<p>[Least</a> Stressful Jobs for 2013 - Yahoo! Finance](<a href=“http://finance.yahoo.com/news/least-stressful-jobs-for-2013-162058604.html]Least”>http://finance.yahoo.com/news/least-stressful-jobs-for-2013-162058604.html)</p>
<p>Least Stressful Jobs for 2013</p>
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<p>Looks great! Sign me up!</p>
<p>I love my job but this is completely untrue:
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<p>Huh, having seen my dad work as a professor for the past 50 years (my age), I don’t agree with that assessment. He’s the hardest-working person I know, and his job is anything but relaxing. It’s not just the teaching load, of course, but trying to get funding for engineering research (and that’s increasingly challenging) and supervising student researchers and other staff members. There’s lots of travel to DC involved - that’s a barrel of fun, right?</p>
<p>When I was in engineering grad school (I had Dad for a few classes during my time in college), I attended two conferences of the American Concrete Institute with him. He was in informal or organized meetings from 7 am until 10 pm. I went to a lot of them with him. He had to be firm but diplomatic the entire time, plus know lots of technical stuff like the back of his hand. I was thoroughly exhausted by the end of the first day! </p>
<p>He does enjoy his work - that’s why he’s still working full-time at age 75. But the not-stressful description is nonsense.</p>
<p>Excited for my future then! Whoop whoop! </p>
<p>Sent from my DROID X2 using CC</p>
<p>Yes, well, maybe. Our neighbor owned a company and sold it. Went back to college and over the years ended up as a tenured professor at the public university where he had started taking classes for fun. He’s never been happier or less stressed (according to him.) I loved teaching as an adjunct (compared to my “real” job.) The control thing is huge.</p>
<p>MaineLonghorn–you just described my DH’s job, except that he has to do that kind of stuff daily. Going to a conference here and there working long hours is hardly the same as doing that on a daily basis. I have to agree, being a college prof is a pretty low key job most of the time.</p>
<p>I’m not going to argue, but I can tell you he’s up till 1 am most nights, working. I’m a consulting engineer myself, and my job is not as stressful as his.</p>
<p>He is ONE example though. How much of that is HIS personality? Look at all the rest of the college professors you know. Are they putting in that kind of time, NO. We have several friends that are professors, NONE of them work that hard. They are the first to admit that too. They have summers off, get a paid sabbatical every 5 years, work about 4 hours/day in class and on grading papers (tenured) and then maybe a couple hours more doing lesson plans, etc.–basically they work from 9-3. It’s the pay off for the time spent getting to that point really. Pay is lower then they can earn in the non-academic world–but around her PhD’s make a heck of a lot more than $65K (double that easily).</p>
<p>I can’t buy this either. My stepfather is a retired professor of engineering. He worked very hard, not only on classroom duties, but obtaining grants, committee work, hiring decisions, constantly writing articles for professional journals, etc. He was a tenured full professor at a state flagship - but pretty much at the mercy of the Dean, who decided how many classes he’d teach and at what level. Just the little bit he told me about the internecine warfare amongst faculty and administrators makes me think that being a professor epitomizes work stress. </p>
<p>If you can even get a job as a university professor in the first place - a very tough and certainly stress-filled process.</p>
<p>My H is a full professor and he works at least 80 hours a week. He does love his job but I wouldn’t call it low stress.</p>
<p>He has no control over how many courses he teaches.</p>
<p>He spends a lot of time applying for grants with a ridiculously low funding rate–but he still needs to apply for them.</p>
<p>He spends a lot of time doing his own research, writing a book, overseeing grad students and post-docs, etc.</p>
<p>He spends a lot of time with various university-wide committees: he doesn’t control which committees he is assigned to. Often these involve reading numerous grant proposals: foreign travel grants, sabbatical requests (of which fewer and fewer are funded), study abroad proposals, etc.</p>
<p>He is always working.</p>
<p>As an adjunct, I don’t have to worry about grants and all that, but being an adjunct can also be stressful at times. Having a lot of control is great and all, but I wouldn’t wax too rosy about the “zero” stress level :).</p>
<p>Hard work and working long hours doesn’t equal ‘stress’. Stress is in the mind of the beholder. It usually comes down to a matter of control. Even if someone is working long hours and very hard they can feel no stress if they have control over what they do, they enjoy what they do, and they’d rather work under those conditions than not.</p>
<p>If a person has a high level of control over what they do every day, they’re not fearing they’ll be fired or laid off so they feel they have job security, and they can live reasonably well on the salary, it’ll likely translate into a low stress job. </p>
<p>I think some professors fit the above description.</p>
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<p>You’re leaving out a large substantial amount of time spent on performing research/getting published to get tenure, get promoted, and to pass muster with post-tenure review practices at some institutions. Remember the phrase “Publish or perish”? It’s not an idle statement. </p>
<p>A major omission considering at most research and even some teaching colleges, quantity/quality of published research in one’s is an important/paramount criteria for determining tenure or promotions. In the case of research institutions…it is considered more important than one’s teaching…especially if a Prof’s research output is outstanding. </p>
<p>Even at elite/respectable LACs like mine, there are research requirements…though not as heavy as those of research Us. However, that’s more than counterbalanced by heavier teaching loads(a minimum of 5 classes every year) and greater requirements to be accessible to undergrads and available for committee assignments.</p>
<p>I love most of my teaching job, but the one continuous stressor is that community colleges are open door institutions and our student populations are filled with individuals who are in serious need of mental health services. Oftentimes, enrollment at a cc is just a parking place for these folks because the services they really need aren’t available to them. While these students are by no means a majority of our enrollment, they do represent significant numbers.</p>
<p>Trust what real professors say about their job and what their family members say about their work. Outsiders only choose to see what they want to see on the surface. Those who want to be professors and have secured such a position tend to be certain self-selecting people who share some common traits.</p>
<p>I always had the impression there was a good deal of stress associated with the phrase “publish or perish.” </p>
<p>Or the economic stress, as so many schools these days turn great percentages of adjuncts who get no benefits, no job security.</p>
<p>My well regarded sis in law, has had a very demanding and busy life as a full professor. Fulfilling, but not low stress.</p>
<p>^^ depends on the school. From what I’m told by some of the profs at the Pennsylvania State Universities (not Penn State, but those in the state system of higher education) there are some peer reviewed publications that only serve to provide a means to publish. I know many profs who are stressed, perhaps to meet targets that they themselves set, and many more who lead stress-free lives.</p>
<p>Stressed or not, they don’t get paid much. Median salary $62K. That is after 4-5 years of Ph D training 2-3 years postdoctorate before getting hired as assistant prof.</p>
<p>A couple of years ago I read that French Horn player was the most stressed job, beating even things like bomb defuser and police officer. After that, I tend to take these lists witha grain of salt.</p>