| and Stress |
If you're a person who thinks a lot about stress; you find just about
every situation stressful, and you constantly complain about stress, do
yourself and everyone else a favor and don't become a police officer.
Police officers sometimes succumb to the belief that they have the most
stressful job on the planet. There's no question that police officers
experience more serious stressful situations with more frequency than
most people; however, stress experienced in police work can be
controlled by the individual police officer. Police officers frequently
blame stress on the job when, in fact, the primary source of stress
originates from other factors within the police officer's personal life.
Without a doubt, marriage is the biggest factor any man or woman must
consider when contemplating a police career. If your spouse is
adamantly against your decision to become a police officer, you have two
very simple choices. First, join the police department and prepare for
divorce, or secondly, look for another career.
If you're a single person when you begin your police career, you may
only have parents and other family members who are not pleased with
your career path. However, their projected stress is minor compared to
that of a spouse. If you're single, and you've never been married, you
can't even begin to appreciate the level of stress you'll experience at the
hands of an anti-police career spouse.
As a single person, the beginning of your police career can be relatively
stress free. There will, with most of you, come a point when you meet
the love of your life. It's not a very good time for unclouded thinking,
but you should try to read signs which could…no, I should say definitely
will cause you stress in the future. Look for signals from your future
spouse that indicate any displeasure with your work. Some signs may
be subtle and easy for you to ignore. If you choose to ignore such signs,
you do so at your own peril. Here's a hard reality. If your future
spouse has serious doubts about your chosen career before marriage,
those doubts will only get worse after marriage.
Then…there's the no win scenario. People have this naive belief that
they can change other people. This is a belief that is unbelievably
resistant to change. People will spend their entire lives trying to change
other people…talk about stress. Many police marriages suffer stress
that has nothing, or little, to do with the job itself. But…because police
work is universally viewed as a stressful occupation, it becomes an
excellent reason cited for the cause of stress.
As a police officer, you're going to experience some wild and scary
situations, so you might think that would be the primary reason for
stress. Well…yes, it might be, but who knows. In a marriage, the
primary reason most often cited is the work schedule. Now, here's
something I've never been able to understand. When you hear police
officers and their spouses bellyache about work schedules, you'd think
police officers were the only people who work shift work; weekends;
holidays, and work overtime. Compared to other people, in other
occupations, who work similar schedules, police officers generally fare
much better when it comes to compensation and the number of days
off. If you've been comparing police entry level pay, vacation and
holiday leave to most other careers at entry level, you already know the
police career looks pretty good.
Being young and naive…it's the truth whether you like it or not...you're
going to be taken in by the police department hype about specialized
assignments and promotions. You, and particularly your spouse, may
even be under the impression that all the shift work, and working
weekends, will only be a temporary thing. If you buy into that naivety,
and you assure your spouse of your rapid advancement to greener
pastures, you'll experience stress sooner than later. While you'll
quickly learn how a police department operates, your spouse won't have
that same inside view.
For some reason, a lot, maybe even most, young people contemplating a
police career think the uniform patrol portion of their careers is only a
starter course for their advancement to better assignments. The facts
are these…a police department's uniformed patrol force is the largest
and most important component of any police department…it is
indispensable. A police department is just like any other government
organization when it comes to assignments. Many fine police officers
will remain in patrol for their entire careers. Some will remain by
choice while others simply don't have the personal and political
connections to obtain other assignments.
To avoid the stress of over expectations, you and your spouse, or spouse
to be, must discuss the sources of potential stress, before you start a
police career, or marry, whichever the case may be. If you're already a
police officer, and your future spouse insists you change your career
path, you'll be experiencing some of the stress to come. If you hate
your job, this won't be a problem. However, if you like what you're
doing, you've got some hard thinking to do.
You know…when we talk about stress and spouses, one usually thinks
of the female spouse. I remember when women first began entering
police work as police officers. The wives of police officers were not a
happy bunch. In a near totally male dominated profession , the only
women wives had to worry about were police groupies. When females
began entering police departments, the stress level in marriages began
to rise. The wives' fears were not totally unfounded. More than a few
marriages suffered the stress of workplace romances.
While the work schedule of the male police officer may be the primary
source of stress in a marriage, the female police officer will have that
and more. Men are less tolerant of police work than women. While at
first the man may find the idea of a police wife as interesting, that won't
last long. Depending upon where you look, only about 12 to 14 percent
of police officers are women; even though, police departments have
been open to women for three decades. A lot of experts believe the low
number is due to the hiring practices of police departments. I have a
simpler explanation…most men simply have a problem with the wife
being the one who is armed and dangerous.
every situation stressful, and you constantly complain about stress, do
yourself and everyone else a favor and don't become a police officer.
