What makes work stressful (and why my job is more stressful than my father's, despite being far easier)

The other day I got to thinking: why are jobs difficult, and, more importantly, what makes jobs stressful? Stress means different things for different people, with some being stressed about social interaction, some stressed about the moral or societal implications of their job, others with the amount of effort and time they need to spend, etc. but I would like to propose an interesting personal comparison: my father's job as a California Forester, and my job as an IT/Tech Support/Web Design Grunt.

Being a forester is a relatively simple job, yet it is not easy or unintelligent. Hiking and carrying tools is very difficult, and actually cutting trees and humping brush is even harder (as I had the fortune to learn cutting down only a few trees and occasionally helping my father clean up brush). Surveying, wildlife preservation, and using prisms and other tools is skillful labor, and the math and calculations involved is quite difficult. All of that being said, I have a massive amount of respect for my father and his job, but I do not necessarily think it is "stressful". His job description was to do these 5 things, and, other than the occasional butting heads with the higher ups (which he and my Uncle Willie did plenty of), they were mostly their own bosses. I could be completely off base, but it really did seem like my dad lived a pretty carefree life as far as his work was concerned. It always seemed to me like his biggest stressor was simply not earning enough money (which is a different issue all together.)

My job, however, is very "deal with people" focused. I have very little choice as to what I do or how I do it, and I cannot make decisions for myself without clarifying or okaying them due to the fact that either my boss or the clients we work for (or perhaps even the public at large) has different opinions as to what is good or usable. Sure, there are opportunities for me as "the tech guy" to say "yes, my way is definitively correct and this is how it will be done", but for all intents and purposes I am extremely limited in my freedoms.

A great example of this is if I notice something missing on a webpage. Usually my knowledge of the subject matter is around that of a layperson, meaning that, as a general statement, if I have a question about something, others will to. This becomes a problem when I begin to notice that, as a general layperson, many of the sites or pages are wildly confusing, too simple, contain pointless information, or have a structural error. Generally, I would find out the answer and add it to the page, and my boss is generally very supportive of this type of "guesswork". Recently, however, as projects get larger and larger, the opinion of the layperson is considerably diminished in favor of the opinion of the "contractor", or the individual that knows enough about a subject to be considered an expert. I would be as if I was explaining computer networking using advanced terms to someone that doesn't know what a router is: functionally worthless.

To be clear, this is not a fault of my boss. There is a great deal of responsibility to be found in the delegation of tasks in a manner that makes the most sense as far as efficiency and accuracy is concerned, even if it somewhat outpaces content quality (especially when we don't make the content), and many of these quips I have about things would slow the pace of the whole operation to a crawl. This whole issue is finally compounded with the last comparison I draw with forestry: correctness. There is a correct way to cut down a tree (for safety, speed, and quality of cut). There is a definitive right way to use a prism, or or sharpen a chainsaw chain, or any of the other tasks that a forester must do. The job is nonsubjective. However, when creating something, whether a program, a website, a chair, or a gun, there are subjective design considerations. What I think is nice looking may look awful to someone else (I believe that craigslist is the peak of web design; my boss, not so much )

I believe this subjectivity is what makes jobs stressful. I assume my father thought like this too, though, as I really have no idea what being a forester was or is like. That being said, he probably would laugh what with me saying my job is stressful; I can hear him now: "You don't know the meaning of stress!"