Someone give our readers a backrub, please. The high stress level of event planning is evident to anyone on the front lines, but CareerCast’s just-released Most Stressful Jobs of 2018 report, puts an exclamation point on the issue: You’d be hard pressed to find a job that’s more stressful unless you want to carry a gun, walk into burning buildings, or have your office at 30,000 feet.
While the end product—the event—is open to every attendees’ scrutiny, few understand what actually goes into the job. Putting on meetings and events requires obsessive organization and attention to detail; a level of savvy in (for starters) negotiation, marketing, social media, and budgeting; as well as creativity and great communication skills. And, of course, the stakes are often extremely high, whether the event is an association’s annual conference, a company’s annual sales meeting, or a rewards trip for top achievers.
CareerCast rates work stress in terms of 11 factors: travel, career growth potential, physical demands, environmental conditions, hazards encountered, meeting the public, competition, risk of death or grievous injury, immediate risk of another’s life, deadlines, and working in the public eye. And here’s what emerged as the top 10 most stressful jobs, along with their stress scores:
1. Enlisted military personnel 72.47
2. Firefighter 72.43
3. Airline pilot 61.07
4. Police officer 51.97
5. Event coordinator 51.15
6. Reporter 49.90
7. Broadcaster 49.83
8. Public relations executive 49.44
9. Senior corporate executive 48.71
10. Taxi driver 48.11
Wondering what’s on the other end of the scale? According to CareerCast, diagnostic medical sonographers have the least stressful job of all, with a stress score of just 5.11.
