Worst Jobs For Ptsd?

[Hashi]

My organisation's about promoting a humane justice system and rehabilitation of offenders. I believe in that, and I work with some amazing and inspiring people who are changing things for the better.

Normally I'm in the office but my work occasionally brings me into contact with offenders, in a completely safe environment but it's still really difficult psychologically because of the trauma I've experienced. I refuse to go into prisons, which I would normally sometimes have to do, but that has been difficult because I've had to partly disclose the reason to my boss. Sometimes I still have to work with ex-offenders though, without knowing what their offence was. I also hear about crime and sentencing.

I'm looking for a different job for several reasons, and I hope I can get one that's not connected to criminal justice.

Office work actually is my calling, though. I get a lot of satisfaction from it and also find it grounding. I wonder why so many people dislike it so much. Maybe it's that there are a lot of office jobs so someone doing a job just to pay the bills is likely to be doing that kind of work?

 

[Philippa]

For me, an office just feels like a really restricting place...like a tiny cubicle amidst thousands of other cubicles...where you have to wear a certain uniform, though that can often save the hassle of deciding what to wear, as a female...it's more the feeling of being chained or enclosed, like a wild animal forced into being tamed.

That's just how it is for me though.

 

[Hashi]

Oh, I see. I'm in the UK and I work for quite small organisations. I've never even seen an office with cubicles except in American films and TV. I've nearly always worked in lovely converted old buildings with big windows and high ceilings. Even in the few modern offices I've worked in here, generally the desks are in little clusters and there's lots of chatting and joking. I've never had to wear a uniform either.

Sounds like I might not like your kind of office work!

 

[mysterylike1]

The biggest problem is not the job itself, but who manages or assumes the authority and how they do so. There are so many manipulative technics being used that it can become devastating. It's like anything is ok so long as there is a profit attached to it. Like rendering life miserable for any employees that should have the right to more advantages because they are costing to much for the company. So they get nagged on their minor flaws ... and when I say minor it is really MINOR ... they try to keep the more manipulable employees. This is what I experienced at the work place where the criminal act was noticed. I was not one of the manipulable employees, but one that stood up for my rights ... and others rights... When bosses think they can make good people do whatever they want are crazy ... that is abusive authority !

I was forced out of the job with 'contructive dismissal' because I refused to be manipulated by the company. The company I worked for used the term 'carrots and sticks' literally, with the promise that by being faithful to the company, you were going to get your 'reward' in the end. So basically that means living with not that great pay, if they felt like giving you a raise they would, but they didn't have to...the heirchy in the office meant that some people there were really wealthy, while some were poor.

So I'd have to deal with a bunch of arrogant assholes who did nothing but blame everybody else as opposed to looking at their own issues. In my position, I couldn't tell them anything because they had no respect for me since I wasn't getting paid as much as them.

Within the company they would daily have a slogan on the website that we had to log into and they would promote their own bits of propoganda aimed at keeping people with ambition down. It would say things like 'Don't apply for a position that you might not be able to handle'. Things of this nature that disempower people. Some of these people in the company completely fall for this garbage.

They had their favorites. The loudmouths in the office got all of the promotions. The biggest backstabbers in the world were given favoritism. Meanwhile, I was always honest and stood up for what I think is right, moral, and common sense. But so few people know what common sense is now. I miss the money, but I don't miss the bullshit and egos.

They sure do abuse their authority! Some, like my boss go on big power trips to make us listen to him 'because he's the manager'. We got into a couple of arguments. After that, I was a marked man. He was out to get me then, even though he was wrong and an ignoramous. He didn't even understand my job, but one day he told me that I needed to go faster because 'you don't do anything but type in a few numbers'.

Meanwhile I am working through a myriad of processes and channels that I had to go through to fix dozens of errors made daily. That was the worst slam ever. Later on, he found out how much I did, Then he was trying to train new employees and using me to teach them if I were sick. So what does he do? He has me train a few people, and then he removes me from my job. I walked out.

I just wish I could have no contact with people and live a private life alone in a safe place for the rest of my life.

