Most mentally demanding job you have had?

[nkereina]

David's Bridal was the worst job I ever had. Physically tiring because you're on your feet for 5+ hours, running all over the store, carrying heavy bridal gowns, helping people put heavy gowns on, picking things up. And mentally tiring because you're trying to provide customer service while closing a sale to make commission, while dealing with brides who are (rightfully) picky about one of the most important details of the most important day of their life!

 

[mnrose]

Being a courtroom litigator. Hard as hell mentally.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

Teaching.

The hard part is the multi-tasking: Delivering your intro lecture without missing a beat, being entertaining as well as informative ... and at the same time setting up the video you're going to show after your lecture, giving the evil eye to the kid who's texting under his desk, redirecting the three kids who are staring out the window at the ROTC kids marching on the lawn, finding a pencil for the kid who says he can't take notes because he doesn't have a writing utensil, and answering the phone /writing a hall pass because Guidance wants to see a certain kid now.

High School history. You're just constantly on and it's exhausting.

I love it (most days), though!

Yes! I teach middle school language arts and am also the assistant principal at a small school. It is the most mentally demanding job I've ever had. I used to be a banker - retail branch manager, loan officer, private banker are some of the positions I held. None of those were as hard or demanding as teaching. I am exhausted at the end of every day!

 

[ten6mom]

Police dispatching. Hardest job I've ever had to learn.

 

[ronandannette]

My dad always said it was better to work with your brain than your back. Unfortunately, after 39 years of brain only work, I have to monitor my blood pressure. I suspect if I had a physically demanding job, I would not have high blood pressure.

And as for exhaustion, well, there are many days I wish I could dig a ditch until the whistle blows and then go home physically tired but mentally able to leave it all behind me.

I manage the warranty department for a large home builder and our warranties run for 10 years. There are literally thousands of files active at any given time and as the department head and having 14 years tenure, I am the “chronicler” that people expect to have total recall over even the most obscure details. Of course we have records, but if I had a dime for every time I have to quickly give an overview of something that happened years ago, I wouldn’t have to work.

I manage a staff of 7 and being completely accountable for their performance is always on my mind. Their jobs are tough boots-on-the-ground customer service roles and they’re subject to a certain amount of abuse which discourages them. I try to stand in the gap and suck as much of that up as possible. It doesn’t affect me so much emotionally, but it is mentally draining. I’m also tasked with being able to figure out what’s wrong with something and what needs to be done about it based on just the briefest of descriptions. It’s kind of like a colossal game of “name that tune” - I can assess that plumbing leak or floor squeak in two sentences and 1 picture...

 

[Lilacs4Me]

My current one.

Lots of details, lots of reports, lots of spreadsheets. One wrong sort or filter in an excel file, and you can mess up hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of inventory/shipments/purchases/etc. My position is far-reaching, so if I supply the wrong information on a project report, I can potentially cost the company millions. I have to be un-distracted and on my game at all times, usually work 10-12 hours a day and deal with plan A, B, and C giving way to D, E, and F by 9am most days.

 

[dish rag]

And as for exhaustion, well, there are many days I wish I could dig a ditch until the whistle blows and then go home physically tired but mentally able to leave it all behind me.

I manage the warranty department for a large home builder and our warranties run for 10 years. There are literally thousands of files active at any given time and as the department head and having 14 years tenure, I am the “chronicler” that people expect to have total recall over even the most obscure details. Of course we have records, but if I had a dime for every time I have to quickly give an overview of something that happened years ago, I wouldn’t have to work.

I manage a staff of 7 and being completely accountable for their performance is always on my mind. Their jobs are tough boots-on-the-ground customer service roles and they’re subject to a certain amount of abuse which discourages them. I try to stand in the gap and suck as much of that up as possible. It doesn’t affect me so much emotionally, but it is mentally draining. I’m also tasked with being able to figure out what’s wrong with something and what needs to be done about it based on just the briefest of descriptions. It’s kind of like a colossal game of “name that tune” - I can assess that plumbing leak or floor squeak in two sentences and 1 picture...

I would not want your job for any amount of money.

 

[DisBud]

911 Dispatcher. Loved it, but after 5 years I was drained. A lot of times I thought it was worse not being there to see what was really going on and we rarely found out how it ended. Some nights were pretty exciting though!

 

[Tiggerish]

Being a courtroom litigator. Hard as hell mentally.

I agree with this. I was never more mentally challenged than when I was doing death penalty defense cases. Those you eat, sleep and breathe 24 hours a day during the trial and during the intense prep days.

 

[ronandannette]

I would not want your job for any amount of money.

Oh, I could tell you stories... Believe me, if I could make this kind of dough cleaning toilets I'd be doing it.

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

The job I have now. Sorry won't share other than to say its in Health Care. I see the end coming soon.

 

[AP1209]

I was a court clerk for 4 years. Working in a courtroom dealing with prosecutors, defense lawyers, defendants, court officers, juries, and the judge I worked for who was very demanding it was just too much. It was interesting to see how the court process worked in real life. I took a 10K pay cut to leave that job.

 

[HannaBelle]

High School Teacher

Receptionist at Mervyn's Distribution Center - This job sucked hard and did not pay enough.

 

[jliehr]

IT for a hospital, always on call, holidays ruined, weekends spoiled and a constant political struggle. Even vacations were interrupted a few times

 

[PigletsPal2]

Typing manifests for a trucking company that hauled toxic waste. This was long before the days of computers and I had to type six carbon copies with NO ERRORS. If the manifest was 100 lines long and I made an error on the 99th line, the whole sheet had to be re-typed. No corrections allowed. Plus, we worked in the warehouse where the trucks were disinfected of whatever it was called to make them non-toxic. I was P/T and they begged me to come on board F/T - no way!

 

[mommy2allgirls]

Debt collector so mentally exhausting that even though I was getting paid really well I just couldn’t do it anymore . I quit and started working for the Disney Store

 

[CruiseTraveler7]

That would be working in retail for holidays and sales It's madness!

 

[Cubbiecakes]

My current job is the most mentally challenging I've ever had - data, data, data, and spreadsheets, reports, projections, and explaining what it all means to people who really don't have enough math background to understand it all. It helps having a great boss!

 

[PrincessJo]

I was a paralegal for 15 years. I will never work for another attorney ever again. I'm now an insurance underwriting analyst making $25k less, but I'm happy. I have recruiters reach out to me often to see if I'm interested in a paralegal position and I don't even let them finish the sentence. ABSOLUTELY NOT.

 

[dish rag]

I was a paralegal for 15 years. I will never work for another attorney ever again. I'm now an insurance underwriting analyst making $25k less, but I'm happy. I have recruiters reach out to me often to see if I'm interested in a paralegal position and I don't even let them finish the sentence. ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Why will you never work for another attorney again?