Quote:
Originally Posted by Bonnevie
but as far as stress level then it's fourth: The 10 most stressful jobs
Enlisted military personnel of three or four years
Firefighter:
Airline pilot:
Police officer:
so though statistics may show that they are less "dangerous" they are probably more stressful because of the potential that exists.
as the daughter of a policeman, I can only tell you what I saw. My father saw people at their worst. He was unbelievable strict with his children because of what he saw being done by others kids. It was not a fun childhood. at the time he worked as a police officer they walked beats and they rotated shifts every 6 weeks which they now know is unhealthy for one's body clock. now people have assigned shifts. And he was this way back in a time when policemen were respected and people did what they said. now they are taunted and called all sorts of names when they are trying to help. my father only pulled his gun once in his career--someone actually was stealing his car from in front of the police station. My brother, also a cop, was in knife fights, etc. more than once. and this was in upstate NY, not some teaming metropolis.
I think there should be regular mandatory counseling because I think seeing the worst day after day does something to you. you forget the millions of decent people who live quiet, lawful lives.
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I agree with you and empathize with your experiences growing up. But, to be accurate, my response was in regards to the popular misconception of police officer being a "dangerous job". I don't think it's a leap of faith to surmise that there are many stresses to being an LEO but that holds true for many other professions, as well, some of which you enumerated. I certainly was not attempting to belittle the role that all of the GOOD police officers play in our society, merely pointing out a fact about the dangers of the job. Logging is counted as the most dangerous, airline pilot, as you noted (my former profession before retirement) as 3rd, while LEO ranks as 14th. But, again, we're talking about lethality, not stress.
Fred