 A report has found the forklift operator to be one of the least stressful occupations. |
Forklift operators may face workplace safety issues but they have been listed by an online job board with librarians and piano tuners as the least stressful jobs for 2010.
CareerCast, which aggregates listings from newspapers and other sources, has assessed numerous factors for over 200 professions for its 2010 Jobs Rated Report. It has released the report that includes lists of the most and least stressful jobs as well as best and worst jobs.
The most stressful jobs of 2010 were found to be firefighter, senior corporate executive, taxi driver, surgeon, commercial pilot, public relations officer, advertising account executive and real estate agent.
Meanwhile, CareerCast lists musical instrument repairer, medical records technician, appliance repairer, actuary, forklift operator, librarian, medical secretary, bookkeeper, piano tuner and janitor as the least stressful jobs.
Jobs were ranked by five core criteria - environment, income, outlook, stress and physical demands. CareerCast measured work "environment" according to physical and emotional factors and computed the "income" score by adding the estimated mid-level income and the income growth potential. Twenty-one "stress" factors were assessed to determine this score and the "outlook" criterion comprised of employment growth, income growth potential and unemployment factors.
Danny Maron from Canada-based Ideal Forklift Training agrees with the report that a forklift operator's job is not very stressful.
"Most operators really enjoy driving their trucks around the plant and warehouse, and going about their business. In certain circumstances, there is pressure to get a select amount of inventory to the loading dock in minutes at a time, but the guys I know seem to cope well," Maron says.
He adds that he has yet to come across a stressed forklift operator but concedes that the job does have a stress factor. "[They have to] watch for ignorant individuals who do not look out for the forklifts and tend to walk or run and squeeze in front, behind or at the sides of the truck. Without pedestrian training, this becomes an ongoing problem but operators have become used to it."