Police officers sometimes succumb to the belief that they have the most
stressful job on the planet. There's no question that police officers
experience more serious stressful situations with more frequency than
most people; however, stress experienced in police work can be
controlled by the individual police officer. Police officers frequently
blame stress on the job when, in fact, the primary source of stress
originates from other factors within the police officer's personal life.
Without a doubt, marriage is the biggest factor any man or woman must
consider when contemplating a police career. If your spouse is
adamantly against your decision to become a police officer, you have two
very simple choices. First, join the police department and prepare for
divorce, or secondly, look for another career.
If you're a single person when you begin your police career, you may
only have parents and other family members who are not pleased with
your career path. However, their projected stress is minor compared to
that of a spouse. If you're single, and you've never been married, you
can't even begin to appreciate the level of stress you'll experience at the
hands of an anti-police career spouse.
As a single person, the beginning of your police career can be relatively
stress free. There will, with most of you, come a point when you meet
the love of your life. It's not a very good time for unclouded thinking,
but you should try to read signs which could…no, I should say definitely
will cause you stress in the future. Look for signals from your future
spouse that indicate any displeasure with your work. Some signs may
be subtle and easy for you to ignore. If you choose to ignore such signs,
you do so at your own peril. Here's a hard reality. If your future
spouse has serious doubts about your chosen career before marriage,
those doubts will only get worse after marriage.
Then…there's the no win scenario. People have this naive belief that
they can change other people. This is a belief that is unbelievably
resistant to change. People will spend their entire lives trying to change
other people…talk about stress. Many police marriages suffer stress
that has nothing, or little, to do with the job itself. But…because police
work is universally viewed as a stressful occupation, it becomes an
excellent reason cited for the cause of stress.
As a police officer, you're going to experience some wild and scary
situations, so you might think that would be the primary reason for
stress. Well…yes, it might be, but who knows. In a marriage, the
primary reason most often cited is the work schedule. Now, here's
something I've never been able to understand. When you hear police
officers and their spouses bellyache about work schedules, you'd think
police officers were the only people who work shift work; weekends;
holidays, and work overtime. Compared to other people, in other
occupations, who work similar schedules, police officers generally fare
much better when it comes to compensation and the number of days
off. If you've been comparing police entry level pay, vacation and
holiday leave to most other careers at entry level, you already know the
police career looks pretty good.
Being young and naive…it's the truth whether you like it or not...you're
going to be taken in by the police department hype about specialized
assignments and promotions. You, and particularly your spouse, may
even be under the impression that all the shift work, and working
weekends, will only be a temporary thing. If you buy into that naivety,
and you assure your spouse of your rapid advancement to greener
pastures, you'll experience stress sooner than later. While you'll
quickly learn how a police department operates, your spouse won't have
that same inside view.
For some reason, a lot, maybe even most, young people contemplating a
police career think the uniform patrol portion of their careers is only a
starter course for their advancement to better assignments. The facts
are these…a police department's uniformed patrol force is the largest
and most important component of any police department…it is
indispensable. A police department is just like any other government
organization when it comes to assignments. Many fine police officers
will remain in patrol for their entire careers. Some will remain by
choice while others simply don't have the personal and political
connections to obtain other assignments.
To avoid the stress of over expectations, you and your spouse, or spouse
to be, must discuss the sources of potential stress, before you start a
police career, or marry, whichever the case may be. If you're already a
police officer, and your future spouse insists you change your career
path, you'll be experiencing some of the stress to come. If you hate
your job, this won't be a problem. However, if you like what you're
doing, you've got some hard thinking to do.
You know…when we talk about stress and spouses, one usually thinks
of the female spouse. I remember when women first began entering
police work as police officers. The wives of police officers were not a
happy bunch. In a near totally male dominated profession , the only
women wives had to worry about were police groupies. When females
began entering police departments, the stress level in marriages began
to rise. The wives' fears were not totally unfounded. More than a few
marriages suffered the stress of workplace romances.
While the work schedule of the male police officer may be the primary
source of stress in a marriage, the female police officer will have that
and more. Men are less tolerant of police work than women. While at
first the man may find the idea of a police wife as interesting, that won't
last long. Depending upon where you look, only about 12 to 14 percent
of police officers are women; even though, police departments have
been open to women for three decades. A lot of experts believe the low
number is due to the hiring practices of police departments. I have a
simpler explanation…most men simply have a problem with the wife
being the one who is armed and dangerous.
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