27 Jobs To Avoid If You Hate Stress

Stay out of the operating room if you don't handle pressure well.

Business Insider

By Jacquelyn Smith

Do you crack under pressure? Crumble when you're stressed?

If so, you'd be better off pursuing a career in science or education than you would in healthcare or law enforcement.

Using data from the BLS and O*NET OnLine, career information expert Laurence Shatkin, Ph.D., helped Business Insider rank the 767 occupations identified by the US Department of Labor by "stress tolerance."

The "stress tolerance" for each job is a rating on a scale from zero to 100, where a lower rating signals less stress. It measures how frequently workers must accept criticism and deal effectively with high stress on the job.

Here are 27 jobs that earned a stress tolerance rating of 93 or higher. If you're the type of person who thrives under pressure or can stay cool, calm, and collected in high-stress situations, these jobs may be perfect for you. If you're the crack-or-crumble-type, you may want to avoid them:

Police, fire, and ambulance dispatchers

1/27

Stress tolerance: 98.5
Average annual salary (2014): $39,410
Photo Credit: Alamy

Nurse anesthetists

2/27

Stress tolerance: 98.2
Average annual salary (2014): $158,900
Photo Credit: Getty Images

Telephone operators

3/27

Stress tolerance: 98.2
Average annual salary (2014): $39,350
Photo Credit: Shutterstock

 

Dancers

4/27

Stress tolerance: 97.0
Average annual salary (2014): N/A
Photo Credit: Getty Images