Being a waiter is more stressful than neurosurgery says study
You read right; being a waiter / waitress is one of the most stressful jobs according to this new study.
It’s not only because of the long working hours, physical strain or futile pay but also due to the lack of control experienced as a waiter.
The study has found jobs offering employees little control to be among the most damaging to physical and mental health.
The scientists that carried out the study analysed data from over 138 000 participants taken from 6 previous studies on job-related health.
They used this data to classify jobs into 4 groups based on how psychologically demanding and controlling the role is.
These factors may result in an unhealthy lifestyle like poor eating habits, lack of exercise and vices like smoking and drinking which in turn leads to higher risk of heart disease.
As a waiter / waitress you can surely agree with the unhealthy lifestyle that ensues.
Here is a break-down of the groups:
-Low demand and low control jobs, i.e. manual labour, were labeled “Passive.”
-Jobs with high control like architects and scientists were “low stress.”
-High demand and high control (teachers and doctors) were “active.)
-High demand with low control (waitering) jobs were labeled as “high stress.”
Scientists found that the job of a waiter and/or waitresses have a 22% higher risk of stroke on average than those with less stressful jobs.
You would think that a neuroscientist would experience more stress than a waiter but at the end of the day although the neuroscientist has a strenuous task, they still go home feeling valued and respected.
In the life of the service industry you rarely feel that way, you are actually mostly on autopilot.
So to patrons, maybe be a bit more kind to your waiter[ess] and to the waiters out there, science is on your side.
Try and maintain as healthy a life as possible to avoid being a statistic.
