. Every lawyer is out to win a case or prove something.
Sheer luck is not enough for any lawyer. A lawyer’s job is continuous education and research which never ends. Many lawyers look to past cases in order to study current ones so they may understand similar situations. Despite the million of cases to study, there is always something new that a lawyer can learn. A lawyer must also know how to appease the judge, while being respectful, and understand how to talk to a jury and convince them of that their client is either guilty or innocent.
Confidentiality is a huge must to consider this field. That means that a defense lawyer, despite knowing the truth about a case, might still have to defend their client and prove them innocent, even if it means they must lie. They often will do their best to not reveal the truth, but often find cracks in the case. For example, they will attempt to seek lighter sentences or point out holes that could make a story weak, thus getting the entire case on a mistrial or deadlock because the sentence is too powerful.
Restaurant Server
Salary: $20,000 base + tips
The job itself is not a hard job, but it is tedious. Taking orders, writing everything down, going back and forth to different tables, and ensuring that meals are correct. When something goes wrong, it is your fault. And the people you are serving may feel they need to reflect that in the final bill. You already know your paycheck is not going to be much and you risk every single person that comes in not tipping well, and there is nothing you can do about it. You could do your best, be the best, and still get lousy tips.
Every day is random and like a gamble from what your boss wants you to do that day to who comes in. Sometimes it could be great and other days, not so good. Your job is to be a server to those who choose to go out for a meal. Unfortunately, your job never really guarantees you a steady paycheck or even a paycheck.
Judge
Salary: $110,000 – $225,000
It takes years of experience, and in particular, a journey of emotions and stress to even get to the position of judge. A judge is not a job position that one simply applies for. A judge is a position to which you are appointed by your peers. It is possible to become a young judge, but most judges are older, experienced with hundreds to thousands of different cases. There are different types of judges, who may be the only one to decide in some cases, while the judge may also have a jury to which he listens to and makes the final sentencing.
A judge almost always has a law degree and has years of schooling beforehand. They also had to pass the bar exam. They had to gain the reputation and the recognition which involved losing many cases and winning some. For the job of a judge, it is a position that is earned for years of hard work and emotional work. A judge in Small Claims court must decide which story is accurate and which has inconsistencies, i.e. who is lying and who is telling the truth. For all judges, they often must determine if the allegations brought upon someone are true or false.
Although there are written rules about the penalties of particular sentences, there are sometimes issues where the sentence is a unique case, and the judge must decide whether to overwrite the sentence or not with his or her own terms. Judges will sentence people to a punishment which he or she feels is accurate for the crime. A judge must also make sure these sentences are fair and just. Sometimes, a judge may even sentence a person to prison for life. Even worse, what does a judge feel after sentencing a person to life in prison or worse, but it is later discovered that person was actually innocent.
Although the pay might seem great, the job is extremely stressful, overwhelming, and frustrating. Judges are expected to be the sentences who decide the fate of people. Most religious buffs might say this is a position reserved only for the Almighty. However, Judges are the ones who decide for humanity. They are the last resort in deciding how a person spends their years on this Earth. For that, the position of a Judge is prestigious and honorable. Most ordinary people have no idea of what a Judge lives through everyday of his or her life. Do they want to be in court? Probably not. Would they prefer to be somewhere on a beach, vacationing, and not having to worry about the world’s problems? Wouldn’t everyone prefer the latter? You never actually hear a judge say, “I love my job.” It is one of the hardest jobs in the world.
You almost have to be insane to want to be a judge, so it takes a special person who has decided they are reasonable and just-minded enough to not be corrupt and judge fairly. Not all judges are fair and some are even corrupt, but that is for another confession. To decide the fate of a person is a tough stressful and definitely emotional job. No judge wants to see any human being in the courtroom, but unfortunately, we are humans with irrational and irregular thoughts. And until we somehow magically change our ways, there will be a need for the job of judges until the end of time.
Sanitation Worker or Septic Tank Servicer or Sewer Pipe Cleaner
Salary: $37,000
When your job is to literally clean shit or deal with what no one ever wants to deal with, it can certainly be exhausting. Smelling shit all day, touching shit all day, basically dealing with human feces is your job. Not a job you really want to tell anyone when you fancy it up by saying, “sanitation worker”. You do what you must. The sewer lines get clogged all the time, and modern technology can only go far when it comes to dispersing the tons and tons of human waste every year, and when something does break, your job is to fix it so everything can continue “flowing” like normal again.
Actor / Actress
Salary: Varies (Range: $0 – Millions)
There are many people who dream about becoming actors or actresses. They do whatever they can, taking on low-paying or sometimes even no-paying jobs just to get noticed. If you go to Los Angeles or Hollywood, you will find that many people working menial jobs don’t expect to stay there forever and hope to get noticed by someone, anyone! Small time acting jobs do not pay the bills and there is no guarantee of anything. For every person that makes it into the acting business, there are a million more who did not.
