THE Forbes Magazine has identified the 10 most stressful jobs in the world in 2017 and placed military personnel, military general, and firefighter at the top three, respectively.
These are followed by the airline pilot, event coordinator, public relations executive, senior corporate executive, newspaper reporter, police officer, and taxi driver in that order.
If you watch “Tribute to the Fallen Soldier” on Youtube, it is not difficult to agree with the Forbes list.
It is not difficult to imagine soldiers coping with the stresses of life at the war front. Exposed too long in the battlefield, not a few of them got shell-shocked or what is known today as post-traumatic stress disorder.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that was first recognized among soldiers returning from the front during the First World War. Its occurrence is “triggered by a terrifying event — either experiencing it or witnessing it. Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event.”
Since the First World War (WW1), on to the Second World War (WW2), Korean War, Vietnam War, to the wars in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, even the current conflict in the Philippine’s Marawi City, millions of soldiers and their families, across all armies, suffered and will suffer what PTSD is long after the battle is over when “the pain begins.”
Soldiers endure stress during battle situations. It has been known as the main cause of desertions and mutinies, for soldiers who could not cope with their mission and the work at hand. In Marawi City, terrorists without battle experience readily abandoned their post, leaving behind valuable documents and cash, after suffering intense air and land bombing treatment from the military.
But putting this aside, we can be grateful that majority of our professional soldiers during many a battle followed orders. Many acted with enormous courage and bravery. That is the attitude too that many a general or commander seeks from his men. What makes good warriors oriented or predisposed to their courage and caring ways? What makes terrorists readily take shelter or bring their war into heavily populated villages and communities? That could be worth our time thinking about.
I have read a lot on the internet about General Douglas MacArthur’s expressed praises for the Igorot warriors who fought Japanese tanks with their head axes and spears, oblivious of death and the dangers of their hopeless situation during the WW2 years.
While he praises the Igorot warrior’s bravery, it gets to my attention that he is unknowingly speaking about his ability, power and control over them during those stressful years.
It is not easy convincing a pig-headed Igorot to volunteer, accept conscription and fight a “common enemy” to the last breath. An Igorot warrior in those days would not give up his loyalties to anybody easily. They were never conquered by any foreign power, you know. They are such a proud people who cherish their freedom and independence.
MacArthur probably learned to drink tapuy with those Igorot warriors and made himself more than a friend and brother to them. To convince them to give up everything, to outrun and dive in the bellies of tanks, if that is their only means to immobilize these fire breathing demons is a testament to his leadership prowess. How else did he convince the Igorot warriors to endure great lengths of pain to fight, even give up their lives, if not for the sake of common freedom, and the independence and welfare of their families, clans, tribes, and communities?
As a great leader, MacArthur found Igorot warriors who, like him, have fighting abilities and the right attitude in fighting a dominant power under overwhelming odds. We cannot downplay or overstate how a war situation can stress out the leader and the conscript under this situation. It was their fighting abilities and right attitudes as leader and followers that made them winners, not casualties, during the WW2 theater.
Whether you are a soldier or involved in any profession in the workplace, coping or responding well to the different stresses we encounter in this life is a necessity. We may not suffer PSTD directly like soldiers do after an assignment in the war front, but effectively counteracting work-related stresses helps people to avoid mental breakdown, frustrations, suicide, physical trauma, and related lifestyle diseases, according to experts. They add that learning to deal with daily stress can help us endure and overcome greater stresses and traumatic situations in the future.
It is very likely that the front, for most of us, is the workplace where we encounter the meanest boss or suffer the worst arrows and difficulties that other people could possibly inflict on our psyche or well beings.
Vice versa, it is also the place where a leader or boss suffer and encounter relentless and frustrating works of stupidities. Thankfully we survive. It is not bad as we imagine or let people think.
Indeed, things can truly be stressful at the workplace for some folks.
Before it gets any better, let us not waste the experiences and lessons our soldiers bequeathed to us. Like a true soldier on a mission during a war situation does, let us also behave like true servants in our workplaces during peace time. When things are not working out well, winners (leaders and subordinates) work on their attitude and abilities first, before they fault others.