The Job That Americans Would Fear Holding the Most

Politician.

That's what a new survey by CareerBuilder shows.

Americans think being a politician is scarier than being a mortician or an infectious disease doctor. In fact, there's no job in the U.S. that workers fear more than being an elected official, according to a nationwide survey by CareerBuilder.

It's all that public speaking, rejection and accountability associated with the job that terrifies workers most.

Maybe all of these factors are things we should consider before opening our yaps about how bad "all" politicians are. We're all entitled to our opinions, of course. But character assassination directed at people doing work that we ourselves would find too daunting, sometimes because misinformaton or outright disinformation, is an abuse of our freedom of speech.

The Huffington Post article in which the findings appear reminded me of a piece of information I ran across and wrote about a few years ago. It discussed what jobs that the late business management researcher and thinker Peter Drucker identified as the four toughest ones in the United States.

On Drucker's list were, in no particular order: the President of the United States, a university president, a CEO of a hospital, and a pastor. I wrote about Drucker's list from the standpoint of someone who's been a student of presidential history all my life and who's been a pastor, now for thirty years, here. 

The whole top ten of fear-inducing jobs for Americans surfaced by the CareerBuilder survey looks like this, in order:

1. Politician
2. Microbiologist
3. Security guard at teen pop idol concert
4. Kindergarten teacher
5. Crime scene investigator
6. Animal trainer
7. Mortician
8. Radio, cellular, and tower equipment installers and repairers
9. Stand-up comedian
10. Parent

There are more than a few daunting jobs on that list, to be sure.

But none is more daunting or more rewarding than that of being a parent. From the Scriptures we learn that the role of a parent is the most important in all creation. Parents are to help their children prepare for adulthood and to introduce them to the God revealed to all the world in Jesus Christ. That's a big job! And no conscientious person wants to totally mess up when doing it.

Kindergarten teachers, crime scene investigators, microbiologists, and morticians all have the capacity to make mistakes that can harm people. That's what makes them frightening, I think.

Yet clearly, in a society that often expresses the value it attaches to the work people do by the amounts of money and perks employees and contractors are given, at least two, maybe three, and possibly all four of these professions are undervalued, especially in light of the good they do for people.

Read the whole article.