Most Stressful Jobs on 3AW 693 AM Radio Melbourne with Tom Elliott
Topic: Most Stressful Jobs
Date: 7 November 2023
Media Outlet: 3AW 693AM Melbourne https://www.3aw.com.au
Broadcaster / Interviewer: Tom Elliott
Producer: Breanna Edebohls
Radio Summary:
https://www.3aw.com.au/the-pessimistic-view-more-than-half-of-young-people-have-about-their-financial-prospects
Duration: 00:04:12
Time of show: 17:10
Audio Recording:
YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDJ8ZdGynnU
Transcript
Stressful jobs. Well working in a dementia facility, State School teaching in WA, landing a plane in a crosswind, being an air traffic controller, being a surgeon I reckon they’re all stressful. Our next guest is career expert Sue Ellson Sue good afternoon.
Hi Tom
Do you think being a a state school teacher is is one of the more stressful jobs you could have?
Well any job that involves facing the public and where your demands are greater than the resources is probably going to be fairly high up on the list so I’d say it would be. The specific thing about teachers is over the years they’ve become pseudo social workers because a lot of the children have issues there, but they’ve also picked up a lot of admin work and there’s a guy who does financial accounting for schools and he’s actually found that if more um staff were allocated to the admin duties and more staff teachers could just be teachers they would actually perform better financially as well, so there’s a bit of an irony there but yeah definitely one of the most stressful.
And look I’m I’m not advocating a return to the the days of corporal punishment although we certainly had that when I was at school but you know the tools for being able to control students these days are quite limited I mean you can’t threaten to give them the strap or the cane or anything like that can you?
Oh definitely not and there’s a lot of things that they need to be aware of and there’s a lot of uh rules and regulations and multiple changes to the curriculum and lots of things always occurring that do definitely make it stressful even the fact that there’s a teacher shortage makes it stressful so you’ll end up with a lot of casual relief teachers coming in.
Yeah if we go back a step what what what when we say that something is stressful what what what do you think we mean I we all we perhaps all know what stress is when we feel it but is it is it not having complete control over a situation is it multiple demands on our time that we can’t fulfill what how would you actually define you know what is a stressful situation?
Well it could be very different for different people I remember interviewing a person who was called in as a crisis team when there was a disaster and she was there to counsel the people who just you know a disaster had just occurred and she loved that work and then when she wasn’t doing that she felt completely bored and she found that stressful so you know different people are going to have different approaches, but if you look at some of the assessments as to what is a stressful job it’s going to include things like how much travel, is there any growth, are there physical demands on your body, what are the conditions like, are you encountering hazards, are you face to face with grumpy people you know like retail is really suffering, is there a lot of competitiveness, is the life of another person like the airline pilot or the the um age care worker at risk, do they have chronic deadlines like they do in journalism you know there are they working in the public eye with cameras chasing them around so there’s a lot of different things even a lack of autonomy where you don’t have any control over things and and I remember you know back in 2011 I was about to start a new job and up until that time I nearly always caught public transport and this new job meant that I would have been driving my car on a regular basis now that doesn’t sound like a major stressor but for me at the time it was as I wasn’t accustomed to it.
Yeah, it is, that’s right it is. No no I agree I’ve got used to either walking to work or taking public transport I drive only rarely like when I have to
Mmm
and for that for that reason I found that that sitting there in traffic was was stressing me out I was arriving at work already a bit tense like like in what I do um I don’t I don’t get stressed out like doing a radio show because I’ve done it for so many years it just seems like second nature but we do have you know eight periods a year called ratings where we essentially get assessed you know like our people listening to us or not and I must say that the morning when the ratings are released is always nervous and everybody who works in radio will attest to this Yes that you just you feel like you are being judged
Mmm hmm
and you know you know that if you don’t do well for an extended period your your your job will be on the line I mean it’s that simple
That’s right and overnight your income will go to zero
Yep yep that’s what happens all right thank you Sue, Sue Ellson there career expert.
Social Share
MOST STRESSFUL JOBS // Are you feeling a bit stressed 😧 at work? Tom Elliott and I discussed this topic on 3AW 693AM Radio Melbourne.
We discussed:
- the stresses of teaching and other professions
- different types of stress factors
- what stresses individuals may be different
- how travel arrangements can impact stress
Enjoy the show online at https://sueellson.com/blog/most-stressful-jobs-on-3aw-693-am-radio-melbourne-with-tom-elliott and thanks to Producer Breanna Edebohls for reaching out!
#3awmelbourne #careers #sueellson
Further information
Key Work Health and Safety Statistics
https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/doc/key-work-health-and-safety-statistics-australia-2022
Mental health conditions are rising and they involve taking more time off work, 30.7 working weeks compared on average to 6.2 weeks for a physical injury.
Work Related Injuries Statistics
https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/earnings-and-working-conditions/work-related-injuries/latest-release
Be aware that only 31% receive compensation for injury or illness…
Tom Elliott LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomelliott2
3AW 693 News Talk Drive
https://www.3aw.com.au/show/drive-with-tom-elliott
Podcast Recording of the Show – starts at 01:16:53 – 01:21:00 – some great comments after the segment
https://omny.fm/shows/drive-with-tom-elliott/full-show-3aw-drive-with-tom-elliott-november-7-1
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