Acting requires that you become a different person and pretend to be a character that embodies the imagination of the director of the play or film. Not only do you have to pretend with your body, but you must get into character with your mind. For many actors and actresses, a part may require them to cry, have emotion, and even experience it as if it were real life. This can sometimes take its toll on the actor, as they may be re-enacting a story about something sad or tragic. Getting into character may seem easy as well, but it does require some time and patience. The actor must remain in character while on stage and this too can be very emotional.
For those who did get noticed, fame and fortune easily goes to their head, and they might think it just happened magically, without remembering all the work they did to get there, or the fact that it probably almost did not happen. Welcome to being rich and famous. There is no privacy. There is only constant recognition. The paparazzi want to catch you doing anything and everything. The media makes up stories about you. You have an insanely busy schedule. You have no time for anyone and definitely no time to really enjoy any of the money you made.
There are many actors and actresses who love their job, love the money, but admit that they hate the fame. When you have to hire security to protect you and your family and you cannot go anywhere without being recognized, it gets old pretty fast. Unfortunately, you should not be mean to your fans, because they are what keeps you famous. However, hearing the same thing over and over can definitely be exhausting.
Another stress is the fact that in Hollywood, you are in your prime from 18 – 30. After that, unless you are famous and directors want to use you for their film, or you fit into some role, it can be very hard to find work. Some of the most famous actors and actresses admit that this is their greatest fear: no longer being called for an acting job.
Actors and actresses are also approached by many companies for charitable reasons and are expected to answer. There are hundred of organizations dedicated to doing good works. How does an actor or actress choose who to answer or what is real and what is not? Actors and actresses are still human too. Reading about false stories in tabloids about themselves. While they may have money, they cannot alone change the world. Their jobs can be very emotional.
Teacher
Salary: Varies (Ranges based on location: $35,000 – $60,000)
For those teachers you ask, most love it and find it very rewarding. However, it comes with its demands and stresses. They readily admit that on the other side of the coin, it is very tiring and stressful. Whether from the students themselves or the education system, the teacher is expected to go above and beyond. Most teachers will never be reimbursed for the things they do, but they are one of the most influential people, aside from their parents, in that student’s life.
The job requires teachers usually coming up with a curriculum, that must be accepted, as outlined by the Board of Education. They must not only teach this material, but make it fun, entertaining, and useful to their students. They also are responsible for grading the students’ work. For many teachers, while not technically in the job description, they do become babysitters for some students.
When they return home, the teacher is usually not getting paid for all of the extra work they do. The other hard part of the job: At the end of every year or semester, the teacher must say goodbye to her students and then learn to become comfortable with a whole new set of students. Teaching can definitely be a very emotional job.
Funeral Director
Salary: Varies (Range: $45,000 – $65,000)
The job itself may seem as easy as making preparations for a dead body and trying to help the family cope with what has happened to their loved one. No one is particularly happy about the death of anyone and the people working at a funeral home, who may have a half dozen showings a day, or may get busy at certain times of the year, depending on the events in the surrounding area, are kept busy. From preparing the body, preparing the room, taking the body and leading the family to the cemetery and even managing the cemetery, as some funeral homes do, it is a lot of work.
The other hard part of the job: an extremely emotional family who has to face reality that their loved one is about to be buried six feet under or cremated. Death is one of the hardest things we all must face, but it is even harder when we must endure the results of what death does to our loved ones. The funeral director and staff must be there to support the emotional needs of the family and comfort them in their greatest time of sadness.
Military
Salary: Varies (Ranges: $25,000 – $80,000)
Depending on your position in the military, it can definitely be tedious. From bootcamp to soldier, you are trained to be disciplined. Everything you learned and all of your bad habits need to be forgotten, at least, while serving. Of course, not everyone is going to come out the same, and not everyone will lose all of their bad habits. But you are expected to follow a code and act like a mature individual who is ready to protect their country.
Depending on your branch and what you are assigned to do, you can get sent off to fight a war, whether you agree with it or not, you are expected to do your job and do it without question. Too many soldiers return home with mental disabilities, specifically PTSD, from war. There are things that soldiers will not and cannot talk about, and there are likely plenty of nightmares to come along with it. Not to discourage anyone from believing that serving their country is the right thing to do. To many, it is the what they feel is the right thing to do.
Despite your honor and passion for fighting for the United States government in order to protect your country, it still does not eliminate the fact that you will see things you wish you had not and do things that you can never forget. No matter how much you talk to a psychologist, no matter how many pills you take from a psychiatrist, no matter how much help you get or support you have, nothing can ever change the fact that you experienced an event, and likely a traumatic one, no matter how much you convince yourself it was not traumatic. Your brain likely feels otherwise. Unfortunately, the consequences of war can be costly for everyone involved, and though you may not be damaged physically, it will scar your mind. No matter how much you think you can numb yourself to the pain, to the suffering, to war, the military is an extremely emotional job. Just because you have left the country or area does not mean it is over. Whatever was done there has left an impact and has likely changed events in some way or another.