 

[squireparty]

I have been a waiter for many years - I've done it all, diners, fine dining, hotels. isolated National Parks, just all kinds of waiter jobs. Then PTSD clobbered me due to a series of events last summer - PTSD that dates back for many years that I kept denying and ignoring. Now there is no way I could wait tables - just no way at all. I have done a few banquet shifts for a temp service and found this to be very triggering, too. I don't know how long things will be like this but right now I need more control of my time and to work alone.....

For the time being working alone works for me, as does the right to turn down jobs as an IC (right now I'm mystery shopping and adding more companies to my stable of mystery shopping companies I work for).

I am DEFINITELY of the opinion that self employment is the way to go. I just don't have what it takes to deal with the nightmare that most jobs seem to have morphed into. And my monthly bills total around $750 - lower than most people's by far. It seems like I have nothing to lose going it myself, really. And so I am mystery shopping now and thinking of how I'd like to be self employed beyond this......Great thread BTW!!!!!!

 

[safenow]

Over the years I've had many different types of jobs. I"m also a person with Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD), and not all of my alters can hold certain types of jobs. But they can work at other types of jobs. So, consequently, I've done waitress, office, data entry, secretarial, house cleaning, nanny, legal assistant, portrait artist, bookkeeper, telephone operator, back office for a dermatologist, front office for a group of doctors, insurance clerk, and others,

I have found when I'm triggered at home, it affects how I do at work. When I'm anxious, I tend to switch a lot, so can't always stay at a job. I think the longest I've held any one job was when I worked for NASA. I loved that job. And when I needed to take a mental health day, I could. They understood. I loved the people I worked with and we got along really well.

Being self employed was great. But I found myself working myself to death. LOL. Being a multi means I can stay awake longer than most people. One doctor thought I was bi-polar because I could work around the clock and not have it phase me. But once he learned I was a multi he realized it was the fact that when I was doing something we all loved, like portrait jobs, more of us could work on the project. One was the photographer who set up the job, one is into detail, one is into color. One handled the paperwork, one did the deliveries. I could go to my studio and not have to answer to anyone. I could turn on my music and just draw all day and night.

I do best when working for others, as long as I don't get triggered.

 

[Gamereign555]

For me it was hotel maintenance. I ran myself into the ground with that job. As the only person managing the maintenance, you can never be finished with your work, constant calls on the radio keep you from finishing routine jobs to fix emergency stuff like pipe leaks or customer complaints. Then there is the endless paperwork, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly checklists must fit into your schedule and it doesn't. As a result, constant complaints from the manger, owners and other workers are the norm that you aren't doing something. Pretty much though I think most jobs are manageable with PTSD if you have help doing it. A one person job with heavy deadlines is a killer though.

 

[JustBe]

Customer Service!:eek:

 

[squireparty]

For me it was hotel maintenance. I ran myself into the ground with that job. As the only person managing the maintenance, you can never be finished with your work, constant calls on the radio keep you from finishing routine jobs to fix emergency stuff like pipe leaks or customer complaints.

I found hotels to be very difficult to work in as in food and beverage they tend to be understaffed and it's like you are saying, when it's one person doing it all, it's very overwhelming. I often felt vulnerable to complaints and when they would occasionally be made all I could think of was how much I had in savings and how long it would last if I were let go.....It got to the point when I would punch in I would be like - take a deep breath, you have X number of months you can survive if let go. There's a sure sign the job is NOT only not a good fit but also sucking the life right out of me.

 

[Gamereign555]

Customer Service!:eek:

Well I do like making people happy and serving them. I think its more about having that reward feeling too though.
Screw this, I am going to be working with animals from now on!

 

[maddog]

Currently, I am really, really concerned about my ability to return to my regular, fulltime, high pressure, long hours, office job. Somehow, almost everything in that routine seems unmanageable for me since PTSD took hold - the regular, unyielding routine, the lengthy commute, the high pressure deadlines, the closeness to many people in a confined physical environment...

I am extremely motivated to return, and yet increasingly, all of my instincts are telling me that while I probably do have the capacity to work again, and perhaps to even work a lot, I may be setting myself up for failure by trying to return to a work life that seems to throw up every known challenge and red flag for my PTSD.

This is the first time I'm really verbalising what is a terrifying growing realisation for me, but I think it's real, and some time sooner rather than later, I'm going to have to start to confront it. If only I thought I had the means or opportunity to find something else...

Maddog

 

[therapybankrupt]

:nailbiting:Teaching