Secret Service
Salary: Varies (Range: $43,000 – $75,000)
When you serve in the military, you put your life in danger for your country. When you become part of the Secret Service, you put your life in danger for the First Family. You are tasked with protecting the President and his family. Whether you agree or disagree with the President or not, you must protect the President at all costs. In doing so, your life is in danger every single day. Not to mention the fact that the First Family may find it annoying that they need the constant protection and may not always be nice to you themselves, yet you have to be willing to take a bullet for them no matter what.
Aside from this, every threat against the President is actually looked into, taken seriously, and you may be part of an investigation team that is tasked with foiling plots against the President. Depending on where your assignment is, you could be away from your family for weeks at a time. The Secret Service not only has one of the toughest jobs but it can be very emotional as well.
President
Salary: $400,000
Becoming President of the United States is not an easy task and with it comes one of the greatest and most challenging responsibilities in the world: Being a representative of the United States and making decisions that affect everyday lives, sometimes decisions that cause the death of others, while also dealing with an entire Congress who may not agree with you or like you. Everyday, the President is expected to do a job in protecting the country and do it well. When it comes to being President, it is almost guaranteed that nearly half the country already does not like you, did not vote for you, and is waiting for the day for you to fall, whatever that may mean.
Being the President also means that you will have very little privacy and despite the public image showing you with your family, you will have almost no time to spend with them. You will have to make tough decisions everyday and try and reason with the very people you work with. The President of the United States is not only one of the most stressful jobs in the world, but it is a very emotional job that requires you to be distant from your own emotions.
Another thing that the majority of people will never know that you and just less than one hundred other Americans know: What the actual job of President entails. You will learn more than you had ever known and you cannot share most of it with the world, for the rest of your life.
Government: CIA, FBI, NSA
Salary: Varies (Range: $60,000 – $150,000)
The job of the CIA, the FBI, and NSA are very different from one another but require a professionalism that goes beyond a regular American citizen’s job. For starters, anything seen and done is most likely not allowed to be shared with any family or friends. Most everything done on the job is top secret and confidential. It is rare to even hear from anyone who has ever worked these types of jobs. Sometimes you will see documentaries, where they could reveal the information fifty years after it took place. Things seen may take their toll on the psyche, as these types of jobs require you to see things that can never be unseen, including the most horrendous crimes, dealing with serial killers, sexual pedophiles, terrorists, drug dealers, etc.
Investigations may take months or years and may even require you to go undercover for months and during this time, you may not even be able to contact your family in order to try and succeed in your mission. Aside from that, spying and listening in on conversations or spying on the general population can be tedious. In the movies or in television shows, they may skip to the parts where the action is going on. For much of this job, you may spend hours, days, months, and even years trying to find what you are looking for, and you may never even find it. While some aspect may be filled with action, a large majority is filled with inaction.
Regardless, the job may also require a complete emotional disconnect from reality in order to actually deal with certain situation. At the end of the day, when you return home to your family, it must be a regular day, and separating work from home life can be very hard, thus taking an extremely emotional toll not just on the individual, but the family as well.
Other Mentions: Airline Pilots, Bus Drivers, Truck Drivers, Tour Guides, Politicians, Morticians, Salespersons, Authors, Artists, Directors, CEOs, Athletes, Financial Advisers, Accountants.
All of these other mentions of these jobs entail some kind of emotional stress on the body or the brain, and if not on the person, definitely their families. These are probably the most psychologically demanding and damaging, most exhausting, most un-thankful jobs there are. Some of these jobs certainly come with great compensation, but at what price? The price of time spent enjoying your time on this Earth?
Some of these jobs seem exciting and many people do them without complaint. They may not seem like they would carry a lot of emotion, but the stress of emotion can take its toll on the mind and the body. Some of these jobs do require a special counselor or psychologist to help people through their jobs and help get them back to a safe place where they can do their jobs and do them well again.
We are all human and while we may think bottling up our emotions deep within us so they can never see the light of day again may work, they will always resurface in some way. There are tons more emotional jobs out there that are not listed here. You are probably working one right now. Please feel free to share in the comments a job you feel is just as emotional as the ones listed above.
For all of the people who work in any of these fields, and even the ones I have not mentioned, I salute you. You are what keeps the world going round. I could never know exactly what goes on in any of your jobs because I have never worked any of these jobs. I can only go from what I have read about or have an idea about. You are the one who truly knows what goes on in your job. You get up and you do what you have to do, not because it is a job, but because it is your way of making the world a better place to live.
